![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Sep. 2nd, 2004 09:09 pmWow - corporate greed, corruption, disregard for other lives, and lake of responsibility certainly did not start with Enron and all that nonsense. Yes, this we all knew, but I was amazed to see how much similarity there is to today's problems when I went to the Johnstown flood museum and heritage center with R today.
The 1889 flood killed 2000+ people and was the result of the privitization and subsequent lack of maintenance of a damn on the Conemaugh River. The lake that resulted from the damn became owned by a bunch of Pittsburgh aristocracy as a hunting and fishing club - there were a bunch of weekend cottages on the lake. Andrew Carnegie was a member. They had been warned multiple times of the danger of the damn bursting and ignored them. On May 31, 1889 the damn burst and leveled Johnstown. There were plenty of small things the club members could have done to lessen the chance of this, but they did nothing.
Multiple lawsuits were filed against members, but the members were never convicted. It made me very sad to see how long and deep the roots of rich power, privilege, corruption, and lack of concern for human life go.
The 2 museums here are really well done. The documentary on the flood apparently won an academy award for best documentary. Both museums are very interactive and use a lot of technology. The heritage museum dealt a lot with oral history of the immigrant experience - I was very impressed. So if anyone passes through Johnstown, PA, I highly recommend those museums.
After museums, I finally got around to cooking dinner for the family - I made polenta and a chicken and veg ratatoille (sp?) and was so happy to be eating vegetable matter again.
The 1889 flood killed 2000+ people and was the result of the privitization and subsequent lack of maintenance of a damn on the Conemaugh River. The lake that resulted from the damn became owned by a bunch of Pittsburgh aristocracy as a hunting and fishing club - there were a bunch of weekend cottages on the lake. Andrew Carnegie was a member. They had been warned multiple times of the danger of the damn bursting and ignored them. On May 31, 1889 the damn burst and leveled Johnstown. There were plenty of small things the club members could have done to lessen the chance of this, but they did nothing.
Multiple lawsuits were filed against members, but the members were never convicted. It made me very sad to see how long and deep the roots of rich power, privilege, corruption, and lack of concern for human life go.
The 2 museums here are really well done. The documentary on the flood apparently won an academy award for best documentary. Both museums are very interactive and use a lot of technology. The heritage museum dealt a lot with oral history of the immigrant experience - I was very impressed. So if anyone passes through Johnstown, PA, I highly recommend those museums.
After museums, I finally got around to cooking dinner for the family - I made polenta and a chicken and veg ratatoille (sp?) and was so happy to be eating vegetable matter again.
