Outside the offices of Dominion’s annual shareholder meeting, protesters gathered on the corner of the opposing street, chanting in opposition to the pipelines tearing through people’s homes and livelihood in the western part of the Commonwealth. “Our fields, our forests, our rivers, no pipeline!” they chant, the group huddles tight on the corner of the street, many taking photos, many embracing another in hopes of change. The protest marks another attempt by the Virginia Pipeline Resisters and associated activists who came to support.
The group presented a variety of speakers, from a local ministry pastor to people personally impacted by the pipeline, providing an inclusive rally that Jessica Sims, one of the event’s lead organizers, hopes will sharpen its edge. “Every time we come out here we continue to grow in numbers as people can clearly see this is a rightful cause to support,” Sims said. Among those personally afflicted were farm owners Bill and Lynn Limpert, who plead the case of their Buckingham farm in dire straits. “Dominion has chosen a path that would bisect our farm, cutting through our crop land, our pasture land, our hayfields,” Lynn said. Mrs. Limpert states that while she and her husband have made several peaceful efforts to negotiate a better construction plan, only to be met with a resounding refusal to listen. “They have not addressed any of the issues we have raised repeatedly since 2014, every inch of our pasture {land} is in the fire zone,” she said.
With greater numbers and far more posters than earlier protests, the group carried this momentum along Marshall Street, marching in formation with several orchestrated pieces such as multi-piece props, battle flags, and a healthy excess of drummers to keep the cadence. Fairfax healthcare attorney Jon Sokolow was in attendance as well, issuing a promise of demise for Northam and anyone else who continues ongoing support for Dominions political leeway.
“I’ve been told to pull off the scab and talk about the elephant in the room, which is politics in Virginia, or why we’re here today,” he said. continues to commend those who helped bring these pipelines to national attention, though doubles back, stating that it is possible “under the clean water act of Virginia”, to stop these pipelines. He then expands into the ‘Virginia Way’, a system shrouded behind the closed doors of conference rooms like the one across the street, that is what Sokolow states as the underlying issue. “The Virginia Way means Dominion can donate $15 billion to politicians, of both parties, and then write legislation that is introduced by the governor.” He continues, fighting over the roar of traffic to keep the momentum.
“Dominion energy can donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to line the pocket our own governor and have him repeat the falsehood, the outright lie that the pipeline is a federal issue!” Sokolov ends his bit with glimmers of hope, noting several new representatives did not ‘buy into Dominion’ in 2017 with more promising representatives to come, though the stating the real heroes of the movement were women. “I’ve been surrounded by strong women all my life, and the best-kept secret is this- don’t tell anybody- women are smarter than men.”
The hope is, as several protesters point out, is either abandonment of the pipeline project or at least an ear to the ground during its construction, taking in the many concerns held by many citizens who simply want to protect the land they continue living in. Now whether the shareholders any of this from their conference room across the street is pure speculation, yet there is no question of one thing: there’s no fracking way these protests are going to give up anytime soon, at least not until Virginia returns to the right side of history.
Photos by John Donegan
