I know the impact of the client crisis firsthand, John.
Western Pennsylvania is the playground of fossil fuels — and Braddock, PA, where I grew up, is the home of steel. On any given day, our region suffers from some of the poorest air quality in the nation. While CEOs get wealthier, our communities suffer from some of the highest rates of asthma, COPD, and other respiratory illnesses in this country. I’m fighting for environmental justice so that children in my community can live.
In the face of this, we came together to build a multi-racial, multi-generational movement to right the wrongs of environmental racism and demand clean air and water, worker power, union jobs, lower costs, and a liveable future for each and every one of us.
I know that health justice is climate justice. That's why I was proud to co-sponsor the Green New Deal yesterday so that kids in my community can grow into healthy adults.
The people know that for this country to be a place where everyone can thrive, we cannot let corporate polluters pump toxins into any more Black, brown, and poor communities on the backs of taxpayers.
We can’t let them call us "radical" for wanting to drink clean water and breathe fresh air, and we cannot let fossil fuel billionaires and the politicians they bankroll accuse us of being extreme for organizing for the survival of our children, our communities’ health, and good union jobs.
It’s time for a Green New Deal, and I will not stop fighting until it’s done.
The Green New Deal movement is powerful because it’s intersectional: climate justice, racial justice, economic justice, social justice, and health justice. Now, we’ve got to get to the finish line.
The first Black woman from PA — a Green New Deal politician — was elected to Congress from Braddock. If we can win there, we can win everywhere. Thank you for being a part of this fight.
— Summer
