The following letter was sent by Pastor Paul Wilson to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe dated Nov. 2.
On Thursday, October 27, 216, seven faithful, spiritual women were told they would be arrested if they didn’t leave an event you were headlining in Buckingham County, Va. I personally know all of these ladies—three are members of my congregation at Union Hill Baptist Church, the other four I have come to know over the last 2 ½ years and consider them friends. While I, personally, was unable to attend the event, I completed an investigation and am very disturbed with my findings.
Dr. Basil Gooden, Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, is from Buckingham County and is a member of Union Grove Baptist Church where I am pastor. Many from the Union Hill/Union Grove communities attended the event to support Dr. Gooden, had no invitation to the event and were not told to leave.
The women who were ejected are near or over retirement age. They certainly could not have been considered a threat to your physical well-being. They were not being disruptive. They were not carrying banners or chanting. The only issue was one of the women wore “No Pipeline” and “No Compressor Station” buttons on her jacket, which the owner reached out and flicked with his finger and said made her easily identifiable. Still he told her she could stay.
Each of these ladies went through the security checkpoint and were allowed to enter the venue. Once made aware of their presence, the owner of the facility told them they could stay in front of Virginia State Police officers working as security for you at the facility. As the owner walked away, he huddled with your VSP security detail. After a 30-second conversation, one of your officers approached these ladies, told them the owner now said they were trespassing and must leave immediately or be arrested. Again I repeat, other members of our community who did not receive invitations were never asked to leave.
For months, members of our community and others along the path of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline have tried to get you to speak to us, to acknowledge our existence, to discuss the valid concerns we have regarding your support of the proposed pipeline and its compressor station. We are ground zero. We will be required to deal with the toxic pollution from a 57,000 horsepower compressor station in the middle of our historic African-American neighborhood. We deserve to be heard, not threatened with arrest. Long after you leave the Governor’s mansion, we will still have to endure the effects of the pollution being spewed from this compressor station if it is built.
We do not deserve to be threatened with arrest. We do not deserve to be intimidated. We do not deserve to be thrown out of a venue because you do not want to speak to the people who will be put in harm’s way by having our quiet community destroyed with a heavy industrial project polluting our air and water. These faithful, spiritual women deserve an apology from you, Governor McAuliffe. They did not deserve the treatment they received at the hands of your security detail.
Pastor Paul Wilson heads up the Union Hill & Union Grove Baptist Churches in Buckingham, Va.
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Chris Graham
