411 - Toxic Sludge is Bad For You (Democracy School Comes Home to Hector)

⇦

Episode #411 - Toxic Sludge is Bad For You (Democracy School Comes Home to Hector)

⇨

⌚ Sat 17 May 2008  ☻Deana Anderson, Bob Barton, Murray McBride, Valerie Gardiner, Anthony Hay, Joe Dell, Barth Garner, Sheldon Rampton

Download Hour1 Download Hour2This week, the fight for democracy comes home, that is to my home, Schuyler county New York, where residents of the town of Hector are organizing to stop the spreading of sewage sludge on our farmland. The show this week is intensely local but I hope it will also prove valuable to all the communities where this show is heard - no matter where you go in America, the struggle for the future is underway. What you're going to hear is a recording of a community meeting held in Hector, NY on May 15, sponsored by CARR - citizens for agricultural and rural responsibility, non-partisan group formed by Town of Hector, NY residents concerned about the health of our families, our community, and the rural land we love. This broadcast is timely because there will be another meeting, Thursday May 22 in Mecklenburg. I'll give details for local folks later in the show. We conclude with a talk by Sheldon Rampton, co-author with John Stauber of Toxic Sludge is Good for You about the tactics the PR industry uses to try to pass of harmful products like sludge through the manipulation of opinion.

Long time listeners to this show have heard about how the resistance to the spreading of sewage sludge by waste management corporations in rural Pennsylvania gave birth to a local democracy movement where communities have asserted the right to protect their environment and way of life by passing local laws. This process has revealed to many people the level at which supposedly democratic government at the state and federal level is in fact in thrall to corporate interests. The democracy school movement that formed out of this has taught people in communities across the nation how to avoid the hamster wheel of regulatory wrangling and go straight to heart of the matter, protecting the places we live and love. From, Pennsylvania, to New Hampshire to Spokane, Washington, to Arcata, California, communities are organizing and refusing to become corporate sacrifice zones.
Thanks to CARR
★ Start a Discussion about this episode (Login Required)

⇦

To link to this episode, please use the short, permanent URL: http://UnwelcomeGuests.net/411

⇨