Billed as a potentially historic moment when “Moms Against Fracking” dramatically would leave the launching pad, a dozen or more moms plus recent City Council candidate Steve Murray, Mr. Mom – shlepping 7-month-old Wiley in a baby-sling – gathered around picnic tables at Vets Park this morning to say they were present at birth.
Not to be overlooked was another Mr. Mom, the activist Paul Ferrazzi, performing video duties.
Here was yet another contemporary instance of an old-fashioned community rally taking its first baby steps in modern-day Culver City weeks after a Parents Union arose from the civic womb.
What a Coincidence
This morning could have been radio days, the late 1940s, because of the traditional tools that were employed.
And wouldn’t that have been ironic?
It was in the late ‘40s that the concept of fracking – defined as “the process of injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals underground at high pressure to release and extract oil or gas” – was born.
If grassroots can mean pre-modern, this playground-adjacent assembly was.
Winchell’s doughnuts and non-fattening water were available for noshing.
Not a laptop was within a mile of verdant Vets Park.
The leader’s scrupulous fracking research notes were logged the old-fashioned way, by pen and paper, a traditional notebook.
No iPads were in sight. They came to listen, not play.
Except for City Councilwoman Meghan Sahli-Wells and just retired Crystal Alexander, the former City Treasurer, the audience was ordinary moms, not a usual-suspects crowd.
Even before the birth-day meeting began, Ms. Alexander reached out. “I want the Culver City community to know we are not alone,” she said. “We actually have larger groups that represent other interests of an environmental nature in the state of California and the entire country that are supporting these kinds of efforts.”
History Lesson
Led by their ambitious organizer, the workhorse activist Dr. Suzanne De Benedittis, the Moms and Mr. Mom heard an impassioned kickoff presentation message by the Culver Crest academic on the history and proclaimed dangers of the updated oil drilling method of hydraulic fracturing.
She lauded City Hall and the five members of the City Council for “truly caring” about the health and welfare of Culver City residents. Therefore, if the Moms and the Mr. Moms will faithfully bring their Ban Fracking pleas to the elected officials, she assured her audience, they will be granted a reflective hearing.
“‘Moms Against Fracking’ got started after the February meeting of the CAP,” Dr. De Benedittis said. “Somehow we were able to get the hydraulic fracturing regulation hearings going,
“Interestingly, one of the Planning Commissioners for our city also is an advisor to the board of the Culver Crest Neighborhood Assn. He was saying it wasn’t important to attend the meeting. You need to be an expert in the field.
“I said ‘Wait a minute. This is a democracy. Democracy is why they do hearings, so that people gain the knowledge they need to make informed decisions.’
“I decided I had to take action. If Rome is burning, I can’t keep fiddling, wondering how to do it.
“I had a meeting at my home on May 16. Ten to 12 people showed. From that generation, it was like starting a campfire. You beginwith a little kindling and a few twigs.
“On May 31,” said Dr. De Benedittis, “I did another meeting. Close to 40 people were there.”
The proximity and encroaching dangers of certain updated forms of oil drilling have been an intimate part of Dr. De Benedittis’s life since the 2006 spills. “I have been living it ever since,” she said. “People were toxified then, basically.”
She suspects the drilling company, PXP, “probably was fracking without saying so.”
This morning was as much a rally – for a cause and to wave the banner of democracy, as in people speaking out – as it was the birth of a movement.
Dr. De Benedittis, the Main Mom, called out challenges. Dutifully, the Moms and the Mr. Moms hollered back.
They not only pledged to participate in Tuesday’s 5:30 Ban Fracking protest in front of City Hall but agreed to advocate for the prohibition at the subsequent state-sponsored fracking workshop at 7 o’clock in Council Chambers. And beyond.
(To be continued)
