Maria Gunnoe speaks to the People’s Tribune about what needs to be done to clean up after the industrial polluters in West Virginia. Maria is a 2009 Goldman Prize winner from Boone County, West Virginia who has organized in opposition to mountain top removal in Appalachia for more than 20 years. She speaks nationally.
“It’s time we employ half the country to clean up after the other half. When industry profits from an area for 150 years, the least they can do is clean up after themselves. We have huge coal preparation plants and underground mines full of copper that could be recycled too. There is employment in cleaning up these messes. Everyone needs to stop pointing fingers at West Virginia’s problems and start fixing what they can, where they can. We all love where we live and this is where our people belong.
Reparations are owed to West Virginia and Mother Jones Community Foundation (MJCF) is bringing it all to the table.”
Editor’s note: MJCF works to improve the quality of life in many of the most impoverished regions of our country and can be found at facebook.com/MotherJonesCommunityFoundation
Maria and company are an inspiration for me. Because of her and Emily Satterwhite, I became a pipeline activist. Amazing warrior women will save the planet, or die trying.