Commentary by Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig

They call it the Toxic Triangle.
    The neighborhoods of West Oakland and Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco and the city of Richmond that not only border the Bay, but are located near several environmental assassins.
    For years, area residents have made claims of asthma, cancer, diabetes and more. They believe these health concerns are the direct result of environmental hazards linked to toxins emitted by East Bay recycling plants; fumes from the Port of Oakland; the residue of nuclear and chemical pollution at the former San Francisco naval shipyards; asbestos exposures from the Lennar shipyard development on the Peninsula; and toxic dangers from Richmond’s Chevron refinery.
    Last week, Black Elected Officials and Faith Based Leaders of the East Bay — an organization comprised of city, county, state and federal African American leaders — hosted a town hall-type session where the community was invited to voice their concerns. With the assistance of Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks (district 6), the group hosted a forum in her City Council chambers where residents from both sides of the Bay discussed their fears, shared their stories and demanded change.
    The goal? To force the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Environmental Protection Agency to do more. The gathering was dubbed as a “preliminary fact-finding hearing” to persuade state officials to take a more active role in the fight.
    Now, I can see where our legislature and elected leaders may be a little busy (in fact, two sent their representatives in their place). It’s an election year, after all, and that state budget isn’t going to get balanced by itself. But haven’t these concerns been around for decades? Didn’t our elected officials once live in or around the areas in question and therefore, accusations of environmental injustice should be no surprise?
    For more than two hours, activist and concerned citizens gathered at Oakland City Hall and provided statistics, made accusations of governmental disregard of human life and pleaded for help.
    And the session was not, and the search for environmental justice is not, just “a black issue.” It goes beyond color lines, embracing those at all socioeconomic levels.
    Although the Triangle seems to target our low-income neighborhoods, this toxic environment is an equal opportunity offender and spares no prisoners. So what is it going to take for someone to say, “Enough is enough”?
    For me, that “someone” came in the form of three students from Excel High School. The trio are part of the legal studies class at the West Oakland campus, and with their teacher, Ina Bendich, they stood before the panel with their own emotional plea for help — for a chance to live a full, healthy life.
    “We don’t want our young people dying. We don’t want them (the accused offenders) to close,” 17-year-old Juan Hernandez told the semicircle of faces before him. “We just want (the offenders) to clean it up.”
    The children we promise to protect and serve are having to take matters into their own hands. They already are affected by educational budget cuts, crime, drugs and an uncertain future. Aren’t we able to at least make sure they live long enough to have a future?
    If we don’t, who can we count on to be our future?

Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig is an award-winning, professional journalist who resides in Oakland. If you have an individual, organization, issue or other topic that may be of interest to the Globe’s readers, contact her at  talk2mfc@yahoo.com.