2023-02-23

• My dad sent me an email about the train derailment in East Palestine. He noted that the government found that nobody was at fault in a preliminary report. He concluded with “it looks like this is just one of those things that sometimes happens.” This kind of reasoning agitates the skeptic inside of me. Sure, maybe it is just one of those “acts of God.” Those do absolutely happen. Life is surprising. And yet…it feels strangely convenient to say this disaster was nobody’s fault. In particular, convenient for a group with highly concentrated political power (the railroad company). And on the flip side, it seems like a pretty inconvenient conclusion for those whose power is much more diffuse (townspeople exposed to toxic chemicals). Given what seems like pretty clear financial interests on the part of each party there, and significant disparity in political power that can be brought to bare on the situation, I’m left wondering why I would place total faith in what the government says on this subject. How can I know if this is “nobody’s fault” just like the Iraq war was “nobody’s fault?” And that’s the thing. I can’t. What I can do is withhold judgment either way. Maybe this was an act of God. Maybe it was negligence. There’s probably a lot I don’t know.

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