Written by Jon W.  Magnuson

Lutheran pastor , Lutheran Campus Pastor (ELCA) at Northern Michigan University

Director, The Cedar Tree Institute

For the last seven years here in Marquette County we have been part of a Divine Drama.  An ongoing heated dispute around a decision whether or not to allow an international mining company, with one of worst records of environmental pollution and violation of human rights in the world, build a sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. Even now we hear their 100 ton double-axel trucks relentlessly pass through our city streets, haunting us day and night, as if making us believe that nothing can stop them.

When this is all over and done, it will all be about a choice. And whether or not we thought we had one. Well, we do.

I have a friend Kathy who spent two years in women’s prison in Virginia. She told me that the most important thing she learned there from another older wiser inmate is that even when one is incarcerated, one always has a choice: Whether to speak to speak or not to speak, whether to show kindness in difficult circumstances, to be generous with your few possessions, to live out a life of hope, compassion, justice.  I’ve talked to many citizens in our community who have expressed their opposition and disgust to Rio Tinto’s  sulfide mine.  But many of them feel that nothing can stop Kennecott.

I am here today to remind us we can choose to be victims or to engage and speak out for what we believe.  Back in 1978 Lois Gibbs, then a twenty-three year old housewife with no college education and two children back in Love Canal, discovered she was living with her neighbors on a toxic waste dump in New York State She organized her community and neighbors and forced one of the largest oil corporations in North America to clean the damage that was poisoning their families. Last October, she came and spoke to us here in Marquette. We stood up and cheered. She’s well known across North America fighting on behalf of poor communities, hotel workers, churches, kitchen workers, and immigrants.

In 2004, 100 leaders of ten faith traditions in Marquette, Baraga and Keweenaw Counties signed a petition that, based on studies of the impact of the proposed mine,

and standing in solidarity with of one of the oldest recognized Native communities in Northern Michigan (The Keweenaw Indian Community) formally stated their opposition

to Kennecott’s Eagle Rock mining operation.  That position remains unchanged.

There is a better way. Those gathering here today are lifting up a voice that our waters and land are not for sale to those who carry the threat of poisoning our children and grandchildren. Many of us in the faith community are committed to work with the Marquette Chamber of Commerce to renew their efforts to build a solid green economy. This is finally not about money and jobs. It’s about dedicating ourselves to a vision of a green economy where we work together to build new opportunities for employment, where our waters are protected and our children’s health is safeguarded. We can do that by saying “No” to Rio Tinto and it’s subsidiary company Kennecott.

This is a good fight. In the days and weeks ahead I will be personally supporting, along with a hundred other leaders of the faith community, Scott Rutherford’s hunger fast, a sacrament of protest to protect and to build a better and more beautiful, morally sound, and healthy vision for our grandchildren. Our prayers surround you Scott.