An Unreasonable Woman: Unreasonable Woman

by Diane Wilson, Kenny Ausubel (Foreword)

In 1989, an EPA study revealed that Calhoun County, on Texas’s Gulf Coast,was the most polluted place in the United States. Even before the reportcame out, Diane Wilson knew that the fish were hurting, and so were thepeople who caught them for a living. Most people were willing to overlook theproblem. Wilson was not. Facing crooked politicians, corporate lawyers, andvengeful neighbors, she set out to save both her town and her way of life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Environment, Politics, Womens, Activism, Biography

395 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Diane Wilson is an eco-warrior in action. A fourth-generation shrimper, Wilson began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By 24, she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Wilson insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.

Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and countless hunger strikes to raise awareness for environmental and human rights abuses.

Wilson speaks to the core of courage in each of us that seeks to honor our own moral compass, and act on our convictions. She has been honored with a number of awards for her work, including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, Blue Planet Award and the Bioneers Award.

She is also a co-founder of CODEPINK, the Texas Jail Project, Texas Injured Workers, Injured Workers National Network and continues to lead the fight for social justice.

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rereading because this book is so compelling and layered that you (or I) have to read it more than once. Even though it's autobiographical, Unreasonable Woman is more like a novel than non-fiction—it has a suspenseful, dramatic narrative that builds tension, all in that unique and powerful voice. You are drawn into her world: the rough-edged Gulf Coast, peopled by unforgettable characters, poverty-stricken but independent.

Like songwriter/singer Jo Carol Pierce says,
"You don't want it to end because it's so interesting to live there with her."

Many folks resist reading this book because they assume it will be a lecture/recitation about activism, not realiazing that they are missing a book that both Rick Bass and Molly Ivins raved about in terms of language and voice. Molly said, " I don’t often gush, but this book had me fascinated from the first page and whomper-jawed half the time."

[Laura Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six weeks ago I went on vacation and swam in Matagorda Bay at Magnolia Beach in Port Lavaca.

You might not want to read this book if you went swimming in Matagorda Bay recently. However, it is much better than if Diane Wilson hadn't been so unreasonable.

This is an amazing book for anyone interested in environmentalism. It's eye opening about how little the EPA and state environmental agencies do to protect us. And it gives the reader an understanding about how small town economics fit into everything.

Plus, here writing is simply wonderful. It doesn't read the way I had feared it would. You know, like if *I* wrote it. She's a natural writer as well as one wonderful brave human being.

[Yodamom]

DNF @ 19%

[Lewis LaborMen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is what happens when one woman knows what is right and who is wrong in her community, and isn't willing to back down until those issues are addressed. Ms. Wilson shows the kind of real change that can be made against the tides of industry and a community to brow beaten to dream of anything better for themselves.

The hurdles outlined in this book are strait out of a thriller novel.

It's clear in the writing the author is not a professional. From the reading it's clear that's only because she was more interested in making a difference than writing about someone else making a difference.

Her story is a powerful reminder for every regular person. When it comes to doing what is right, we can all stand to be more unreasonable.

[Kathryn]

DNF. Either this isn't the right time to read this or I'm not caring for the writing. I would like to pick this up aat another time. based on the Synopsis, this is the type of book thatcI would enjoy reading. I wish this book was on audio, but i don't see it onAudible aaaand nothing comes up when I google the audioersion. Hopefully, I will try reading it at some point.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book. A must-read

[Eric Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Wilson is a fourth-generation fisherwoman and mother of five whose determination to save her beloved bay plunged her into a decades-long fight for environmental justice. In 1989, an EPA study revealed that Calhoun County on the Texas Gulf Coast was the most polluted place in the US. No one had to conduct a study to tell Wilson that the fish, the shrimp, the dolphins…the whole ecosytem was hurting. And no one seemed to care…or do anything until she rose up in anger.

Her home on the Intercoastal Waterway in Seadrift sits within an area bracketed by the big names of industry: Dupont, BP, ISP, Union Carbide, Alcoa, and Formosa Plastics. When Formosa faced intransigent agitators in Taiwan where they were based, they negotiated with local Texan politicos from Wilson’s jurisdiction to build a multi-billion dollar new plant near her home. The locals were delighted at the thought of jobs and money, so delighted they even arranged millions of tax credits from the Texas government. No one worried about reports of illegal, damaging failures and discharges from Formosa’s existing plant.

Diane Wilson determined that they would not build a plant that would further pollute her beloved bay. In the years that followed she faced crooked politicians, corrupt company officers, corporate lawyers, vengeful neighbours, and even, most surprising of all, opposition or indifference from her friends—the very shrimpers she hoped to save. Her husband and her brother thought her crazy to spend so much effort when women are supposed to stay home and care for their babies.

