When you poison the air and poison the water and literally cause children and
human beings to get sick and to die prematurely, it is a form of idolatry.
It is to worship money and to worship profit over people.
God hates, he hates eyes that are arrogant,
companies that poison air and waters
and look down on poor communities, black poor community, white poor communities.
And when the truth is not told about how bad the poisons are,
God hates a tongue that lies whether it's a politician or a company, God hates a tongue that lies.
I can't even imagine what people go through when they find out that people died from a cancer
that did not have to be.
They build a home, then the industry comes in and offers the job and they're told everything is fine.
Then later on, they find out to live here they put their grandchildren at risk,
to live here they put their children at risk, to live here they put themselves at risk …
Maybe their wife died because of what a corporation and the government schemed to do.
We're too smart of a nation in the world, we know how to clean up the air,
we know how to clean up the chemicals but we choose not to because of where
these things are happening.
You don't see these plants around the wealthiest people
and there's a reason for that.
At some point when people know that their wife didn't have to die,
their daddy didn't have to die, their child didn't have to die.
At some point enough is going to happen to enough people that they're gonna stand up
and they're going to fight back.
I've lost two young family members along with five or six others.
When my mom and dad died, it wasn't as hard as to see my son-in-law and my daughter-in-law die
because they left small kids behind,
my small grandkids were hurt because their parents were gone
but to see my daughter, my son, my grandkids die with cancer, it's, I mean,
it's truly something you don't want to see.
We're going to keep fighting until everything is safe for us to live in.
This is all we fight for, we're fighting for a safe place to live.
We don't care about anything else, we want safe for our children,
we want safe for our lives.
Can I get somebody here to say: I am,
St John the Baptist Parish
and we stand together.
Come on point at them and say: we are!
Every one of us,
St John the Baptist Parish
and we won't be silent!
Let me hear you shout.
He seemed so genuine and his generous offer of supporting us
and we certainly need people of his stature.
I think that the movement is starting to grow,
it's beginning now I think, I can see people beginning to feel it and wanting
to come in and help.
They want to drill, they want to frack, they want to do whatever
because all that matters is the bottom line
and they do not have the ethic of our deepest religious value and our job as human beings is not to do worse
with the environment but to do better.
Now, you know what they call that?
They call that socialism.
They call that liberal.
I call it justice
I call it making sure that you don't treat corporations like people and people like things.
I call it love.
I want to do something.
I used to play a little football
and when we got ready to really do something, we did we put our hands …
Black and white, come on brother.
They need to understand we're all together.
We've got each other, we are all together,
in this fight, forward together,
not one step back.
And we are going to make sure,
that everybody knows,
that everybody's being hurt,
so we can stop this
from occurring
another generation.
Amen!