By Nan Hart
The event was billed as “A Moral Call for Ecological Justice in Buckingham.” Friends of Buckingham, the sponsoring organization, had invited Rev. Dr. William Barber, II, and former Vice President Al Gore to speak.
Rev. Dr. Barber II, (president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival), is known for building coalitions. And that’s exactly what he did. Corporate greed, environmental non-justice, historic, structural and systemic racism, plus the immediacy of climate change were all issues woven together skillfully that night by Barber and Al Gore. (One of Dr. Barber’s books, The Third Reconstruction, was published by Beacon Press and was chosen as a Unitarian Universalist Association Common Read a few years back.)
Four WUUs decided to attend the event, and we were not disappointed! There were all different kinds of people in the packed middle school auditorium. The experience is difficult to convey – emotional, musical, with a pervasive sense of community and togetherness that lasted long after the event was over.
As we approached the gym door, the noise was deafening. It looked like standing room only, but we pushed our way in and found a spot high up in the bleachers. The band was rocking; everyone was standing, clapping, and singing. The energy was palpable. The crowd of over 1100 people was just getting warmed up.
This was the beginning of the most amazing evening. I have never experienced such solidarity with other people for a common cause. Dare I hope?
The residents of Union Hill invited Dr. Barber because of their deep concern over the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline destroying the historic land owned by generations of former slaves and Freedmen since Reconstruction. The pipeline would destroy unmarked graves, the records of which burned during the Civil War.
All the speakers raised concerns about the construction of the massive compressor station, which would pump fracked natural gas through the pipeline. Toxic emissions, noise pollution, safety issues, land grab, environmentally disastrous. The Union Hill site chosen by Dominion Energy was declared by Dominion to be culturally insignificant, when it is just the opposite. According to an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (7/22/18, by Michael Paul Williams), “It is a common industry practice for utilities to ram such projects through marginalized communities.”
“To side with Dominion and against the people of Union Hill and Buckingham County is scandalous!”
–Rev. Dr. William Barber
“This pipeline is a reckless, racist rip-off. Dominion wants higher rates, and to build new pipelines to justify those higher rates to rip off the people.”
–Al Gore