This week, Jose E. Serrano declared victory in a long-and-hard fought war just days after declaring that another war was a lost cause.
Serrano supported Dennis Kucinich’s resolution for withdrawal from the nine year-old war in Afghanistan in the House on Wednesday. The resolution failed in a 356 to 65 vote.
By Friday, Serrano declared victory in a 18 year-old battle against an odorous fertilizer plant in the South Bronx.
On Wednesday, the Department of Environmental Protection announced that it would terminate its contract with The New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo).
NYOFCo started operating on the Hunts Point waterfront in 1992. Sewage from throughout the city is brought on barges to the plant, where human refuse is turned into fertilizer pellets. Recycling our worst bits of waste into products that can be sold and used to grow crops seems like a great program. But locals think the whole operation stinks.
The red-and-white-striped smokestack of the plant looms over the southern part of the neighborhood as if a giant Cat in the Hat had left behind his signature headwear. At one of the neighborhood’s few green spaces, the new Baretto Point Park, children play in the shadow of the plant. But it’s been more than an eyesore. The plant emits a noxious odor, that one resident described as smelling like “old garbage, burned rubber and pestilence” to The Hunts Point Express. The smells have driven residents indoors, leaving the park empty on days when the wind doesn’t blow odors away. People have repeatedly reported getting sick from the smells.
Community groups rallied together to fight the plant for years, and Serrano has been a big supporter of their cause, speaking against renewing the plant’s permits. Resident’s sued NYOFCo in 2008, and in 2009 the state also sued the company. Until now the biggest victories were a state smell inspector and promises of tougher regulations on the odors.
The long hard fight has produced positive outcomes beyond the goal of shutting the plant down, according to Serrano.
“The remarkable thing about the years-long fight against NYOFCo is that it became the tool that our community used to organize itself,” said Serrano in a press release Friday. “The coalitions that formed in this campaign have gone on to fight on behalf of other pressing environmental causes – of which there are far too many in our borough – and have won many of those fights.”
Serrano wrapped up his remarks with more language of a triumphant warrior: “I look forward to more victories like this one, but today’s is particularly sweet.”
So Serrano knows that a long arduous fight can be won, and is worth the wait. Yet, his remarks on Afghanistan make it seem like he has lost his faith in the fighting spirit.
“Nine years later, I believe that Congress has the duty to reevaluate America’s involvement in a war that seems to have bogged down with very few signs of success,” said Serrano when he addressed the House floor Wednesday.
“We seem unable to eradicate the Taliban enemy—they scatter before our troops into lawless regions, and then return once our troops leave,” he continued. “This is a costly war without an end in sight.”
Serrano initially supported the war, but says that the goals have changed, and that victory is not in sight.
But what if he had adopted the same attitude halfway through the fight against the foul smelling plant? The persistence of Serrano and residents made the South Bronx a better place for children to grow up. Similar persistence may or may not eventually make Afghanistan a better place for children to grow up as well – and thus make the entire world safer.
The measure was certain to fail, and any Congressman’s decision to support it was clearly more political than practical. However Serrano and residents of his embattled district, should know not to give up when the going gets tough.