Editor’s note: This commentary is by Charles Simpson, of Burlington, a former Progressive Party candidate for Burlington City Council, who is active with People for Peace and Security.
“You don’t need a weatherman …”
— Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues
Recent storms from Katrina to Dorian have made us familiar with the drama of a major hurricane: houses demolished, persons injured or killed, economic activity depressed. Imagine, if you would, a hurricane bearing down on Chittenden County. Reporters might say in hushed tones that the leading edge of this storm has already demolished 200 homes, filling their cellar holes, erasing even their curb cuts and driveways. “It is as if these homes never existed,” reporters might say.
Now the eye of the storm is approaching, threatening 2,640 additional homes in three cities — Winooski, South Burlington and Burlington. Half a dozen schools or universities are in the path of this storm, as is the region’s medical center. With the eye making landfall before the end of September, the National Weather Service would be advising residents that it is too late to sell their property and move. Their only recourse is to shelter in place.
This exercise of the imagination is not mere fiction. The storm is here. This hurricane is the noise, pollution and threats to health and the environment originating with military aircraft. It started when take-offs by the F-16 came to require afterburner mode. The current eye is the pending arrival of 18 F-35 fighter bombers designed to deliver nuclear payloads.
There would likely be discussion in the media about what to name this storm. “Hurricane Miro” comes to mind. Named for Burlington’s mayor, the name is apt because as chief executive of the city-owned airport, he set the lease terms — no rental costs assessed; no noise caps — that facilitate the basing of the F-35. And when his own city council and his constituents voted in opposition, he assured the Air Force that he would do nothing to prevent this storm from sweeping through and demolishing our neighborhoods.
Others, however, might prefer a name that corresponds to a far more powerful political figure, a man that involved himself 54 times in the Air Force base selection process to misrepresent the record so that these nuclear-bomb platforms would come to Burlington. That’s right. According to Air Force administrative records, Sen. Patrick Leahy repeatedly mischaracterized conditions on the ground and the degree of public support, personally pressuring the Air Force to overrule its expert-based evaluation process which had selected not Burlington but McEntire Joint National Guard base in South Carolina as the “environmentally preferred alternative.”
In the process, Leahy disregarded a Burlington-wide vote against the basing; disregarded three City Council resolutions against the basing; refused to meet with local elected leaders on the issue; refused to meet with any opponents of the basing; refused to attend public meetings on the F-35, ignored two letters from 60 local clergy, and said that his constituents’ concerns were exaggerated.
This, despite the fact that according to the Air Force, the F-35 will be 17-20 decibels louder than the F-16 and there is little pilots can do to affect this. And that increased noise will cause up to a 2.3% decrease in property values.
Then there’s the social justice implications of destroying the livability of 2,600 homes occupied in large part by lower-income and immigrant residents, the cognitive impairment of their children at home and in school, the impact on municipal tax revenue as property values fall and schools have to be relocated.
What opportunities are there if we could avoid this storm? One F-35 at $89 million would pay for Burlington’s or South Burlington’s new high schools and staffing for several years. No F-35s might mitigate the risk of poisonous PFAS in our drinking water originating with fire-fighting foam. No F-35s anywhere would take off the table a risk factor associated with the usability of tactical nuclear weapons.
So there’s a good case for calling this storm Hurricane Patrick. The question then becomes, are we going to “shelter in place”? Or will we raise our voices?
