Leaders Standing for Justice

Gary Lawley.   20 years ago, Earl Hatley and Gary Lawley encountered a bear in Alaska. They were so close and mesmerized by the actions and the clarity and opportunity they were sharing. The bear had discovered, not them, but an abundance of ripe berries and was consuming them as they watched.

That moment has stayed with them. Earl so much so that he has had the image beaded by one of the most renowned traditional beadwork artists in North America onto a traveling bag he will carry with him daily. Gary also still recounts those moments, and re-experiences the awe, they both felt decades ago.

Shortly after LEAD had gained our IRS status, we were able to apply for the EPA’s Technical Assistance Grant. Once we received it. we advertised for a technical advisor and Gary’s application rose to the top, as they say.

His task was to read all of the EPA generated documents that were on record for the Tar Creek Superfund Site, distill them so that any of us could understand what EPA was saying. About every two months, we would receive another segment of what his final product would be: A condensed and translated version for us. Copies of his report have been and should still be available in the Tar Creek Repository at the Miami Public Library. The Repository in the library has changed places over the decades, but the EPA documents are required to be available to the public for review. The only chapter in that report Gary didn’t write was the one Dr. John Neuberger did, the one on the Health Impacts. He, too has recently reconnected with us at LEAD Agency and cannot believe that the health of our residents has been neglected and studies that had been conducted were dropped and never completed.

Last week, Gary Lawley, his wife and friends came to our LEAD Agency office to visit. I put a copy of his report out in front of him and had him autograph it! And we stood beneath the enlarged EPA check for the photo to include for our records! Nearing sunset that day, we returned to see the mine water discharge he had seen twenty years before. We now know from Nick Shepherd’s research that there is one and a half million gallons a day pouring out of the mines and rushing to enter Tar Creek unrestrained, still unfiltered. Looking around, it was easy for him to see the other streams of tainted water also entering and the banks still made of chat.

I remember him standing in the Miami Civic Center and clearly asking for the PLAN that Tar Creek and this site requires. All these years later, we are still waiting for it, for the cleanup you all deserve. The environment waits. The water waits, and those two old men now, Earl Hatley and Gary Lawley who have seen the powerful bear, stopped in her tracks to delight in ripe berries can hope like I do that the PLAN will be developed and all the work that has been done and what will happen in the years to come will bring for all of us the wild berries all along Tar Creek that you and all the living creatures can stop to devour without disturbance, and without fear of the toxic burden those berries would have now.

Gary stood in our office under the enlarged check LEAD had received for that position, and over his shoulder is the painting I purchased from Jerold Graham, the one of Caesar Chavez, leaders standing for environmental justice, demanding it for the future, right there in front of me.

Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim