"So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do, You see I forgotten if they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is what I really mean,
Yours were the sweetest eyes that I've ever seen." (Bernie Taupin/Elton John)
When I first heard this song on the radio @ 1970, Dianne Aaronson was the one who came to my mind. And as the Elton John song related, her eyes were the most beautiful I have ever seen. They must have been the headlights on high beam to a wonderful soul. Reading her web page, I see that she had powers of telekinesis and a healing touch which means that perhaps she was an Avatar of a very powerful Angel. I wish I would have known her in the most recent past in light of the fact that we both live in the LA area, but I didn't know of this fact till now and our lives took divergent paths since I last saw her at Temple University in the early 70's.
In reading her latest blogs on her website, I have come to realize that she was a victim of hepatocellular carcinoma. Though this cancer may be a consequence of hepatitis C, as she mentioned in her recent blog "there is more to the picture than meets the eye"(Neil Young). Perhaps she and Neil are correct, maybe there is another more insidious cause of cancers in our group. I think there may be a common demononimator that is currently affecting LA with increased rates of cancer today and our local community of Lawndale, Feltonville, Olney, Logan neighborhoods which we were raised in. That common entity is known as Exide Battery.Co. It is well known and reported in the LA Times today that there is an environmental disaster in the Vernon area with large quantities of lead and arsenic and cadmium in the ground soil in an area in a 10 mile radius from the Vernon plant. Exide has been cited by the federal and local authorities and is currently paying millions of dollars to clean up or risk criminal prosecution. They closed down and were run out of LA because of this. They left the Rising Sun site in Phladelphia on their own accord and who knows what damage to the environnment they left in their wake in our old neighborhood. I do remember many days smelling the airborne toxic waste that their smokestack was spewing into the atmosphere. Also I remember that Bond Bread Baking Co was near by on Rising Sun Ave, so perhaps there was lead in the bread. Lead leads to personality and development disturbances in addition to cancer, so perhaps we lost many of our childhood acquaintanes because of behavoral misadventures caused by too much lead in thier heads.
I recently lost my older brother to leukemia last summer when he passed at 70. I as well as all his loved ones ask why, perhaps Exide is the answer for the cancer. I know it is in LA.
I am sorry for making Dianne's passing my pulpit for this, but I think this is important and hope this sets off thoughts and possible action to evaluate whether Exide is a cause for lower than expected life expectancy for those of us who lived in our old neighborhood, and whether tainted soil still exists in our old nieghborhood llike it does today in LA.
My profound condolences to those who knew and loved Dianne.
Patricia McMenamin (Weise)
Dianne wa such a beautiful person and I am saddened by her loss. Prayers and thoughts being sent to her family and friends.
Stanton S. Kremsky
"So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do, You see I forgotten if they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is what I really mean,
Yours were the sweetest eyes that I've ever seen." (Bernie Taupin/Elton John)
When I first heard this song on the radio @ 1970, Dianne Aaronson was the one who came to my mind. And as the Elton John song related, her eyes were the most beautiful I have ever seen. They must have been the headlights on high beam to a wonderful soul. Reading her web page, I see that she had powers of telekinesis and a healing touch which means that perhaps she was an Avatar of a very powerful Angel. I wish I would have known her in the most recent past in light of the fact that we both live in the LA area, but I didn't know of this fact till now and our lives took divergent paths since I last saw her at Temple University in the early 70's.
In reading her latest blogs on her website, I have come to realize that she was a victim of hepatocellular carcinoma. Though this cancer may be a consequence of hepatitis C, as she mentioned in her recent blog "there is more to the picture than meets the eye"(Neil Young). Perhaps she and Neil are correct, maybe there is another more insidious cause of cancers in our group. I think there may be a common demononimator that is currently affecting LA with increased rates of cancer today and our local community of Lawndale, Feltonville, Olney, Logan neighborhoods which we were raised in. That common entity is known as Exide Battery.Co. It is well known and reported in the LA Times today that there is an environmental disaster in the Vernon area with large quantities of lead and arsenic and cadmium in the ground soil in an area in a 10 mile radius from the Vernon plant. Exide has been cited by the federal and local authorities and is currently paying millions of dollars to clean up or risk criminal prosecution. They closed down and were run out of LA because of this. They left the Rising Sun site in Phladelphia on their own accord and who knows what damage to the environnment they left in their wake in our old neighborhood. I do remember many days smelling the airborne toxic waste that their smokestack was spewing into the atmosphere. Also I remember that Bond Bread Baking Co was near by on Rising Sun Ave, so perhaps there was lead in the bread. Lead leads to personality and development disturbances in addition to cancer, so perhaps we lost many of our childhood acquaintanes because of behavoral misadventures caused by too much lead in thier heads.
I recently lost my older brother to leukemia last summer when he passed at 70. I as well as all his loved ones ask why, perhaps Exide is the answer for the cancer. I know it is in LA.
I am sorry for making Dianne's passing my pulpit for this, but I think this is important and hope this sets off thoughts and possible action to evaluate whether Exide is a cause for lower than expected life expectancy for those of us who lived in our old neighborhood, and whether tainted soil still exists in our old nieghborhood llike it does today in LA.
My profound condolences to those who knew and loved Dianne.
Stanton S Kremsky MD (class of 70)