yh Patt gave testimony at the People’s Hearing on Wednesday, June 11 in Greensboro.
Hello, My name is “yh”. That is, one letter from my mother and another from my father. I live on Sissapahaw land on Turtle Island, also known as, Chatham County, N.C. About 150 years ago, three enslaved people–Denise, Christmas and Lonart–lived on the land. Now, I live there with my kin, including the triple cedar tree, and the plantain plant that heals me.
We are here testifying, because documenting is powerful.
We heard from Morning Star, an indigenous elder, who taught us that we share stories in order to not carry them in our bodies anymore. She reminded us that we are here because of those who came before us. And she asked each of us, “What’s your role?” “What is your medicine?”
In these times, the NC legislators have banned books, and the federal government is banning words. We heard from Chris Lamont Brown about websites being scrubbed of scientific data about our communities.
We heard about governmental barriers. Maria Lopez spoke about barriers to knowing their community’s Emergency Preparedness Plan. Residents can not get a copy of the Plan, merely read it. When going to read the Plan, residents cannot have their phones to photograph it. Further, when reading it, they can take notes, but not leave the room with their notes.
What kind of a world are we living in?
We heard testimony about grave harms.
We heard from Jaki Shelton Greene, our NC poet laureate, who, as a documentary poet, knew each of the 25 people killed in the 1991 Hamlet chicken plant fire. Management had locked the exit doors.
We heard about PCBs and cancer. Sandy Alford testified about the toxic buildings at NCSU, contaminated by PCBs. As a former NCSU student–who is surviving cancer–she is organizing with her community. Thus far, 600 NCSU people have been identified has having cancer. Fifty have died. Yet the University management has never notified the public.
We heard about PFAS and cancer from Carrol Olinger, who is from the Fayetteville area. It is one of the many U.S. military bases contaminated with PFAS. Carrol undergoes kidney dialysis three times each week. In order to testify, she bore dialysis in the morning, drove herself here, and negotiated the parking deck with her walker. Due to another mysterious cancer, Carrol is no longer on the kidney transplant list.
In the face of harm, we have heard about ways forward.
Of course, electoral politics are important. But, we are here to speak our truths, to document for archives, and to build communities of resistance.
We heard about a community organizing success from Beverly Scarlett, whose community group, the Orange County Tax Justice Commission, blocked a land tax increase. The increase would have further enriched wealthy people, by burdening impoverished people. That community group stopped an unjust $40 million tax increase.
We have heard about community organizing from our Environmental Justice Mothers. Elder Belinda Joyner inspired us. Donna Chavis told of us communities who stopped the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. And, Dollie Burwell testified about literally lying down with her community, in front of trucks on the roads ofWarren County, NC. Their resistance stopped the dumping of pesticides in their community, and birthed the “Environmental Justice Movement” in 1982.
As for me, my well water is contaminated by mercury and hexavalent chromium, which cause cancer. My neighbor, Tom, had a contaminated well. He lost one kidney to cancer, then the second. Despite years of Medicaid denials, Tom finally was approved, and now has had a kidney transplant. He’s survived with a skilled family and supportive community.
During the the past couple years of Tom’s kidney cancer, dialysis, and transplant, my government funded the Israeli military’s destruction of every single kidney dialysis machine in Gaza, Palestine. In 2024, the destruction of those dialysis machines was funded by the $30 billion sent to Israel by former President Biden. North Carolina’s percentage of that US money could have paid for more than 100 million solar panels or 400,000 NC teachers.
Consummate community organizer, Environmental Justice Mother, “Mama Naeema”, has taught us that community is the key. Please join me: “I am a link in the chain, and the chain will not break with me.”
