I realize most people on this site see little reason to celebrate Donald Trump taking office as the 45th president of the United States.
Even off this site, the 45th US president doesn’t give most people (in Tennessee or elsewhere) much reason to celebrate. One possible exception might be George W. Bush (who can celebrate that in years to come people are less likely to think of him first when the question comes up of who was the least intelligent and least competent president.) And someone with twice as much to celebrate might be Richard Nixon (who can celebrate not only that in years to come people are less likely to think of him first when the question comes up of who was the biggest crook and liar to occupy the White House, but also can celebrate that he’s been dead 13 years so doesn’t have to endure what people who are alive will be going through as long as Donald Trump occupies the White House.
But 45 doesn’t have to stand for the 45th president. It can also stand for the 45th element in the periodic table, Rhodium. Rhodium is very beautiful, very rare, and very valuable. Ten years ago it was valued at over $10,000 an ounce. So having some Rhodium might seem reason to celebrate...
… Except the price then plunged drastically to less than $1,000 an ounce, so maybe owning Rhodium isn’t the best example of 45 being a cause for celebration.
Let’s talk about birthdays, then. A 45th birthday is surely a cause for celebration. It means a person is now mature enough to no longer to be considered an immature youth and can be taken seriously when speaking or writing. (Markos Moulitsas, for instance, turned 45 last September.)
And if a human being turning 45 is cause for celebration, it can also be cause for celebration when a social change group reaches its 45th anniversary.
Take, for instance, the Tennessee-based social and environmental justice group SOCM.
SOCM (pronounced sock-em) was founded in 1972. Originally the letters stood for Save Our Cumberland Mountains, which was one of the early priorities of the group. But over the years SOCM’s mission has expanded from primarily environmental justice concerns (such as mountaintop removal, surface mining and strip mining) to a broader range of concerns including racial justice and economic justice. So a decade ago the name was changed to Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment.
Many of you have likely never heard of SOCM. One reason for that is that SOCM is a member-driven group which focuses on local organizing. There is a central office which provides help to the chapters, but the main focus is on local chapters seeing an issue of concern to them and organizing campaigns to work on those issues. Decision-making power rests with the membership rather than the leadership. This has enabled SOCM to fight and win many local struggles — against coal companies and other polluters, against developers with little regard for the environment or for the communities they attempted to exploit, and poor schools and bad roads and other problems which people saw hurting their communities and organized to overcome.
SOCM has been good at winning many of these local (and some statewide) struggles over its 45 years. One thing SOCM has not been that good at is writing down and sharing its history, so I’d like to share a little of it today. From Chad Montrie’s book To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining, pages 187-188, here’s a little of the history of the founding of SOCM:
… In September 1971, twelve residents of the state's five largest coal-producing counties filed a complaint with the state comptroller, charging that owners of coal lands were not paying their share of property taxes and requesting the State Board of Equalization to reform the assessment process. The complainants included "two young miners recently fired for signing UMW union cards, several working men employed in Oak Ridge plants, a former county weight inspector who quit his job in protest against the failure to prosecute overweight coal trucks, a local college student, a community worker, and several local women". Shortly after making their complain, in 1972, the twelve organized Save Our Cumberland Mountains and elected J.W. Bradley as their president…
Like the Kentuckians in the Appalachian Group to Save The Land and People, many SOCM members understood that surface coal mining was linked to other social problems. The organization started with a concern about tax inequities, for instance, and it never stopped working on that issue. "Our children go to poor schools over bad and dangerous roads," complained J.W. Bradley in 1973, "and the little man's taxes go up and up. These big land companies have been starving us out of our fair share of public revenue and it is time to do something about it." One early SOCM pamphlet declared that out-of-state landowners and a few local strip mine operators were gaining benefits, "while Tennessee pays the cost in the form of a ruined environment, stunted economic development, and higher taxes in the future to 'reclaim the mountains'."…
SOCM’s history can also be found in its newsletter, The Sentinel. Unfortunately there is no online archive of The Sentinel — but here’s an article from an older issue describing a very interesting campaign code-named “Secret Squirrel”. I can’t copy-paste the text, but here’s a screenshot of the beginning. It’s a great story so please click this link to read the whole thing.
