Found a recommendation for a free documentary online: The deadly legacy of open air burn pits (2014)-A look into the ‘burn pits’ the US military and defense contractors used to destroy toxic debris in Iraq. These pits are responsible for deformities in Iraqi children and cancer in US soldiers, yet their legacy remains largely unknown (youtube.com)
This story has a human face for me. An emaciated but confident young man with stage 4 lung cancer in remission. He told me in a literature class about these burn pits and how he’d never smoked, but like many in his platoon who burned all kind of nasty stuff, he came down with lung cancer. I remember both his wit and his rage.
What he told us was deeply personal, and germane to out discussion of literature. More literature classes should be required.
