Last night I arrived home from an action-packed training for Power Vote 2010. Over 100 students and young people joined with the coalition and partner staff of the Energy Action Coalition and our trainers from Wellstone Action.
On Thursday we joined the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in their protest of the Crawfod Coal Plant. The Crawford plant is one of the oldest and dirtiest in operation,
causing 41 premature deaths per year. At the rally, speakers spoke against the dangers their community faces daily- several nearby coal plants, other manufacturing centers- as they lit candles in remembrance of those whose lives are cut short by pollution. They also connected the devastation in their neighborhood back to recent mine collapse in West Virginia, to communities threatened by mountaintop removal, and to the entire dirty death-cycle of coal. It was a powerful moment that connected each of us there, young people from across the country with the residents of Little Village. In closing, we were reminded that an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. And right now there are far too many coal plants and mines in our backyards.
On Saturday we again joined with the community, this time for a far more celebratory occasion. Each year, LVEJO youth host a “Skate Jam” with skate competitions, dj battles and community building. It was a great way to wrap up the week of trainings. I left feeling excited to take the fight back to the Mid-Atlantic. It’s time our elected officials stand with people, not polluters. We will create a safe, just, clean energy future for all of us.