She organized protest meetings that were swamped by company men, sent letters to legislators and government agencies, enlisted the help of a big city lawyer, blockaded the plant, tried to enlist the union, went on a hunger strike and even attemped to sink her beloved boat over the discharge pipe that continued to spew toxins into the Gulf. In her quest she even goes to Taiwan where she discovers a polluted landscape and a population suffering an environmental nightmare. Back in the US, she often found that the very agencies bound to protect the public turned a blind eye to infractions—or used excessive force against fishermen, but not guilty companies.

It is a fascinating but true tale of a heroine told in Diane’s own inimitable Texas drawl, a modern David and Goliath epic. She is a unique character whose writing I found both refreshing and fascinating, She tells the story just as she talks and full of unique similes and metaphors.

She writes, “Even in Sanchez’s heavy old truck I could feel the wind shove and squim and run up and down the frame like a crazed squirrel looking for a hold. A rust hole is what it found, and it burrowed up and into the cab. (page 170) Sometimes the barge traffic was worse than downtown Houston at morning rush hour, with only the carrying load different: watery rountes bound for the chemical plants downriver, carrying gases and lethal fluids…The barges…they carried their cargo as effortlessly and unconcerned as a mother carried her baby on a Saturday afternoon. (page 172) His hands lying quiet as two old cats.” (page 183)

Blackburn her lawyer, “didn’t know a woman’s flip side—that blend of savagery and pity, of yearning and hatred. So what if a woman screamed to the high heavens when a washing machine broke or a tea jar got spilled or a baby got born? It was only her way of say, to those who were sensitive to that kind of listening, that it was her one kingdom left and what else was there?” (page 211)

“Her thick hair was as even as chopped iceberg lettuce.”(page 336)

I highly recommend the book to all, not only to those concerned about the damage we continue to do to our planet.

[Pat Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

None of us knew what a real paycheck looked like, but to Momma a real job was anything that didn't have nothing to do with the bay, because everybody knew if you wanted to make a dime on the bay, you'd have to bleed real hard. ...bad times were like the salted peanuts shrimpers ate with their beer...

Diane Wilson's weather-beaten face was just another in a crowd of shrimpers working the bays and bayous of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterways, out of Seadrift, Texas, Calhoun County. Her shrimp-boat was a fourth-generation effort that barely made ends meet, even when the shrimp were running high.

Then the shrimp began dying. So did the dolphins that fed on them. And like the other shrimpers, Wilson at first ignored the Toxic Release Inventory report that placed Calhoun County at the top for all kinds of toxic materials. First in the land. A horrible stew of alphabet-poisons was streaming into the Lavaca Bay, and from there to the Gulf, from poorly-regulated coastal industries in Texas and Louisiana.

The communities Wilson describes are often actively on the side of the polluters, because as fishing becomes poor, the factories are the only resource for families needing income. So we can have the cruel juxtaposition of dying shrimp fisheries with a municipal dinner to honor the chairman of one of those factories releasing toxins into the bay.

This is an uncomfortable book to read, for many reasons. One, certainly, is that the author, Diane Wilson, is an uncomfortable woman, unreasonable and confrontational. The title of the autobiographical description of her fight against rampant polluters in Seadrift, Texas, is perfectly chosen. Wilson showed herself willing to take whatever steps were required to expose her opponent, Formosa Plastics, as the cause of the poor shrimp harvests. She is also ardently pro-union, which allowed her opponents to dismiss many of her complaints as "designed to force a union on the industry."

Another reason for the reader's discomfort is that it is very hard to be comfortable with the kind of corporate behavior Wilson encountered, documented, and fought in her Texas Gulf town. The materials they released into the shrimp-fishing waters of the Coastal Inland Waterways were not more toxic than the way Formosa Plastics treated the fishing community and its unofficial spokeswoman, Diane Wilson. Faced with someone who could not be swayed by community opinion, and would not accept a bribe, and who moreover was beginning to get sympathetic press with a hunger strike, Formosa Plastics was finally forced to sit down at the bargaining table with this unreasonable woman.

In telling the story of her fight to force industrial plants in Calhoun County to stop their release of toxins into the Gulf, Wilson cuts herself no slack. She describes quitting a job at Union Carbide (echoes of Bhopal here) because "every day when I came home and washed my hair, the water turned yellow..." Even if you can be comfortable with Formosa and Wilson, the horrendous litany of toxins released into the bays and bayous of the coastal waterways is calculated to appall.

Re-reading this book post-Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I was once again amazed at the way that press and public opinion can combine to trump the deepest of deep pockets and the biggest Big Industry.

