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Winds of Change Newsletter, March 2011 See sidebar for table of contents
Larry Gibson A Passion for Justice, Personified
by Dianne Bady
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Larry, in ball cap, explaining mountaintop removal to
visitors from Ghana.
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At OVECs January 21 celebration, Larry Gibson was
awarded our Laura Forman Passion for Justice Award. This award has
rarely been given. Laura was an OVEC volunteer and organizer for nine
years. She died unexpectedly in 2001, at age 39, during a protest
against mountaintop removal that she had organized.
Laura demonstrated extraordinary courage, persistence,
and inspiration to others, in the then-new fight against mountaintop
removal. Larry was often at her side,
or out in front.
Im proud that OVEC was one of the first groups
focusing on grassroots organizing to oppose MTR. But long before OVEC
was involved in this fight, Larry Gibson was a lone voice in the
wilderness, talking to anyone who would listen about how the mountains
around his ancestral home on Kayford Mountain were being blown apart;
how graves and gravestones in his family cemetery were falling into the
abyss created by explosives and greed.
Since then, Larry has traveled all over the country
talking to groups about the horrors of MTR.
Hes been quoted in hundreds of news articles, some of
them written in other languages. Thousands of people have taken him up
on his invitation to visit Kayford Mountain and see the destruction for
themselves.
And when I personally have felt too nervous to go up
to Larrys mountain at a particularly contentious time, Larry was there
and never backed down, even in the face of repeated threats.
Few people give of themselves to the extent that Larry
has, and he deserves far more recognition than we can give him. Larry
heads the Keepers of the Mountain Foundation. We also appreciate Larrys
faithful service on OVECs board. Larry, youre a winner!
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