Honored Elders
Helen Matthews
Helen Lewis tells a story about her recent visit to a small town in Alaska. Recalling a local worker’s saying, “We no longer have elders, we just have old folks,” she remarks that this is a very sad commentary on the growing isolation alienation and impoverishment of older people in many rural communities which are made disposable by the new global economy. Helen said this reminded her of the importance of Earth Elders and the need for “Seniors” of the world to reclaim their positions as Elders, to help save the land and the people.
Helen Lewis, Ph.D., is an educator, writer, filmmaker and activist who has lived and worked most of her life in Southern Appalachia.
Much of her work has put her at the center of many of the social movements related to coal field issues: mine health and safety, environmental damage from strip mining, severance taxes, corporate control and destruction of communities related to toxic poisoning of land, air and water by local divisions of the multinational proto-chemical industry.
Dr. Lewis has taught at colleges and university in the region including the University of Virginia (Wise), Berea College, Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University and University of Tennessee. (She notes she was also fired from a couple of these for “nurturing radical student.”)
She worked for 14 years with the Highlander Research and Education Center with grassroots groups around environmental and community revitalization issues. She worked with Appalshop, a Kentucky-based media center in developing films on Appalachian history and social problems. She is a much-respected author of numerous articles and books. Dr. Lewis has her masters degree in sociology from the University of Virginia and her doctorate from the University of Kentucky. She was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Wake Forest University.
Now semi-retired and living in the mountains of North Georgia with two cats, Helen describes her life this way: “I am now a gardener with beans, corn, okra, squash and tomatoes flourishing, but I continue to do workshops on collaborative community research and teach and lecture. I do travel, for fun but also to make connections with people doing grassroots community work. I believe that changing the global economy will result from the combined efforts of such communities coming together.”
She goes on to point out, “Earth Elders has a most important role to play in networking elders to help save the planet. The global economy and the resultant destruction of soil, air, water, forest, minerals must be controlled and refocused to provide a future for generations to come. As elders we must speak out, and use our energy to work for a sustainable global economy. Earth Elders can help us do that.”