By turns poetic and brutal, An Unreasonable Woman is a stunning chronicle of one woman's fight against a Goliath on the Gulf. I warn you, you will begin to develop a respect for this woman, even if you cannot agree with her point of view. Even though she is unsympathetic, and thoroughly unreasonable, you will end by giving her the due she has earned.

[Darren Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the discovery that her "piddlin' little county on the Gulf Coast" led the nation in toxic emissions, Diane Wilson fought friends, family, local politicians, corrupt state regulators, legislators, senators, and the multi-billion dollar company Formosa Plastic. This leader of Taiwan's petrochemical industry had environmental practices so appalling that twenty thousand Taiwanese came out under threat of police violence to protest its proposed new $8 billion dollar complex. That's how Formosa decided to shift its operations to Texas. Texas was willing to give Formosa $200 million in subsides and to look the other way on environmental violations for it's proposed $1.3 billion expansion of its PVC manufacturing facility in Calhoun County, Texas.

Diane wanted to know why in her small community "a man could make the arrest column in the local newspaper any day of the week for running his truck with expired license plates or no insurance, but let a chemical company, half a mile wide and with a thousand unknown chemicals zipping through their pipes, release eighty tons of a baby-aborting chemical into his neighbor's backyard, and it would be lucky if it made a note in a report. The plant manager sounded startled over the phone. "Good God!" he said. "Of course we can't put that type of information in the paper. Do you want old Mister Weaver across the street to have a heart attack?" " (p. 250)

Vinyl chloride monomer is one of the worst cancer-causing chemicals in the world.

"It's so hazardous the government says you're in violation if a single pound is released. But here seventy-four tons of vinyl chloride was released within one mile of an elementary school right across the road from Point Comfort. And if that wasn't enough, Formosa, in the same breath they were polluting with, asked the state to permit a tenth reactor while the ninth was violating production permits. You tell me the state is getting it? You exceed permits and you're rewarded with more?" (p.186)

Maybe all this had something to do with Formosa giving campaign funds to U.S. Senator Gramm, who appointed his former campaign advisor to the head of EPA Region 6, and who was now the final authority on Formosa's penalty and all their permits.

"The commission decided that even though Formosa's fine warranted something in the seven-figure bracket, they would calculate it thirty times lower, and although Formosa continued to violate their wastewater permit on a daily basis into a body of water they had already degraded, the state would allow the waste water permit and violations to continue.

It wasn't the Water Commissions fault, Chairman Bucko said. The blame lay squarely with the federal agencies who prevented the Water Commission from dealing appropriately with the environmental issues at Formosa. Maybe now the agencies would back off their demand for a comprehensive environmental impact statement and let the state regulatory process work." (p. 208)

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a prologue to this book which is written with extreme eloquence. In fact, so eloquent is Sabotage as to question from what Hemingway novel was it borrowed. However, the body of the book is first person colloquial, giving a collaborative impression of Mark Twain and Michael Connelly, from the shores of The Gulf. The story is both inspirational and sad. Inspirational for what the determination of one person can achieve, even when she steps outside the conventions of her community. Sad in the lengths to which she must go through when she does what she feels is right and just.

Perhaps, in the wake of recent events, there's a lesson for us all in the pages of this biography. A "celebrity" of sorts in the Texas Gulf Coast, Mrs. Wilson may not have graced your bookshelf. However, as a snapshot into the reality of our times, her's is a story that should grace your nightstand and be visited often to remind us that one person does matter, does make a difference.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard good things about this book, and it lived up to its reputation. This is an autobiography of an amazing woman - a role model for all people who are concerned about the health and safety of their families in industrial America. Her tenacity, creative solutions, and effort to educate herself on the issues and the processes was an inspiration.

My only criticism is that there are a lot of colloquialisms and Texan grammar & slang to get through. I got used to the conversational style, and looked more intently at the heart of the story and was not disappointed. The work is believable, credible, and gives a good sense of what life in the coastal, industrial areas of Texas is like, how hard a shrimper's life is, and how some of these communities are hanging on for dear life.

I could not put this book down. It is a compelling and important story of how our communities must come together to fight corporate power in order to secure our health, safety, and livelihoods.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book I didn't think I would like it that much but the author really pulled me into the story. I liked the writing style, her story, her connection to the place of South Texas. It is impressive what a woman with really nothing (poor shrimper in southern texas) can do just by sheer force of will and determination. It's a very Erin Brocavich story about a woman going up against a huge polluting corporation as well as all the people swayed by corporate money fighting against her too. In the end I felt pretty sad though at just how really impossible it is to win against big money and how corrupt and useless our government is (including the agencies supposedly designed to protect the people).

