Sandra Steingraber: My name is Illinois

The message is symbolic and also a realistic parallel to our struggles with the frac sand industry in the mid-west and Chippewa Falls......a soon to be 5-year challenge.  Please distribute widely.  ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Sandra Steingraber <ssteingraber@ithaca.edu> Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 8:02 AM Subject:  My name is Illinois Dear fellow New Yorkers, As many of you know, I was born and raised in rural Illinois where my cousin still farms and all my family lives.  That state now teeters on the fracking brink, as a bad regulatory bill has just passed a key panel at the end of the legislative session and now heads for a vote in the IL General Assembly.   A daily sit-in at Governor Quinn's office is now underway and civil disobedience has broken out.  If you have friends or family living in the Land of Lincoln, please extend to them the invitation below. What happens in Illinois affects us all, and while we may no longer be able to affect the outcome of this particular vote, we still control the story of how it was received and who will be held responsible and whether or not, in the words of Illinois abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy, "a spirit of freedom still resides" in Illinois.   broken-hearted but unfractured, Sandra ---- An Urgent Invitation to the People of Illinois from Sandra Steingraber Come to Governor Quinn's office, 2nd floor, Capitol Building in Springfield, Friday, May 24 at 12 noon, to say no to fracking Illinois (See Illinois People's Action for carpooling: https://www.facebook.com/ILPeoplesAction) I am sorry to report that on Tuesday May 21, in an unanimous decision, an eleven-member executive committee, approved a bill that opens my beloved home state to the brutal, water-destroying, carcinogen-dependent practice known as fracking.   Together with my friend, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox, I was there.   I was there when Josh asked the lawmakers, how many of you have ever visited a fracking site?  I was there when not one raised a hand.   I was there when Jen Walling of the Illinois Environmental Council testified--like a woman held hostage--that, given the political climate in Illinois, she had no choice but to endorse these regulations.  I was there when the man sitting next to her on the witness bench--Mark Denzler of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association--agreed. I was there when the former board chair of the Illinois Environmental Council, Carolyn Raffensperger, testified that, in fact, the state's regulatory agencies were too broke and too impotent to be capable of enforcing any regulations.  I was there when, after the unanimous vote was cast, the packed hearing room erupted into cries of "shame! shame!"  You can read my own testimony to the House committee here and watch it here.  And here is my op-ed in today's Springfield Journal-Register Today or tomorrow Senate Bill is likely to be voted on by the full legislature.  It is likely to pass. It is likely to be signed into law by Governor Quinn.  But likely is not a synonym for inevitable.  And, whatever the outcome of this vote, what's essential now is for all of us to topple a toxic narrative and replace it with a story of our own. That narrative is about how industry and environmental groups can cooperate to write regulations for fracking that magically make it safe and serve as a model for the nation.  As neatly encapsulated by the reaction statement of Governor Quinn shortly after the panel vote:  "Many months ago I directed my staff to bring together a coalition of legislators, labor, industry and advocates to develop a hydraulic fracturing bill that would set a new national standard for environmental protection and job creation potential....I commend the members of the Illinois House Executive Committee who voted to put this proposal on the path to becoming law in Illinois.  Here's what we can write together as the replacement to the above:  It's story is about people coming together and saying NO.  No to closed-door negotiations without public input.  No to blowing up the bedrock and pumping it full of toxins.  No to learned helplessness in the face of bullying.  No to a batch of unenforceable, loophole-riddled rules endorsed by a hapless environmental lobby and the gas industry that serves as its ventriloquist.   Our story is about citizens converging in the Governor's office to demand a moratorium on fracking.  And scientific study.  And public hearings.  And a jobs plan that is not dependent on blasting out of the earth a few year's worth of non-renewable, climate-killing fossil fuel extraction.   Our story is about resistance, courage, and democracy.  It's about protecting what you love.  Come to Springfield and co-author that story.  The one that will be told in the history books.  The one you can tell your children about.  The one that your great-grandchildren, gazing back at you from the future, are begging you to write.  The story that you already know that you want to be part of.  Illinois' greatest living poet, John Knoepfle, age 90, will there with you.  And he will bring his words to add to yours.   So, drop everything and head to Springfield.  There is no more important work for you to do on Friday than to peaceably assemble at Governor Quinn's office, 2nd floor of the Capitol Building on 2nd Street, and demand he listen.   All you need to bring is your voice.  And your heart.  to the unfractured future, Sandra  (born in Champagne, raised in Pekin, educated in Bloomington-Normal, post-doc in women's public health policy, University of Illinois, Chicago) . . .this world in peace this laced temple of darkening colors it could not have been made for shambles this green twilight of echoing voices as the sun hurls its fireball down the other side of the world it is long miles through marshgrass the sangamon sifting to its ending and beyond us the illinois intensifies south beneath the eagles at grafton our ancient mississippi its wide slow waters --"Confluence," John Knoepfle --