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Air Pollution Protest in Asheville Draws Record Crowd AirAid sends message to the nation
Steve
Earle performs at AirAid in Asheville last Friday night Sunday, August 28, 2003 In
the largest clean air rights rally to date in North Carolina, more than
500 people crowded into the Orange Peel on Biltmore Avenue in Asheville
to hear community leaders speak and musicians Steve Earle, Larry and
Jenny Keel and Steve Big Daddy McMurray lend their talents to the cause.
AirAid followed the Relay for Clean Air, a 100-mile, 24 hour clean air
rights march along the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park to Asheville. The events were coordinated by the Canary
Coalition, a broad-based grassroots network of community leaders, local
government officials, businesses, medical associations, environmental
organizations and individuals who are deeply concerned about poor air
quality in the Smoky Mountains and greater Appalachian region. Speakers
at AirAid included Asheville City Councilman Brownie Newman, NC State
Representative Susan Fisher, Marjorie Mulhall of Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy, former chair of the American Lung Association Dr. Anthony
Deluccia, former Mayor of Asheville Leni Sitnick, and Canary Coalition
Director Avram Friedman. The event received national media coverage as the story appeared on the Associated Press wire service, being picked up by newspapers and other media outlets throughout the country. In western North Carolina, prior to the event there were reports or announcements on at least three public radio stations in Charlotte, Spindale and Asheville. Television coverage of the Relay for Clean Air appeared on WLOS, the ABC affiliate in Asheville.
The
Relay for Clean Air begins at Newfound Gap Parking Area More than eighty people participated in the Relay for Clean Air that took place Thursday night through Friday. An opening statement was delivered by Avram Friedman in the parking area of Newfound Gap next to the North Carolina/Tennessee border in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Then the first three bike riders took off on their leg of the relay, with a flag that would be passed along from one relay segment to the next until it arrived in Asheville at the finish. The last leg of the relay between Mission Hospital and the Orange Peel on Biltmore Avenue was crowded with forty to fifty walkers bearing banners and signs demanding clean air.
Relay
walkers approach the end on Biltmore Avenue The entire series of events on the Relay and at the AirAid rally was documented on videotape by a camera crew from Haywood Community College. The AirAid event itself was organized with the help of All Access Event Management, a professional group that produces Smilefest and many other major music festivals in the southeast region of the country.
“This
was an incredibly cooperative venture, with so many organizations and
people combining their talents and resources,” says Friedman.
“It’s easy to tell that the issue of poor air quality is taken to
heart by this community and is of prime importance in the minds of the
people of western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and the surrounding
region. And, judging by the national news media’s interest, air
quality in the Great Smoky Mountains, the nations most visited national
park, is important to people throughout the country.
This is only the beginning. The Relay for Clean Air and AirAid
will be back next year and the year after that, bigger and better.
It’s going to grow until we generate a political atmosphere in this
country that will make air pollution unacceptable and a problem of the
past.” For
more information about the Canary Coalition and issues surrounding poor
air quality in the Great Smoky Mountains region visit
www.canarycoalition.org
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