DeWalt: Why civil disobedience?

Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Dan DeWalt, who writes for ThisCan’tBeHappening.net.

It is inevitable that civil disobedience will be one part of the citizen response to Entergy Nuclear’s scorched-earth attack on the state of Vermont. Some question the wisdom of this tactic, wondering if it will alienate potential supporters in the struggle to shut down Vermont Yankee before another leak or accident shuts it (and us) down with catastrophic effect. After all, in a nation governed by laws, should we not be prepared to accept the outcome of our deliberative bodies, tempered by the watchful eye of the judicial system guarding the Constitution and thus our founding principles? Indeed we should, but alas, we are no longer a fully functioning republic, the three branches of government, while still separate from each other, have all been co-opted by the powerful monied interests, and serve now to see that those interests are tended to, while the rest of us be damned.

Where is the proof of this outlandish charge? Here are a few recent examples. First, let’s consider the bankers. They created fraudulent financial instruments that distorted the housing market and began the run of foreclosures. At the same time they created other financial instruments that let them bet and profit on those same foreclosures. When their intricate web of deceit and false value finally came to a head, it threatened the stability of the entire financial sector. A logical remedy for this would have been to let the banks fail and be restructured, and if help was to be provided, it should have been government aid directly to the affected homeowners, saving them from losing their homes through these financial shenanigans and allowing them to continue to be participants in the economy, buying goods and thus providing jobs for their neighbors. Instead a much greater amount of money was stolen from (or created by) the U.S. treasury to prop up the banks while the homeowners were left to crash and burn.

Instead of using the bailout money to increase lending and revitalize the economy, the banks sat on their cash, gave themselves massive bonuses, and laughed at the poor suckers who weren’t them. No fines, no jail, they’re too big to fail. Part and parcel of this fraud was the absolutely illegal forgery of bankers’ signatures on foreclosure notices, a crime normally punished with a prison term. But in our present system, we call it robo-signing instead and ask the bankers to pay back a tiny portion of what they stole, and to promise to think about restructuring a small subset of mortgages that are still out there. As for the average Josephine who lost her house – she gets a whopping $2,000, which won’t even cover the average costs for moving into a rental unit.

Do you suppose that the seven unfortunates who were recently caught in Vermont and New Hampshire after a rash of burglaries will not be prosecuted but instead be contacted by conference call to let them decide how they want to give back a portion of what they have stolen? Not likely.

The federal government has decided that they will protect us from all nuclear dangers and that our governors and legislatures can have no say in these matters whatsoever. How do they do this? By telling us not to worry. While Springfield, Mass., was clearing away the rubble of brick and stone buildings that had been blown away by a F5 tornado, NRC officials were just up the road in Brattleboro telling concerned citizens that the pool of more radioactive spent fuel rods than were at all six Fukishima reactors was perfectly safe, sitting six stories high protected by sheet metal. How could this be so? Because engineers took into consideration severe weather events in their design they intoned.

We are under no obligation to accept such balderdash. And we can look to our own history to see when Vermonters have recognized government lies and absurdities and refused to acquiesce. Within a month of the racist fugitive slave law being passed in Washington, D.C., in 1850, the Vermont Legislature passed a habeas corpus bill that effectively nullified the heinous federal legislation. President Millard Fillmore threatened to send federal troops, but Vermont didn’t flinch, the troops never came, and slaves were not persecuted here in spite of federal law. When racist segregation was the law in Southern states, it took outright defiance and illegal actions by citizens from across the nation to showcase the foul and unjust nature of those laws, causing them to eventually be repudiated and replaced.

In spite of the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country, and in spite of many voices pointing out the injustice and damage being caused, it was not until the Occupy movement in New York took over the Brooklyn Bridge en masse, disrupting traffic and leading to many arrests, that the country finally took notice. Now income inequality is a part of our national conversation.

Entergy Nuclear is a scourge upon our state. It is using its money, and the federal government’s vested interest in maintaining its nuclear weapons programs to wield a obscene amount of power. This puts us at risk, tramples upon our sovereignty, and leaves us with an ever-growing stockpile of nuclear waste that will remain radioactive for over 100,000 years. We the taxpayers will have to pay to keep that waste, while Entergy has only to enjoy the profits. This is not a paradigm that any sentient person should accept.

While everyone may not be comfortable with the idea of committing civil disobedience and risking arrest to take a stand against Entergy, surely most should be able to understand and support those who do. We are living in a dysfunctional era where profits reign supreme, and citizens are mere pawns in the game. It would be an insult to Vermont’s history, as well as its future, if we are not willing to face this menace with whatever options are left to us. Our state government will continue to battle in the courts and in the legislative hallways, we must do what we can on the outside.