When I conducted my interview for the environmental leader profile assignment, what I found was someone who never would shy away from the harder trail; in legal cases or in hiking through nature. Oscar has been practicing law for 50-60 years, much of that time dedicated to fighting for Mother Earth. He was pivotal in protecting the Red River Gorge from being dammed in the 60-70's; the Gorge is an ecologically significant set of streams, rivers, rock outcroppings and wildlife in Kentucky. The Army Corps of Engineers targeted this area for a hydro-electric dam, which would flood out much of the essential and fragile ecosystem there. After years of legal battles, much of which was unpaid work, Oscar and his band of lawyers, activists, politicians and locals won the good fight. This area has been a special place for my friends and I for years. We hike, canoe and camp in the Gorge every summer and spring. In fact, we have a major excursion planned for when this semester ends in the next couple of weeks!!!
Oscar has inspired me to look into environmental law; as he said during our interview, "Lawyers know where to take the fight." This is essential to me. We can organize communities, do grassroots work, and take up a ever-widening range of environmental initiatives. But in my eyes, policy and legislation is where the change affects the most.
Oscar also told me, "Politics hurt on the local level." In order to make difference on the most basic level, what happens at the top and trickles down must be altered greatly...