Jumping to the present, one of SOCM’s major campaigns this year is the Stop The Stink campaign being carried out by the Rutherford chapter:
Concerned residents of Rutherford County, local SOCM members, and other allies are joining together to fight for real regulation of Middle Point Landfill – locals call it “Mt. Trashmore”. It is a giant earthen mound that continues to grow with each load of trash dumped there. The site is expanding so quickly that officials say it is running out of room. The stink from the landfill is impacting families living near or adjacent to the site. In fact, complaints about the landfill are mounting. Local citizens are also concerned about other possible environmental and health impacts, such as water pollution, air quality, and the safety of workers at the facility.
The #StopTheStink campaign is a grassroots effort to resolve local landfill issues and push for long-term, innovative, and sustainable waste solutions throughout Tennessee.
Here’s some recent news coverage by a local tv station:
Some Murfreesboro residents are gathering for what they call a “Stop the Stink” meeting Monday.
The meeting, which will focus on the concerns of neighbors near the Middle Point Landfill, will be held at Kelley’s Chapel United Methodist Church. State senators Jim Tracy and Bill Ketron, as well as TDEC Solid Waste workers, will be in attendance.
News 2 spoke with Steve Ayers who will be attending the meeting. He said you can see the landfill from his backyard and that it is time something is done about the smell.
“You get that putrid trash smell. If you let your trash build up too long and stick your head in a trash can, that’s the odor that you’re smelling, a rotting garbage smell,” explained Ayers.
SOCM actions are more likely to get local news coverage than national coverage, which is why a lot of you likely don’t know about SOCM despite SOCM’s long history. But for 45 years SOCM has been there.
I mentioned in the title, and at the beginning of this diary, that 45 is a reason to celebrate. And it is. Every year SOCM holds an annual meeting. All SOCM members are welcome to attend, regardless of ability to pay. Because SOCM is a statewide organization, the location of the annual meetings has rotated around the state, at various state parks and conference centers. These are enjoyable and educational experiences, when we get together with folks from other chapters to learn more about what people in their areas have been up to, share news about our own activities, learn more about the issues facing our communities and our region, and map out directions and strategies for the future of SOCM. These are generally 2-day affairs, since Tennessee is a large state so it’s a several-hour drive for many people regardless of where in the state the event is held and we want to leave people enough time not only to get a lot done but also to relax and enjoy being with each other.
This year the annual meeting will be combined with a special 45th anniversary celebration. Last year we held the annual meeting at the Scarritt-Bennett center in Nashville and we’ll be holding this year’s annual meeting there again, the weekend of October 7th and 8th.
So if you live in Tennessee and don’t already belong to SOCM, now is a great time to learn more about SOCM, to see if there’s a chapter near you, to get in touch, and to see about joining.
If you live in Nashville it’s an even better time to learn more about SOCM and consider joining, since that wonderful October celebration is right in your neck of the woods — so no 5 hour drive for you in order to be able to attend!
Even better — there’s a Davidson county chapter which is in the process of forming and they’re having a meeting tomorrow night — Monday, July 17 — at the MNEA (Metropolitan Nashville Educational Association) building, 531 Fairground Ct, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.
I won’t be there (I live about 80 miles from Nashville as the crow flies, and this particular crow neither flies nor drives) but if you’d like more information about the meeting you can e-mail Rosa@SOCM.org and she should be able to help you.
(Or you can KosMail me, or ask questions in the comments section of this diary. I’m not part of the Davidson chapter, but I have been actively involved in SOCM for 15 years.)
And while SOCM is based in Tennessee, I’d like to add that we welcome people from other states in the region such as Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia to join with us. (Alabamans, Arkansans, and Georgians also very welcome!) The environmental and social justice problems facing us do not stop at state lines.