I, Radium Girl Grace Fryer, Am Honored To Sacrifice My Life For Justice
I, Radium Girl Grace Fryer, am honored to sacrifice my life for the justice that has been served today. As you have certainly heard by now, The Radium Dial Company was declared liable in my poisoning. It brings me peace to know that they will be held accountable for deliberate endangerment — which is apparently reconciled by paying me $10,000 up front, plus $600 a year and $12 a week for as long as I live, and frankly that won’t be much longer.
This moment is distinctly representative of the American justice system. It only took 50 suspected illnesses, 16 known cases, five official plaintiffs and eight appeals — and of course, the Supreme Court itself choosing not to weigh in at all, thus allowing lower courts’ rulings to remain. Witnessing Lady Justice washing her hands of the whole affair inspired my heart to pump red, white, and blue into every vein that hasn’t yet decayed beyond repair.
Never mind the fact that radium was sold to the public as a benefit. No matter that it was promised to protect us and bring health and safety to our communities. You see, we are all victims, because we all drank from that poisoned well. Literally.
Of course, some of us were required by economic circumstances to interact more frequently with this deadly force, thereby giving us a disproportionate likelihood of being harmed by it without really having a say in the matter. But clearly, we are all definitely victims here, and so I blithely prance toward your altar, privileged to be your sacrificial lamb.
Someone else might feel compelled to point out that we don’t even know the full number of civilians that have been killed by the very thing intended to protect them. That same someone may emphasize that the number is unknown only because of a deliberate lack of comprehensive research, insidious smear campaigns against victims, and intentional medical misdiagnosis. Not me. All I need is for you to add one more definition to the dictionary under “grace,” so that my name will always be synonymous with justice.
Yes, there is a twisted irony to the timing. Before my victory was declared, Radium Dial Company had moved operations to a different region where the community may not have heard about the throbbing pains in my feet that left me — and all my radium sisters — unable to walk. This irony is not as twisted as my pus-filled jaw, however, so I choose to blindly believe that we will eventually achieve comprehensive systemic reform.
With every aching bone of my rapidly decaying body, I believe that there will be a day when radium will not be relied upon to solve every problem. There will be a day when radium is only used with the most regimented of training and under the strictest regulations. There will be a day when we will invest in holistic, multi-faceted yet integrated systems that care for our minds, bodies, and spirits. This day will come.
I graciously accept that I won’t live to see it.
