Dear Koch brothers: will you be my guest in Arkansas?

Mike & Friends Blog

Robert Greenwald

Robert Greenwald is a producer, director, political activist, and Brave New Films founder and president.

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October 26th, 2011 1:24 PM

Dear Koch brothers: will you be my guest in Arkansas?

I'd like to introduce David Bouie, who is fighting back against the Koch brothers as an important part of our Koch Brothers Exposed campaign.

I want Charles and David Koch to come visit me first hand and see how their factory and pollution have hurt my neighbors. I have heard from thousands of people all across the country, but I am still looking and listening for a RSVP from Charles and David themselves.

I told the Koch brothers I would take care of them as my guests. My wife and I would prepare pork chops or anything they wished. I simply wanted to walk with them around South Penn Road. Of 15 houses here, about 11 people have died from cancer.

I would tell Charles and David Koch that it would be a memorable experience for all of us. This is an opportunity for them to do something for good and the community here that made their factory prosper. They can stop this with a stroke of a pen.

I'm renewing my invitation to the Koch brothers. I want the Koch brothers to see the effects of their factory on our community. Their company donates to local schools and churches, but it's poisoning our part of town.

The comments I saw, which responded to our community's uphill appeal to the Koch brothers, were incredible. And I'm wondering what the Koch brothers themselves have to say about everything that's happened since we on South Penn Road have gone public with our plight, as well as why they're hiding from me.

A fog hangs over our homes, and the smell is putrid. You can even smell it three miles away from our neighborhood. The stench comes from streams near my street, and the wind blows it over our homes. How can I describe the scent? It's like a rotten egg, but a lot of times the smell changes between all four seasons and the hour of day.

My experience with friends, neighbors, strangers, what have you, everyone typically acknowledges an offer of hospitality. But the Koch brothers ignored my olive branch invitation and me.

Instead, I read about the Koch brothers' website that smeared my integrity. All I wanted was for Charles and David Koch to see with their own eyes what I see everyday. The Koch brothers need to experience this first hand. I continue to pray that my neighbors and I might convince the Koch brothers to rectify our plight and relocate us like their company, Georgia-Pacific, did for other communities like ours.

A few blocks from here, the neighborhood of Thurman Road was relocated years ago by Georgia-Pacific. Please be a good neighbor to us too. We cannot relocate without some help, and that's a fact.

Charles and David, if you're reading this, would you come be my guest in Crossett?