Thirty years ago, my university suspended me for leading a protest against a research lab that the school wanted to put in the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated. The plans ignored both that history and the neighbors in Harlem who would be exposed to risks from biomedical and environmental waste.
I spent months criss-crossing the country speaking out against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Our message was simple: Killing jobs and the environment were far too high a price to pay to boost regional trade. They called us “Chicken Little” for saying that the deal would make the U.S. weaker and would poison the earth quicker.
