Hazardous Cargo

Throughout the story Gonzalez reveals hidden secrets that are considered a danger to those around them.  So hidden that the secret can go right by you without you blinking an eye it’s a secret hazardous to the environment and everything around it.  This secret is marker.  Marked by two simple letters.  Letters that stand for something much more than anyone would imagine.  The secret is a ticking time bomb inside thousands of trucks waiting.  Each truck traveling on the same marked highway.  A highway that is marked with signs only to be understood by the drivers of the unmarked trucks.  He proposes a problem and tries to not only get the reader to better understand it but himself as well.

This secret, this ticking time bomb, this hazardous cargo, is toxic hazardous waste being shipped in unmarked trucks to Mexico.  Gonzalez explains how he sat on a public road watching these unmarked mystery trucks when he was told he could not be there by an officer.  Why was he not allowed to be there? Most likely because there was something illegal going on.  He explains that someone marked the “transportation” highway with sign with the letters HC.  HC stands for hazardous cargo and that is exactly what it is, hazardous.  He tells about it in such detail and in such a mysterious way that it makes you want to keep reading to find out more.  This has gone on for years without anyone knowing or stopping it.  Gonzalez tells about highway I-25 and the HC that travels it every day.  He tells about the mystery that has snuck by thousands of people for years.

Gonzalez brings up something that no one knew about.  And lets everyone in on the secret.  It’s interesting to think that things like this could and probably do happen every day.  Things that people are completely unaware of yet could cost them their lives.  It’s also interesting to think how many other things like this go on every day every year.  Secret things that go unspoken undetected and have people completely unaware of what is going on.  I think this somewhat relates to the theme of progress that we see in Melissa Holbrook Pierceson’s book, The Place I love is Gone.  It takes that word progress and kind of twists it in a way.  It shows the negative side of progress.  It shows how progress can be turned into creating a dump area and putting HC inside to watch it steam into the atmosphere.  Throughout the years it tells about the creation of a highway which is progress and the creation of new laws about the dumping of hazardous cargo which is also progress.  Although when you hear the word progress you don’t think of the dumping of toxic materials and the possible harm of the environment and its people.  It puts a spin on what people usually think of the meaning of progress and makes you wonder about what all those big trucks are really carrying.