Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share “It’s a Rigged System” — Community Rights and Environmental Protection w/ Sherry Fleming and Bill Lyons
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
“It’s a Rigged System” — Community Rights and Environmental Protection w/ Sherry Fleming and Bill Lyons
Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. CELDF partners with people and communities to establish local self-governance, build alternative systems, and resist destruction of our planet in order to live harmoniously within the boundaries of ecology.
If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to support to these efforts, you can either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you!
In this episode, we speak with two organizers from Ohio, Bill Lyons and Sherry Fleming
They discuss their community activism efforts in two very different communities: the large city of Columbus, and the rural Williams County.
They share their personal journeys into activism, the challenges they face in protecting their communities from environmental harms such as fracking, factory farms, and corporate mega-projects, their experiences of state collusion in these destructive projects, and the importance of rights of nature and community rights in standing up for justice.
As Will Falk wrote in a piece here last week, referencing efforts in Columbus that Bill is involved in:
on May 15, Columbus, Ohio residents submitted a proposed city charter amendment initiative petition to their city government.
The initiative is titled “To Protect the Local Self-Governing Rights of the People of Columbus from Preemption.” If residents gather enough signatures, the petition will be placed on the November 2027 ballot and Columbus voters will be asked to reject state and federal preemption and reaffirm the right to make decisions locally. Specifically, the proposed bill would make it so “local laws…shall not be subject to preemption or nullification by international law, federal law, or state law…” In other words, it would give the City of Columbus the power to ban destructive corporate projects
The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:
Links and Resources
* Columbus Bill of Rights
* Williams County Alliance
* Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW Ohio)
* Death by Democracy, a book published by CELDF which tells the story of community rights activism in Ohio and how the state has criminalized these efforts
* What We Do To Nature, We Do To Ourselves is a film created by our friend Andrea Bowers that highlights community activism against destruction industrial mega-farms in NW Ohio, and features both Sherry Fleming and our own Tish O’Dell. Here’s the trailer:
* In other Ohio news, Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW Ohio) created this video recently about Rights for the Ohio River:
About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast
In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
* Pocketcasts
* YouTube (video and audio)
* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)
About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.
Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By CELDFWelcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. CELDF partners with people and communities to establish local self-governance, build alternative systems, and resist destruction of our planet in order to live harmoniously within the boundaries of ecology.
If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to support to these efforts, you can either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you!
In this episode, we speak with two organizers from Ohio, Bill Lyons and Sherry Fleming
They discuss their community activism efforts in two very different communities: the large city of Columbus, and the rural Williams County.
They share their personal journeys into activism, the challenges they face in protecting their communities from environmental harms such as fracking, factory farms, and corporate mega-projects, their experiences of state collusion in these destructive projects, and the importance of rights of nature and community rights in standing up for justice.
As Will Falk wrote in a piece here last week, referencing efforts in Columbus that Bill is involved in:
on May 15, Columbus, Ohio residents submitted a proposed city charter amendment initiative petition to their city government.
The initiative is titled “To Protect the Local Self-Governing Rights of the People of Columbus from Preemption.” If residents gather enough signatures, the petition will be placed on the November 2027 ballot and Columbus voters will be asked to reject state and federal preemption and reaffirm the right to make decisions locally. Specifically, the proposed bill would make it so “local laws…shall not be subject to preemption or nullification by international law, federal law, or state law…” In other words, it would give the City of Columbus the power to ban destructive corporate projects
The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:
Links and Resources
* Columbus Bill of Rights
* Williams County Alliance
* Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW Ohio)
* Death by Democracy, a book published by CELDF which tells the story of community rights activism in Ohio and how the state has criminalized these efforts
* What We Do To Nature, We Do To Ourselves is a film created by our friend Andrea Bowers that highlights community activism against destruction industrial mega-farms in NW Ohio, and features both Sherry Fleming and our own Tish O’Dell. Here’s the trailer:
* In other Ohio news, Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW Ohio) created this video recently about Rights for the Ohio River:
About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast
In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.
* Apple Podcasts
* Spotify
* Pocketcasts
* YouTube (video and audio)
* And anywhere else you get your podcasts (click here to find this podcast via your preferred app)
About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.
Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe