United States Social Forums
By: Edward Thomas
I am Edward Thomas from Nicholas County West Virginia. I have lived in this area most of my life. I attended the United States Social Forum in Atlanta Georgia. This was an opportunity for organizations from the United States and other arts of the world to come together and learn about issues of importance to the betterment of their various causes. I was interested in attending to see what the USSF had to offer in the form of information to assist the causes that were being dealt with in my area. This forum lasted from Thursday to Sunday. There were several thousand people from the United States and other countries at this forum. They all were hoping to learn things from other organizations that they could take back tot heir areas which would help them with their causes.While at the forum I assisted with tabling, attended various workshops and helped provide a workshop to people with similar issues, such as Mountain top mining. I attended this forum with OVEC of West Virginia. Others at the forum were Coal River Mountain Watch, Kentuckians for the Common Wealth, Sierra Club, Save our Cumberland Mountains, Mountain Justice and several others from other parts of the United States and other countries. I had no clue what to expect at the forum. I had no idea that this type of event existed. My strongest impression when I arrived was seeing people from all over the world and the many different cultural backgrounds coming together for a variety of causes. My strongest impression when I left the forum was the amount of youth getting involved from so many different areas around the world to stand up for what they believed in. I was very impressed with the determination and persistence of those involved with the forum to share with others their information and to get their messages out to other areas. I was also impressed with the number of workshops held in the amount of time we were there. There were 900+ workshops held in three days. I brought back several useful ideas.
One thing I brought back is the knowledge that the issues are the same no matter what the industry. There are lots of people out there striving to achieve the same goals but are not united with one another to fight the causes. There is not enough unity among the various groups with similar issues. Yes, the people from West Virginia can benefit from the USSF because it gives us an opportunity to meet with others who have similar issues and exchange valuable information to assist with the cause and to share ideas on how to make their organizations better. In closing I would like to stress (we are not alone in our fight for a better environment), there are people out there with similar issues. In my opinion, the problems are apparent here in West Virginia due to our state government supporting big industry rather than taking care of the people who live here.