I'm Back

I’ve never been a political writer. I was worried about alienating readers. I was worried no one would listen to me. I was worried I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t know how to say this, but I have to: I am the mother of an extraordinary, young child. We live six miles from an injection well—a well that is leaking chemicals into the ground, a well that was long ago ordered closed, but never was. To bring my child into the world, I endured twenty-four hours of difficult labor, without medication. For reasons I won’t get into here, we both almost died--but we lived. We lived to do something in this life.

I’ve always felt that I have yet to even TOUCH what I can do as a writer and artist, the reserves that are inside me, the work I am meant to produce, the words I am supposed to say, the reason I was born.

On Thursday, three board members in my town voted to block an anti-fracking initiative, a bill that would have banned drilling and waste disposal. Just three votes was all it took. This initiative was signed by hundreds and hundreds of local people, opposed by just seven. And just three shot it down.

I've never been a political writer.

That ends now. Board members, town, fracking industry, Ohio: You are about to know what I am capable of as a mother, as a woman, as a writer, and as a winner of young people’s hearts and minds. You have unlocked my reserves. You have threatened my child.

You will lose this fight, because we were BORN to win it.

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-40399-elections-board-mum-on-reasoning-for-zapping-fracking-ban-from-ballot.html