The Crandon Mine Purchase Anniversary

Editors Note: This piece was originally a comment to an article in the Cap Times. The Cap Times decided to run it as a Letter to The Editor.

 

It will be an honor to attend The Crandon Mine Purchase Anniversary event. Although this is the twenty-year anniversary of the end, the battle of the Crandon Mine itself started decades earlier when I was still in high school.

Even though I was barely old enough to be an activist at that time, something stuck within me hearing those words Crandon Mine every day on the radio news.

Last year those words took hold when I learned at our Earth Day rallies of the potential for drilling at the Reef Deposit in Marathon County where I live. Gathering forces with those who had been through this before and summoning those who have helped me before in other times of crisis, we set out to protect the water.

We set out on a mission building awareness by going to county board meetings and writing letters to the editor. We bought yard signs, anything, and everything to get that message out. The statement to the mining company was pure and simple and above all; loud and clear…..YOU HAVE NO SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE HERE.

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