We have all seen it or heard about it by social media, news, or by talking to people. I am of course talking about the Animas River Spill, the incident that woke up the residents of Durango, Silverton, and the Navajo Nations to the fact that natural disasters happen and once they do hind sight won't help. But there is one thing that people listen to and that is other people, people who live and work where these things happen and their voices matter. Storycorp has that same idea and using their networks we can take interviews of people who are connected to the river and show the world their opinion and views on the river and how they think the EPA should take action.
In the beginning of this project I thought that the EPA was at fault and that our river was poisoned for good. I wanted to know why this happened and how it happened and part of me wanted to see someone set to blame for what happened to our river. That thinking clouded my judgement and when we traveled to Silverton and talked to the locals I understood that some people weren't worried. Many were worried but the restaurant waiters I talked to said that the spill didn't bother them because they didn't get their water from Cement Creek, and they saw spills happen before and nothing was new to them.
While I was interviewing my sister I saw that when I asked her the questions that required her to take a standing point on a side she would only say "I don't have enough evidence to have any opinion on the matter." That made me reflect on how we began our project and how we finished it. We continued on playing the blame game all the way up to Seminar which may have caused us to be wrong or right. Doing this interview I have learned that we should take our opinions slowly and try to view things from a different perspective.
The exhibition was settling down when I got there and many people had left. I wish I could have gone and interviewed people while I was there, but I didn't and now that the time is passed I want to take advantage of the next opportunities that arise.
As the project raged on I saw my self taking sides on whether the EPA caused the spill, but I recoiled from that and went back to the same idea that I have always had. The grey area in the world is the best in my opinion, the world isn't black and white like we make it look like and we are slowly understanding that as a species.
https://storycorps.me/user/david-mclaughlin/
In the beginning of this project I thought that the EPA was at fault and that our river was poisoned for good. I wanted to know why this happened and how it happened and part of me wanted to see someone set to blame for what happened to our river. That thinking clouded my judgement and when we traveled to Silverton and talked to the locals I understood that some people weren't worried. Many were worried but the restaurant waiters I talked to said that the spill didn't bother them because they didn't get their water from Cement Creek, and they saw spills happen before and nothing was new to them.
While I was interviewing my sister I saw that when I asked her the questions that required her to take a standing point on a side she would only say "I don't have enough evidence to have any opinion on the matter." That made me reflect on how we began our project and how we finished it. We continued on playing the blame game all the way up to Seminar which may have caused us to be wrong or right. Doing this interview I have learned that we should take our opinions slowly and try to view things from a different perspective.
The exhibition was settling down when I got there and many people had left. I wish I could have gone and interviewed people while I was there, but I didn't and now that the time is passed I want to take advantage of the next opportunities that arise.
As the project raged on I saw my self taking sides on whether the EPA caused the spill, but I recoiled from that and went back to the same idea that I have always had. The grey area in the world is the best in my opinion, the world isn't black and white like we make it look like and we are slowly understanding that as a species.
https://storycorps.me/user/david-mclaughlin/