MARQUETTE - Lois Gibbs' advice to area residents who want to stop the proposed Kennecott Eagle Minerals mine - don't be polite.
"Polite people get poisoned," Gibbs said. "You need your science, you need your data, you need some legal handles. But to fight these battles you need to fight them politically."
Gibbs, a whistle-blower in the 1970s who helped expose the dangers of the toxic waste buried at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, N.Y., spoke at Northern Michigan University Friday evening.
She explained her experiences working to protect her family at Love Canal and how that fight parallels the current struggle over the Kennecott mine. She is executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, which helps communities across the nation with environmental and health struggles.
In 1978, Gibbs was a housewife living in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls.
"I did not have a college education," she said. "What I wanted was to be a mom. I didn't want to be a lecturer, I didn't want to be an environmentalist."
After moving in to the neighborhood, however, her two young children began developing health issues like asthma, urinary tract infections, liver problems, immune system problems and even symptoms of leukemia.
The town's newspaper ran an article about the 20,000 pounds of toxic chemicals that were buried nearby and after that, Gibbs began to get involved, eventually mobilizing the entire neighborhood and influencing the state government to have the area evacuated.
Starting a political fight is the effective way to take on large industry to protect the environment and the people, Gibbs told her audience.
"You are playing the game their way and they win," she said. "You need to think outside the box."
Gibbs' appearance was sponsored by the Students for Sustainable Living, an NMU student group, as well as organizations such as Save the Wild U.P. , the Cedartree Institute and the Superior Watershed Partnership.
Johanna Boyle can be reached at 906-486-4401. Her e-mail address is jboyle@miningjournal.net.