Let’s Talk! Conversations That Matter
featuring Sue Inches, Author, Educator, Environmental Activist
Thursday, January 23, 2025
12:15-1:00 pm (Eastern)
on the Zoom platform
This event is free. Contributions to support The BTS Center’s “Let’s Talk!” series and other programming will be gratefully received.
Please join Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill, Executive Director of The BTS Center, for a lunchtime “Let’s Talk!” conversation with Sue Inches, author, educator, and environmental activist.
Two days after the election, Sue traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana with a group of five people from her church — First Parish, United Church of Christ, in Yarmouth, Maine — to spend 10 days learning about the struggle for civil and environmental rights in a region known as Cancer Alley.
Along an 80-mile stretch of the Mississippi River, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, there are 140 petrochemical plants. Tall smokestacks spew toxic chemicals, and methane flares light up the sky. Miles and miles of factories and chemical plants and refineries generate toxic air pollution, exposing residents to cancer-causing chemicals. The working class people who call this region home, a majority of them Black, face a cancer risk fifty times higher than the nation’s average.
Sue explains, “There are a dozen or more grassroots organizations in Cancer Alley working for the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment. We met with organizers from four of them. Meeting these leaders was inspiring! They are up against state and local governments that invite multinational corporations to move into their neighborhoods. They don’t have money, connections, or graduate degrees. But what they do have is faith. They told us God is in their hearts and God is directing their action.”
Join us for this conversation, during which we’ll explore some of the lessons of Cancer Alley:
- the inspiring strength of faith, purpose, and voice
- the devastating impacts of environmental racism
- the dangers of profit maximization, which harms people, communities, and the earth
- the power of organizing to effect change
- the importance of people of faith standing with and supporting those who are personally impacted by injustice
As we move into a challenging period in our country, we hope this conversation will inspire people of faith and conscience to stand with historically marginalized communities, to take action in the places where we can, and to deepen relationships with people and with earth. As Sue says, “The organizers in Cancer Alley are showing us the way.”
Learn more about Cancer Alley:
- Louisiana Bucket Brigade
- Sue Inches’ reflection, “Faith and Inspiration in Cancer Alley”
- ProPublica’s article, “Welcome to ‘Cancer Alley,’ Where Toxic Air Is About to Get Worse”
Meet Our Guest
Sue Inches
Since childhood, Susan Inches has envisioned a world that is compassionate, inclusive, and environmentally aware. This vision guided her through a 25-year career in public policy. As Deputy Director of the Maine State Planning Office, she represented the Governor as an organizer and lobbyist on environmental issues. Sue has worked on many issues including fisheries, land use planning, smart growth, building and energy codes, energy policy, working waterfront access, community finance, and rural broadband.
Sue now works as a speaker, educator, author, and advocate for environmental rights and energy democracy. She holds a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire. She has taught advocacy courses at Colby, Bates, and Colorado Colleges. She is the author of Advocating for the Environment: How to Gather Your Power and Take Action, and twice monthly she publishes reflections on spirituality and the environment on Substack at susanbinches.substack.com.
Meet Our Host
Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill
Allen Ewing-Merrill (he/him) serves as Executive Director of The BTS Center, a private operating foundation in Portland, Maine, building on the legacy of the former Bangor Theological Seminary. Ordained in the Methodist tradition, Allen served local churches for 20 years, and as founding Executive Director of Hope Acts, a Portland, Maine nonprofit focusing on housing asylum seekers and helping immigrants succeed. A graduate of the University of Maine and of Boston University School of Theology, Allen completed a Doctor of Ministry program through Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC and Wesley House, Cambridge UK. In addition to nonprofit and congregational leadership, he has extensive experience in advocacy, direct action, and faith-based organizing around issues of justice and equity. Allen lives in Portland with his spouse, Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill, and they are the parents of three daughters.
