Our Road: Then and Now — EP40: HIJACKED! Historic PCB Marker, 30th Anniversary

Send us a text

Above Photo:  Bill Kearney and Dollie Burwell unveil the PCB historic marker at the September 15, 2012 30th anniversary PCB celebration held at Coley Springs Baptist Church, (Henderson Daily Dispatch, Earl King)

In this episode, it comes as no real surprise to Ken and Deborah that soon after the North Carolina Public Radio interview they did with “The State of Things,” the local Warren County government is facilitating efforts to plan the 2012, 30th anniversary celebration of the 1982 PCB protest movement. Leading the efforts is Bill Kearney and his newly formed Warren County Environmental Action Team which includes local, state, and federal government affiliates and state university academics and others. 

As part of the celebration, Kearney proposes plans to build a park and recreation center on the landfill site, and government affiliates claim the site is safe. Deborah vehemently counters the claim.

Deborah negotiates for months with North Carolina state archivists to convince them to erect a historical PCB marker and to approve the wording for the sign, but the historic marker and the program are  “essentially hijacked.”

More than the historic marker is hijacked as part of the 30th anniversary campaign though. The Action Team and its government and academic affiliates feature Kearney as the prevailing spokesperson for the re-narration industry that puts a basket over the light of truth, the basket that Deborah and Ken continue to remove again and again in this podcast series. 

Deborah and Ken end the episode as they explain why they could not attend the 30th PCB anniversary Coley Springs Baptist Church celebration in letters to the editor published in the Warren Record  soon after the celebration event, letters they know will become part of the public record, part of the history they are living and documenting as they go.
                                                       
                                                           ***********
Click below to see a photo of the PCB historic marker being erected in Afton by state workers while non other than health minister and Warren County Environmental Action Team Director Bill Kearney looks on.

https://www.wcaahc.com/uploads/1/3/8/3/138395702/naacp-memorial-2020-photo_orig.jpg