- "We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." Aldo Leopold
Stephen Cleghorn is not your typical farmer, nor is he a typical sociologist. He does, however, display the tenacity and work ethic of the former, and the latter's love and understanding of his fellow beings, human and otherwise. As sensitive and loving as Stephen is, he's had enough. In fact, he's endured way too much, and he knows that the fight has barely begun.
Until the fall of 2011, Cleghorn and his late wife, Lucinda Hart-Gonzalez, combined their passion and hard work, as owner-operators of Paradise Gardens and Farms, an enchanted and enchanting 50-acre organic goat and chicken-based operation in western Pennsylvania's Jefferson County.
When non-conventional deep-shale gas drilling operations--and their casualties of fouled air and water, plunging home and land values, and reports of strange illnesses--invaded much of Pennsylvania's forests and farmland, Lucinda worried that, at best, their land would lose its peacefulness. At worst, she believed, their land and water would become poisoned, their organic operation destroyed, and their own health threatened.
Lucinda died of cancer in November, 2011. On May 10, 2012, Stephen hosted a press conference for friends, environmental activists, the local television station, and others, to witness his declaration of the farm being inviolate of gas drilling. In spite of the mineral rights being owned by an absentee couple who signed a lease to open Paradise's land for drilling, Stephen held firm that no drilling would take place on that land if he can help it. He would also scatter some of Lucinda's ashes on the farm, to proclaim the ground hallowed.
About fifty individuals were on hand at the farm on May 10 to support him. Among those speaking were Aaron Mair, a member of Sierra Club's national board of directors, Iris Marie Bloom, director of Philadelphia Pa.-based Protecting Our Waters, a small, but active and effective force in fighting "fracking" in Pennsylvania and beyond, and Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Also in attendance were Bridget and Doug Shields. Both were highly instrumental in Pittsburgh's City Council enacting a ban on hydrofracking within city limits, when Doug was a council member.
Also invited were Pa. State Senator Joseph Scarnati, Pa. Speaker of the House Sam Smith, CONSOL Energy executive J. Brett Harvey, EXCO Resources executive Douglas Miller, and Larry and Maxine Burkett, who own the mineral rights (purchased in 1995 for $150, from a previous heir of the farm). Scarnati and Smith, in whose district the farm lies, have used their positions to sponsor legislation enabling the gas industry to run rampant in Pennsylvania.
They were all welcome to attend, and to add their comments (but only after Lucinda's sister spoke eloquently about her lost sibling). From start to finish, those seats remained conspicuously empty.
Weather was predicted to be partly cloudy, with a high in the upper 50s. Gusty wind and near horizontal rain greeted the opening remarks. Not long after that, as the rain subsided, and skies cleared, Cleghorn's resolve shown even brighter.
"Today," he began, "I act to declare my farm, all that lives above on its surface, the very air and sunlight that caresses and enlivens all of us here to day, and all that lies below it as firmament, I hereby declare off-limits from shale gas extraction and its toxic impacts, in perpetuity."
The American flag waving beside the crowd, noted Cleghorn, "is losing its potency as a symbol of justice and freedom. The republic for which it stands is being bought and sold as though being traded on the commodities market. We are losing our democracy. Governments are protecting corporations, not people." Specifically, Cleghorn noted, "Our political leaders . . . refuse to lead us out of a fossil fuel era that is warming our planet, and refuse to prevent the chemical contamination of our environment and food for corporate profits."
Such increased enabling of corporate criminals by some elected and appointed officials, whom I consider traitors, propelled me to join other photographers at Cleghorn's event.
Pennsylvania's recently-passed Act 13. which strips away municipal control of allowing gas drilling, said Cleghorn "is a corporate-sponsored form of organized crime perpetuated upon the people and democracy of Pennsylvania," by certain elected officials bought for that purpose by well over $4.4 million in 2010 election cycle contributions by the industry. Over two thirds of that sum, noted Cleghorn, "went to (the election of) Governor (Tom) Corbett, (to) Senator Joe Scarnati, Speaker Sam Smith and the Republican Party Committee."
Thomas Jefferson might have been thinking about individuals like Corbett, like Wisconsin's fraud "governor" Scott Walker, and other traitors pushed into office by the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers and their dirty money made by their fossil-fuel-based energy companies, and by a media that has been equally bought off by these individuals, and their junk "science" that debunks the fact that the earth is stewing from human-made carbon pollution.
Ultra-conservative knee-jerkers who regurgitate the tripe from Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and others who get rich exploiting irrational fears, and those who try to make "radicals" of those who campaign for clean air and water, for better public health, and to stop the taxpayer subsidy of polluting industries, might be interested to know that Jefferson would likely pity or loath them, especially in times like this. Have they truly forgotten about this nation being founded upon a revolution?
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions," said Jefferson, "that I wish it to be always kept alive. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."
Cleghorn, who used the term "a little rebellion" in his invitation, referenced a gas-industry executive who bragged, "'The shale army has arrived. Resistance is futile.'"
"But resistance is not futile," stressed Cleghorn, noting that the 'shale army' will soon discover that. "Resistance," he continued, "can be liberating." He also admitted, "It is also a little scary, of course."
But Cleghorn and those assembled to hear and support him, are ready for that fight.
"Why?" he asked, "Because we need a new paradigm for how we live on this Earth. Our individual acts of resistance such as this one today must be part of an ongoing organization to create a foundation of law based on the Rights of Nature."
