Joanne Prisley spoke out against the attorney over the Athens County Charter Proposal.
A recent article in The Post describing the Charter and Bill of Rights case before the Ohio Supreme Court quoted protester Joanne Prisley in an act of uncivil name-calling which might come back to haunt her very soon. The person she called a “carpetbagger” and “snake oil salesman,” Thomas Linzey, is scheduled to speak at Ohio University on Nov. 13 (Morton Hall 201, 7-9 p.m.) Ms. Prisley is cordially invited to attend and confront Mr. Linzey directly. He is the founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a public-interest law firm that is representing the Bill of Rights Committee in Athens, and has helped over 160 communities nationwide to protect the health and safety of citizens threatened with industrial pollution against their will.
The only things Linzey has to “sell” are the rights of communities to vote on issues that affect their health and safety, as guaranteed by Article 1 of the Ohio State Constitution. Prisley’s protest is designed to deny Athens Countians that right. And the only “carpetbaggers” are the CEOs of the oil and gas industry in Texas and Dubai, who are dumping 600,000 gallons of toxic wastes per day beneath our watersheds, while reserving the profits to themselves and shipping the oil and gas to China.
Thomas Linzey will visit Athens at the invitation of local citizens who feel that those affected by governing decisions must be the ones who make them. Let the people vote!
Dick McGinn is the Chairman of the Athens Bill of Rights Committee.
