We were very fortunate to have Thomas Linzey, Founder and  Executive Director of CELDF, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, in Newport on October 5th. During his “Oregon 2015 Community Rights Tour”, both he and Kai Huschke (CELDF’s Northwest Organizer) made Newport their third stop in their tour of six Oregon counties.

Download: http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/audio/ThomasLinzey_Newport_FullLength_10.5.15.mp3

Timeline
00:00 – 4:25_Rio Davidson (Opening Comments)
4:43 – 9:42_Kai Huschke (Introduction)
9:44 – 1:12:28_Thomas Linzey (Main Presentation)
1:12:28 – 1:25:20_Maria Sause (Closing)

Video link: https://youtu.be/xd2CRmt4OPU

Every year in Oregon, including here in Lincoln County, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are sprayed on our forests despite of the impacts to the health and quality of life for people and ecosystems.

Come learn why this is legal, how the state protects the rights of corporations over those of people and nature, and most importantly, how communities in Oregon and other states are changing the rules of the game. They are squaring up against the corporate harms and taking back their rights to health, resiliency, and greater democracy for people and nature.

Join us for a 90-minute presentation and discussion with Kai Huschke, Northwest Organizer, of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Location: Yachats Commons, Room 3
Wednesday, April 1, 2015, 6:30 P.M.

Kai Huschke, Northwest Organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund led nearly twenty participants through a 3 hour Democracy School at the Newport Public Library.

Hour 1 – Audio Download – MP3

Hour 2 – Audio Download – MP3

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm providing free and affordable legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, local agriculture, the local economy, and quality of life.  CELDF’s mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.

The primary focus of the condensed workshop included:

• Why we have a corporate dominated, state-assisted structure of law
• How it looks when communities try to find remedy within that system
• What communities are doing to reclaim their rights for the sake of health and democracy for people, communities, and nature
• How Oregon counties are moving “community bills of rights” to protect communities and move them towards sustainability

Please let us know if you are interested in further discussion of the workshop by contacting María Sause at mkrausster@gmail.com, or by calling 541-961-6385.

Democracy School is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Pennock, a 17-year-old boy from Berks County, Pennsylvania, who died in 1995 after being exposed involuntarily to land applied sewage sludge. Daniel’s parents, Antoinette and Russell Pennock, have traveled across Pennsylvania to end the practice of sludge disposal by which waste management corporations reap massive profits hauling and spreading sludge on farmland. Their work has inspired ours. (CELDF)