Editor’s Note: This op-ed is by Dan DeWalt, an activist, musician, woodworker and resident of South Newfane. It first appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer.
These past few weeks have been “kiss-that-hand-that-feeds-you” time for Congress and the Obama administration. Worried about the ramifications of a U.S. default on the financial markets, they have acted once again to protect those markets and the gamers who play them, deciding instead to increase the suffering of the working and poor classes of the country with draconian cuts. The politicians have stolen a trillion dollars or more from the treasury to prop up the corporate and financial sectors. The naïve hope that these sectors would in turn loosen the money supply and hire more workers was misplaced. Instead the corporations are reporting record profits, while sitting on cash reserves of trillions and taking a wait-and-see attitude — still in the waiting phase — about hiring any more workers.
Closer to home, Entergy’s operation of Vermont Yankee exemplifies the results of this skewed system of government for the sake of big business. After cutting corners to increase their profits, they use those profits to convince the Congress and the NRC to soften regulations so that they can cut even more corners. While the government decreases access to health care for the most vulnerable among us, Entergy and its ilk enjoy free catastrophic accident insurance paid for by the taxpayers. While we are denied mortgages not because of our ability to pay but because of the banks’ formula for profits, Entergy and others get loan guarantees from the feds to build new nukes that would not find a single financial backer in the private sector. And while the right wing and the politicians under its control tell us that they are going to have to dish out some tough love, slashing child care, Pell grants, Medicare and Medicaid, small business assistance etc., Entergy will enjoy billions of dollars in savings as taxpayers are forced to finance and oversee the storage of the toxic radioactive waste that Vermont Yankee is producing on the shores of the Connecticut River.
It makes you wonder if there is anything that any one of us can actually do about it, but yes, we can!
In fact, Vermonters are already organizing to take direct action to ensure that the reactor closes down as scheduled when its license expires next March. If VY tries to operate past the date, thousands of Vermonters will be needed to join together to end business as usual. The federal government can be persuaded to stop supporting Entergy’s usurpation of Vermont law.
Even though Obama is a nuclear cheerleader, and appreciates the industry as one of his top funders, we can take heart in knowing that his administration is never really willing to stand up for anything in the face of strong, authentic opposition. Indeed, his secretary of energy flatly stated that it was an adamant, growing, local opposition that finally convinced Obama to pull the plug on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.
The vast majority of us who are being punished for the current economic mess can choose to use the only power left to us: our numbers. If we choose to fill the squares and the streets, those in power will no longer have the luxury of ignoring us. A people united with a purpose, and at peace with itself, is unassailable, even by boorish or brutal authorities.
It takes a populace used to working together in any number of ways to be able to coalesce into a united and peaceful front. Vermonters’ can be glad for our traditions of citizen engagement and self government. We’re used to supporting our civic institutions or creating new ones. We solve our own problems. The recent growth of farmers’ markets and the increasing use of Vermont-grown foods are examples of how we’re rebuilding our commonwealth. We’re organizing, creating and meeting in more ways than just Facebook or email campaigns.
The Positively Charged Music Festival is a case in point. To support the work to ensure that VY shuts down as scheduled, volunteers from the tri-state region have organized this September concert. The bands coming from three states, sound, venue, publicity, graphics, website, the building of the stage; all are being provided without charge. Those volunteering their services are participating because they believe in the positive power that comes from working together. The volunteers and attendees alike will be forging ties with their local and regional neighbors. They will be strengthening the community of citizens who know how to work and play together to create change, without having to rely on leaders with heads full of empty promises.
If we are to take back the responsibility of governing our own affairs without subjugation by big business, we had better be able to do it effectively and with grace. Maybe a positive charge is what we all need.