Cleghorn, addressed the Burketts, Scarnati, Smth and gas-industry executives Miller and Harvey in their absence, saying that had they attended he would have asked them "to stand up, turn slowly and look around this beautiful farm, this beautiful farmland and woods before you. Just turn your bodies slowly around and see all of it, see and imagine it as habitat for me, my family and friends, my neighbors, these goats, the fox and the deer and the moles and the mice and the groundhogs, the ground-nesting birds and peeping frogs and the slithering snakes. 'Look Out' on this place and see it as a home for many, not as a commodity to be exploited.
Cleghorn proceeded into a reading of "Look Out," by poet, farmer and environmentalist Wendell Berry. In it, Berry mentions "The Lords of War," who "sell the water and air of life to buy fire . . . Their intention to destroy any place is solidly founded upon their willingness to destroy every place."
Following the reading, Cleghorn, with spiritual intention, and with spiritual involvement from the guests, scattered some of Lucinda's ashes upon the hilltop.
It was a good day to be a human being living with intention. The goats also approved.
Also invited were Pa. State Senator Joseph Scarnati, Pa. Speaker of the House Sam Smith, CONSOL Energy executive J. Brett Harvey, EXCO Resources executive Douglas Miller, and Larry and Maxine Burkett, who own the mineral rights (purchased in 1995 for $150, from a previous heir of the farm). Scarnati and Smith, in whose district the farm lies, have used their positions to sponsor legislation enabling the gas industry to run rampant in Pennsylvania.
They were all welcome to attend, and to add their comments (but only after Lucinda's sister spoke eloquently about her lost sibling). From start to finish, those seats remained conspicuously empty.
Weather was predicted to be partly cloudy, with a high in the upper 50s. Gusty wind and near horizontal rain greeted the opening remarks. Not long after that, as the rain subsided, and skies cleared, Cleghorn's resolve shown even brighter.
"Today," he began, "I act to declare my farm, all that lives above on its surface, the very air and sunlight that caresses and enlivens all of us here to day, and all that lies below it as firmament, I hereby declare off-limits from shale gas extraction and its toxic impacts, in perpetuity."
The American flag waving beside the crowd, noted Cleghorn, "is losing its potency as a symbol of justice and freedom. The republic for which it stands is being bought and sold as though being traded on the commodities market. We are losing our democracy. Governments are protecting corporations, not people." Specifically, Cleghorn noted, "Our political leaders . . . refuse to lead us out of a fossil fuel era that is warming our planet, and refuse to prevent the chemical contamination of our environment and food for corporate profits."
Such increased enabling of corporate criminals by some elected and appointed officials, whom I consider traitors, propelled me to join other photographers at Cleghorn's event.
Pennsylvania's recently-passed Act 13. which strips away municipal control of allowing gas drilling, said Cleghorn "is a corporate-sponsored form of organized crime perpetuated upon the people and democracy of Pennsylvania," by certain elected officials bought for that purpose by well over $4.4 million in 2010 election cycle contributions by the industry. Over two thirds of that sum, noted Cleghorn, "went to (the election of) Governor (Tom) Corbett, (to) Senator Joe Scarnati, Speaker Sam Smith and the Republican Party Committee."
Thomas Jefferson might have been thinking about individuals like Corbett, like Wisconsin's fraud "governor" Scott Walker, and other traitors pushed into office by the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers and their dirty money made by their fossil-fuel-based energy companies, and by a media that has been equally bought off by these individuals, and their junk "science" that debunks the fact that the earth is stewing from human-made carbon pollution.
Ultra-conservative knee-jerkers who regurgitate the tripe from Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and others who get rich exploiting irrational fears, and those who try to make "radicals" of those who campaign for clean air and water, for better public health, and to stop the taxpayer subsidy of polluting industries, might be interested to know that Jefferson would likely pity or loath them, especially in times like this. Have they truly forgotten about this nation being founded upon a revolution?
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions," said Jefferson, "that I wish it to be always kept alive. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."
Cleghorn, who used the term "a little rebellion" in his invitation, referenced a gas-industry executive who bragged, "'The shale army has arrived. Resistance is futile.'"
"But resistance is not futile," stressed Cleghorn, noting that the 'shale army' will soon discover that. "Resistance," he continued, "can be liberating." He also admitted, "It is also a little scary, of course."
But Cleghorn and those assembled to hear and support him, are ready for that fight.
"Why?" he asked, "Because we need a new paradigm for how we live on this Earth. Our individual acts of resistance such as this one today must be part of an ongoing organization to create a foundation of law based on the Rights of Nature."
Cleghorn, addressed the Burketts, Scarnati, Smth and gas-industry executives Miller and Harvey in their absence, saying that had they attended he would have asked them "to stand up, turn slowly and look around this beautiful farm, this beautiful farmland and woods before you. Just turn your bodies slowly around and see all of it, see and imagine it as habitat for me, my family and friends, my neighbors, these goats, the fox and the deer and the moles and the mice and the groundhogs, the ground-nesting birds and peeping frogs and the slithering snakes. 'Look Out' on this place and see it as a home for many, not as a commodity to be exploited.
Cleghorn proceeded into a reading of "Look Out," by poet, farmer and environmentalist Wendell Berry. In it, Berry mentions "The Lords of War," who "sell the water and air of life to buy fire . . . Their intention to destroy any place is solidly founded upon their willingness to destroy every place."
Following the reading, Cleghorn, with spiritual intention, and with spiritual involvement from the guests, scattered some of Lucinda's ashes upon the hilltop.
It was a good day to be a human being living with intention. The goats also approved.
