Change seems to be in the air across America. Change for the better is certainly coming to Centre County, where community rights legislation to ban fracking is taking hold.
On Oct. 13, Rush Township voted to advertise its ordinance, an important step toward making it law. In State College, a community bill of rights and natural gas drilling ban will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Rush and State College seem different at first, but community enfranchisement has created a common thread between them and is beginning to include other municipalities. Community rights measures have been adopted in Pittsburgh, West Homestead, Wilkinsburg, Baldwin and many other communities across Pennsylvania and the country.
The people are saying yes to the idea that we should have the right to make decisions about what happens in the places we live. We should take responsibility for our local environment and protect the right to clean water and air for ourselves and for local ecosystems. We should stand together against a corporate-dominated system in which their privileges trump our rights.
These are ideas all residents can support, and their universal appeal has connected the diverse jurisdictions and electorates that have adopted them.
But those who oppose the vote for community rights — many tied to corporate industry — portray the idea that communities having a say in their own future is dangerous and illegitimate.
In Warren, residents petitioned this fall to have a popular vote on a community bill of rights and fracking ban, as has happened in State College. But in Warren, elected officials filed suit to keep the initiative off the ballot. Essentially, the city officials sued their own electorate to keep residents from voting on a measure that the voters had petitioned to put on the ballot. The attempt at disenfranchisement lost in the first court that heard the case. Trying to stop the people’s vote is what’s illegitimate.
Of all the community rights initiatives that have been passed, starting in Tamaqua in 2006, not one has yet been challenged. If a corporation sued a town to drill, it would have to argue against a fracking ban and against the very idea that people have community rights. It seems even they can’t figure out how to do that.
At the public hearing in Rush Township a few weeks ago, we heard a lot about how communities aren’t allowed to make decisions based on their rights. But the popular pressure for change compelled the township supervisors to vote for the community rights protection ordinance to be advertised. This is how change has always come to America — citizens push forward popular initiatives that challenge the status quo.
On Nov. 8, State College residents will have a chance to do just that. We can stand firmly together for our community and local environment, stand up against corporate influence in government, stand in solidarity with other communities doing the same thing, and we can take a step toward a sustainable and resilient future. We can be changemakers. Vote yes Nov. 8.
For more information and to read the petition, go to www.groundswell.gs
Braden Crooks is a graduate of the Penn State’s landscape architecture program and founder of Groundswell, a local environmental rights initiative. He can be reached at info@groundswell.gs
