New York Times Magazine
July 6, 2003

WHAT THEY WERE THINKING: Darline Stephens, Anniston, Ala., April 25, 2003

Interview by ALISON STATEMAN

I live about 5 or 10 miles from chemical weapons. We're over there searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but we have them here in our hometown. I didn't know this stuff was at the Army Depot all these years. I just heard last year. It takes seven years to burn the chemicals to get rid of it all. We didn't really believe they were going to burn something that could kill us until they started telling us to get our masks. My family lives payday to payday, so we sure can't say, 'Let's quit our jobs and move.' I wish we could. The government does some ignorant things -- they just give us a plastic mask? If you could send our boys to war with real masks, I don't understand why we can't have the same masks. Everyone in the rescue squad and fire department has high-dollar masks. I just don't understand why they think some people's lives are worth more than ours. My son and I are Christians, so we're saved. He knows where he's going if he dies.''