Now this is evil criminal stupidity and neglect. Seriously.

The Saginaw/Midland area in Michigan is host to Dow Chemicals, which has polluted the area to insane levels over the years, particularly with poisons and toxins like dioxins and PCBs, both highly toxic and carcinogenic substances (ie. they cause cancers). In fact, the state has warned people for years basically not to be anywhere near that area, and to especially NOT eat any of the fish found in the rivers in the vicinity of the plant as they're highly dangerous, particularly to children or pre-menopausal women. Hell, one of the major parks in the area was even shut down recently, as the dioxins and toxins had so saturated the very dirt that it was a hazard to even play in the park, much less take a swim.

And so, what is Dow Chemicals doing to try and save its ugly face?

It's sponsoring a fishing festival in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw river systems. The fish that come through there pass through the single most highly-poisoned area in the entire fucking country, so bad it's now a Superfund area (a location designated by the federal government as restricted due to being so incredibly dangerously polluted or poisoned). Families and children and fishers from all around are invited to spend a day of fun and frivolity – in the single worst polluted area in the entire United States of America, with dioxin levels guaranteed to smack them all down with cancers before the end of their lifetimes.

And that's not even the end of it. To show how loving and charitable Dow Chemicals is being, they're donating all the fish to ... a local food bank. To feed to the poor.

They're the gift that keeps on giving.

And you'll never guess who is the other main contributing sponsor to this horrendous event.

“Dow and MidMichigan Health [the local hospital system] have always been the biggest sponsors of the festival,” said Steve Doyle, spokesman for the Freeland Lions Club which has organized the festival for 24 years.

That's right ... the fucking HOSPITAL SYSTEM.

I can only pray that the activities will be canceled before long and the truth gets out about this unbelievably disgusting and criminally insane act of immorality. What the fuck!? Takes a lot to truly get my blood boiling – usually I'm just emphasizing for the sake of it – but this is just so. Very. WRONG.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)