Why Enviromental Issues?

Arthur Long Sr. grew up in the segregated south where on one side of the track he was told he has no value or worth as a black man, but fortunately for me, on the other side of the track their stood his parents, who raised him to know that the measure of a man is his ability to provide and protect his family.

Arthur Long Sr. is my grandfather, my grandfather who took a chance and gambled two weeks wages, he wanted to see where his money could take him, luckily he won, went to the bus station in Seale, Alabama and told the station conductor, “take me as far North as my money can take me.” He ended up, in Lima, OH with a new union job working at the old steel foundry, a job that allowed him to send for his siblings and others to join him in Ohio. This new job gave my grandfather an opportunity, an opportunity to provide for his family.

Arthur Long, Sr. passed away July 2001 of lung cancer; we learned that his illness was most likely the result from pollutants he encountered while working a steel grinder. At the time, I was in the 9th grade, I didn’t know anything about the value of work, and I knew black folks were not into environmental issues.
So, fast forward to 2009, I’m watching my mother engage in her daily CNN addiction. Constantly watching in fear to see whether the company she works for would go bankrupt, receive a bailout, or anything to save her job that she has worked at for 30 years.

At that time I knew there was much to do about a new energy economy and how green investments could be the solution to save our nation’s ailing economy. It was honoring my grandfather’s legacy of hard work and ensuring that the environmental pollutants that he faced would not become a problem of the present, and the fear, the pure fear on my mother’s face that motivated me to join the green movement.

Working for Ohio Apollo Alliance has given me the chance to build a booming political voice of labor, environment, business and community organizations that can be heard in every Ohio corridor to the footsteps of the White House.

The work that I do is about honoring my grandfather's legacy of hard work, and a dedication to his family.

Clean Energy Can Renew our Economy

My mom is one of the millions of Americans affected by the collapse of the American automotive industry. For 25 years, she worked at the General Motors Powertrain plant in Toledo, earning enough to provide a decent home for her family and send her daughters to college. A consummate worker with years of manufacturing experience, she was laid off and suddenly faces an uncertain future.

Now in her fifties and with no college education, her options are limited. Go back to school? Invest in herself and start a business? When you’ve collected a paycheck from others all your life, entrepreneurialism isn’t as easy as it sounds. That leaves retirement. But my Mom and others like her would much rather go back to work in the clean energy industry than collect from social services for an early retirement.

The energy bill passed last week by the U.S. House would allow her to do just that. My family is grateful that Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur prioritized the needs of working families by voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

If we want to put people back to work, we need a new national energy policy that invests in American manufacturing and will allow employers to hire good American workers like my mother. The House-passed energy bill will create strong demand for clean energy and puts the mechanisms in place for that demand to be met by American workers making the components and systems of the new clean energy economy.

During my mom's career, we’ve seen plant closures throughout Northwest Ohio. We are tired of seeing Wall Street get the federal aid that Main Street so desperately needs. We need support for Toledo. The American Clean Energy and Security Act will provide it.