- Oct 31, 2012
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‘I Feel Like I Don’t Matter’: East Palestine Waits for a Presidential Visit
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — When Jessica Conard heard that President Joe Biden would visit her community in East Palestine, she felt a sense of relief. Biden’s presence, she believed, would signal to the world that nothing short of disaster happened here in February, when a Norfolk Southern train...
Jessica Conard with her son in East Palestine, Ohio, Oct. 1, 2023. (Andrew Spear/The New York Times)
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — When Jessica Conard heard that President Joe Biden would visit her community in East Palestine, she felt a sense of relief.
Biden’s presence, she believed, would signal to the world that nothing short of disaster happened here in February, when a Norfolk Southern train skipped the tracks and spilled thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into the environment.
All these months later, she’s still waiting for him.
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“I feel like I don’t matter,” said Conard, who has grown disillusioned with the president she voted for in 2020. She was particularly aghast that he flew past her town in September to join picketing union workers in Michigan, a key swing state.
The White House insists that Biden still plans to visit.
“The president continues to oversee a robust recovery effort to support the people of East Palestine, and he will visit when it is most helpful for the community,” said Jeremy M. Edwards, a White House spokesperson.
But for many residents, Biden’s absence feels like disrespect. Despite years of promoting himself as “working class Joe,” Biden is widely viewed here as a Washington insider who is neglecting the catastrophe in their midst.
I say the only way Biden and the democrats would ever care about the people of East Palestine, is if they terrorized Jews.