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read. I loved this story because it is a classic tale of the little guy fighting a behemoth monster. The little guy is Diane, mother of five who goes through incredible challenges to protect her home and the environment. The monster? Everyone else it seems, starting out Formosa, but hen she soon discovers how invested everyone around her is into not rocking the boat, even if it means their children born with birth defects or they die of cancer. Everyone is too invested in their own short term gain, without seeing the long term effects of their choices. So much is wrapped up in this woman's tale I just couldn't recommend this book enough. This book is an eye opening on the abysmal state of Texas politics, people need to read this book this year.

[Dia Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

“An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas” by Diane Wilson has a strong flavor of the Texas seaside and an inspirational story of a 4th-generation woman shrimper who single-handedly took on the defense of her coastline from one of the world’s largest polluters. Her voice as a writer will make you smell the sea breeze – and her audacity, born of love for the ocean, will fill anyone who loves nature with awe. She is a legendary character yet humble as the day is long. It reads like an exciting novel but it is a first-person narrative.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm amazed by the determination of this woman to fight for what we all know is right, in spite of being abandoned and hated by those who she was helping the most! It's an amazing story that anyone who cares about our "mother earth" will love reading. By the end I was cheering and crying . . . now taking a moment to listen to the birds and thank all the Diane Wilson's and Rachel Carson's of the world for my clean air, water, birds, fish, crabs, frog, organic veggies/fruit, and good health!!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story about a simple woman who was compelled to become an enviromental activist to try and save the area that she called home. Read it and weep for our enviroment especially the Gulf of Mexico where many chemical companies are located. The political corruption and the failure of federal agencies to do their jobs is especially discouraging. Her courage and motivation is remarkable.

[Janna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Diane Wilson speak at a conference a few years ago, and was completely struck by her level of conviction and willingness to sacrifice almost everything she had in order to protect her local waters. Her book didn't disappoint. At some times it was almost unbearable to read about setback after setback, but I had to keep reading to see how she would overcome the next challenge.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summer reading at Fairfield since she'll be speaking on campus for Freshmen Convocation in September.

While the story is inspiring, I found her writing rambling and hard to follow at times. I also thought the book could have been about 100 pages shorter. Great story about a very average woman who made a great impact on her community, but the way it was told needed some work.

[Jim Noyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a purely literature standpoint, this book is not terribly well written, could have been eddited better. And that's OK with me, for what you have is a totally unvarnished story, in her own words, of a woman with deep, strong convictions. A very brave lady, she describes in detail her struggle for environmental justice. A wonderful, wonderful book

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. Wilson is an incredibly brave soul, a person fully cognizant of the responsibility of the individual and determined to effect change. Hopefully, Wilson will make the trek to Austin sometime in the coming months, including a sit-down with the Junto reading group. I could recommend this book to everyone.

An ideal Capstone topic from an unreasonable woman.

[Dianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I did not really enjoy reading this book - the author's somewhat stream-of-consciousness style was difficult for me to process - I learned alot about the difficulties of dealing with large companies and their environmental pollution. Diane Wilson has incredible drive and perseverance in her efforts to force companies to do right.

[Ivanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Wilson is a startingly woman and a heck of a writer. The book has no Hollywood ending but fascinates and encourages despite the evil reality of Texas' love with industry and their flagrant destruction of natural resources.

[Leah Hortin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Made it 10% of the way through. After reading a lot of glowing reviews and a praising foreward, I was stoked for this free kindle book but whomp, whomp. It fell totally flat. I didn't like the voice or the subject.

[Kathy Smartt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her first two books were better. They showed the need for environmental change and how Diane went about bringing that change to Calhoun County. This book, while interesting, dwelt more on her fight with local enforcement officers rather than on the serious environmental issues in her area.

[Stephenie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting!

This is a true story and a page turner! It’s the story of what happens when one person takes on a huge transnational chemical company. Written in a great American vernacular, painting the complex portrait of what is southern Texas.

[Janeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

like most books, i didn't finish, but it is a great story of a woman who fought for clean water and responsible behavior from polluters.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the birth and need for environmentalism.

[Alma Abedul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The determination of one person can indeed challenge the perogatives of big money and the corruption of Texas' politics. Check out her new book, Holy Roller, to be released July 2008.

[Tattered Cover Book Store]

Author Rick Bass recomended this book as part of the Rocky Mountain Land Library's "A Reading List For the President Elect: A Western Primer for the Next Administration."

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diane Wilson transformed before my eyes from a shrimper/mother into a dogged environmentalist... wow! Well written, compelling read.