Each month, we highlight a new Supermom of the Month, a member who has gone above and beyond to advocate for clean air and children’s health. Our members in states across the country are more important than ever as we work to protect the hard-fought clean air and climate investments of the last four years. Will you join us?
This month, we are celebrating Li Mattson. Li was nominated by Colorado Field Organizers Shaina Oliver and Laurie Anderson for being a consistent, reliable volunteer for events around the Denver area this year, from information-rich meetings to neighborhood festivals. Li understands Moms’ core message about how air pollution can harm children’s health, and her Spanish-language skills have proven invaluable in communicating this in local Latino communities, many of which are disproportionately impacted by pollution from oil and gas and other industrial facilities.
Tell the Senate: Sound the Alarm on EPA Administrator Pick
We asked Li a few questions about her motivation and activism:
Why did you join Moms?
I wanted a way to connect with other parents fighting for a cleaner and more equitable world for their children and generations to come.
How did you first become interested in environmental and air quality issues?
When I learned that I could not plant food in the ground at my home because of decades of air pollution in my neighborhood. I never knew how much impact the air around us had until I learned of the heavy metals present in the soil from years of air pollution violations and systemic environmental racism. This triggered me to get involved in the neighborhood and organizations working to keep polluters accountable.
What is the biggest challenge in raising awareness about air quality in local communities?
Air quality is a really scary subject for people to grapple with, mostly because there is not much the public can do to control it. States and governments have tried to get a handle on it, but they continually turn their shoulder on violations by major polluters and keep expanding air permitting.
The air we breathe is such a fundamental right, but the government still does not seem to see it that way. It is disheartening to think of the pollution we inhale on a daily basis. There are lots of spaces where it is easy to get burned out in environmental justice, but air quality in particular feels like a continual fight for recognition.
How do you involve your kids in environmental education and awareness?
It is both important and appropriate for children to be in the room for conversations about air quality and our local environment. They need to see the work that we are putting in and be exposed from early on to what is successful and what is not successful in terms of advocacy. Not everyone likes children to be present. I have had security guards pick on my child at protests. I have had people tell me I should not be giving my child propaganda to hold at rallies. I’ve had security search my four-year-old at the State Capitol.
It can be hard to hold all of it as a parent, but I firmly believe, whether it is at neighborhood meetings, at the Capitol, in city municipal buildings, in organizing committees, at rallies—children deserve to be there and should be included in process and policy conversations. My child is too young to participate fully yet, but he certainly has had his fair share of exposure to really important conversations.