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Last Man Bids Toxic Town Adieu

By John D. Sutter
,
CNN
posted: 134 DAYS 18 HOURS AGO
comments: 100
Text SizeAAA
PICHER, Okla. (June 30) -- Wearing powder blue pants and a plaid fedora, 84-year-old Orval "Hoppy" Ray arrived fashionably late to a celebration in Picher, Oklahoma, a vacated mining town at the center of one of the nation's largest and most polluted toxic-waste sites.
© 2009 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2009-06-30 13:37:44

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MARIECOLEE

01:58 PMJul 04 2009

Great story. I would love to buy a copy of his book. Where can I get one?

AVG RATING:
(0)

HEnDaWg380

01:52 PMJul 04 2009

Perfect example of White loving America they are gonna kill you one way or another. They destroy everything they come in contact with and try to tell you its good for you "progress" that area was beautiful before the White monsters came to kill this land.

AVG RATING:
(3)

MahoneyLK

01:50 PMJul 04 2009

This was such a good story!! Well written! I feel for Hoppy!! To see the only place you've known your whole life deserted, and knowing what that town had become, had to be hard on him.

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(0)

Asmitanamaste

01:44 PMJul 04 2009

The average age a hundred years ago was 42!!!Even with living in a toxic town, old Hoppy has it better now than they did way back. Look at the bright side, live with positive intention to offer something good and useful. Otherwise, YOU are a toxin to YOUR environment. Happy 4th and GOD bless America, Land of the FREE and Home of the Brave!!

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REATAVAQUERO

01:39 PMJul 04 2009

I say leave the old man there he is 84 and lived there all his life. Except a short time in WW II when he went to fight. To me he is one of the heros of this country. Any thing he would have contracted he did so a long time ago. Moving him can't save him now. So when he dies put him where he lived beneath the earth not far from the land that gave him birth.

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SirJohn1960

01:30 PMJul 04 2009

Why do people poison the Earth, I saw a lot of those comments.. Its all of us, who use electricity, gas, plastic, paint, rubber, fiberglass, and many other products whose by products are toxic and harmful.. And just were might you Almightys suggest putting this waste? It has to go someplace, so it went into natural lead mines. There will be more of this sad to say, but we all are to blame, not just Those People, or People.No matter how "green" we go there will stil be waste and byproducts.. What should be done, is figure out safer disposal methods, Not the cheap way out, but big business does not want to pay the price for saftey, they rather enjoy the profits.... Nothing can be done about this. Sad Story... A real shame, but in a capitolist system, its about the buck and not the people...

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vb00000005756115

01:20 PMJul 04 2009

what the hell has the gov" done for you lately? and for the people who have lived there whole life in a town and having to leave, oh my god that is wrong in every stand point.the gov' thinks that they can just pay them off, "WELL HELL NO" you also have the right to pay for all the health care these people will need, that's only right, i feel that these people will get the shit end of that stick. our gov' really haven't taken care of THE PEOPLE or THE LAND and HEALTH of THIS COUNTRY, we pay them and pay them(gov') and still have to die for the (gov) what do they die for? OR from? too much money. HA,HA,HA. that's what the gov' do for this country and its people.

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(2)

OriginlCin

01:14 PMJul 04 2009

VM Bradley: Don't waste any time on your way to the airport

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Blditrt1

01:03 PMJul 04 2009

SAD!

AVG RATING:
(4)

Winter11storm

12:51 PMJul 04 2009

God said He will not destroy the earth again by water. This is a good story, well written. It's a sad truth. I can feel the anguish in this mans heart, to have to leave his home. Yeah, we are poisoning this earth one town at a time.What will my grand children inherit?

AVG RATING:
(4)

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Wearing powder blue pants and a plaid fedora, 84-year-old Orval Hoppy Ray arrived fashionably late to a celebration in Picher, Oklahoma, a vacated mining town at the center of one of the nation\'s largest and most polluted toxic-waste sites.