Debut of Diane’s latest, inspiring narrative, Hellcat: The True Story of an Unreasonable Texas Waterkeeper, online Tuesday July 21
Progressives often demand more from pundits than scrutiny of oligarchic exploitation—not just words but action. To all those desperate to do something—to confront and impede polluters making the earth a toxic dump site—here’s a tested, triumphant model. This week I learned about the latest inspirational shout-out from the fearless, funny, risk-taking, oft-arrested, self-defined “outlaw,” aka Diane Wilson—the most intimidating irritant fighting the spectacularly under-regulated plastics dumpers in Lavaca Bay, TX.
In a personal email this week, the lively, incorrigible rebel-rouser sets the scene with a rallying call:
America feels today like an asteroid could wipe us out, but no time to be scared. Our homeland needs defending, the line needs drawing, and all who cross do so at their own risk. Didn’t Che Guevara once say, ‘boldness is magic’? To those who say, ‘not me, not now,’ time to realize we are all heroes. So step into the void, my friends and warriors! Risking one’s life can be strangely liberating!!
So look beyond D.C.—too complex and overwhelming at times, its own toxic swamp nexus for demonic global powers and power brokers. Time to switch focus, closer to home, and take heart in Diane’s victorious activist crowd saving their backyard from plastic pellet swill that both destroys wildlife (especially once-legendary shrimping nurseries) and the health of all local citizens (poisoned by cancer and more).
We’re talking seriously impactful breakthroughs, per this Inside Climate News report, as Diane and local citizen scientists now oversee a $50 (FIFTY!) million settlement (the largest clean water EPA penalty ever) won from petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics. No small-fry outcome (all serving local projects, not litigants) for savvy, small-fry, independent shrimpers.
The latest chapter in the long-running, remarkable Lavaca Bay saga comes alive with this engaging trailer:
Sign up to see at https://kinema.com/events/HELLCAT:-The-True-Story-of-an-Unreasonable-Texan-aw82l8/tickets.Website: https://hellcatfilm.com/
High drama, high commitment, shrewd hijinks
So share the delight with next week’s inspiring, informative documentary about arguably the most successful clean water heroine anywhere. Arrested countless times, with many dramatic hunger strikes “under her belt,” this “hellcat” sacrifices her liberty, time, and personal comforts to prove even the most recalcitrant polluters can be stopped in their tracks – and forced to clean up deadly industrial effluence (and pay big-time for violations). Equally unstoppable, Diane and committed locals stayed the obstacle course. Everything started in 1989 when she was gobsmacked to learn her home county won the hideous EPA testimonial for the “most toxic waste emissions in the United States”—thanks to Texas’ enduring, free-wheeling, negligent environmental oversight.
Around 2010, I had the great pleasure to cover Diane’s incredible, life-changing shift from wife, homemaker and shrimp captain, with her own boat, to instigate a movement against villainous, super-profitable manufacturers dumping plastic swag into a once pristine bay, part of the Gulf of Mexico. Neither pressure, conflict, slanders, duration, the hugeness of corporate foes, family disruptions nor purposeful engagements with law enforcement stopped Diane in her life quest to drain what had become the Lavaca Bay swamp. The message: beware agitated, well-informed shrimpers with right on their side who never give up.
Texas Gold, a short PBS video, presents the hilarious, satirical side to Diane’s unique protest style and can be watched HERE.
No shrinking violet, Diane also stars as an out-loud funny writer, with three books about her Don Quixote-style travails, travels, and triumphs. Start with the terrific, page-turning An Unreasonable Woman, the True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas.
You can find my amusing full length profile from 2011, The Environmental rabble-rousing of an unreasonable woman, at the progressive Rag Blog.
I reprint the opening paragraphs from my best environmental essay:
Legendary Texas journalist Molly Ivins once joked about rebel-rouser-activist Jim Hightower: “If Will Rogers and Mother Jones had a baby, Jim Hightower would be that child—mad as hell, with a sense of humor.”
Well, Hightower has a protest soul sister, the inventive, congenial, yet fierce “eco-outlaw” named Diane Wilson. Unlike armchair activists and witty journalists, this champion takes risks, gets bloodied and arrested, and endures jail—then turns her adventures into good-hearted, epic tales reminiscent of Mark Twain.
And what progressive battles need, more than ever, are inspiring protest leaders—and crowds in the street. Otherwise, we fail to learn from the insipid, conspiracy-ridden, if effective escapades of the Tea Party. One hard-won lesson I take from this hell-raising muckraker from Seadrift, Texas, is that petitions, donations, columns, and news interviews are nice but don’t often save lives, jobs, America, or Mother Earth.
Diane was featured in a terrific PBS documentary called Texas Gold, voiced by Peter Coyote, and, with Coyote, produced a hilarious satirical commercial for the film—about bottled Gulf water you get to drink once. Wilson was interviewed on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! and performs daring CodePink disruptions. [Wilson was, in fact, a founding member of CodePink, the outlandish, direct-action peace group.] . . . Her tactics are “unreasonable,” of course, only to cancer-inducing, worker-killing resource predators (well-shielded by official protection) whom she ambushes with inventive schemes. Eco-activism here is downright fun, mostly, like anti-war ’60’s agitation (though absent the crowds). She invites all of us to do local agitation.
Full disclosure: I became friends with Diane around 2010 when she graciously assisted my wife, Katy Pye, at the time writing an activist, environmental novel, Elizabeth’s Landing, about threats to Texas sea turtles, family, and finding one’s life mission by confronting scheming coastal developers. I’m also aligned as a long-term CodePink supporter as Diane helped kickoff this irrepressible anti-war education and protest group—in perfect sync with the hard-won triumphs at Calhoun county, Texas.
COMMENTS