Monday, April 16, 2007

1st Year Anniversary of the Rock The Reactors campaign

I know I haven't posted anything original here in a little while, I didn't want our friends at Entergy to think we were keeping anything from them, working in the shadows, getting ready to sneak up again.
I celebrated the one year anniversary of the Rock The Reactors campaign launch (alone) by landing a soft drink sponsor. It's always been about making a theatrical production out of all this, run it like a Broadway show... a passion play, with actors, players, good guys, bad guys... give the public something to sink their teeth into besides boring facts and figures.
We use HIGH drama to great effect, it gets people going, rolling, steaming... our combined webpages and websites are read by lurkers, stalkers, from work... sly in the latest installment like they would a soap opera, or turning the pages of a romance novel. From MySpace to ModelMayhem to Eco-Chick to Hugg to Rock The Reactors to Green Nuclear Butterfly... we set out to become folk heroes, learned from the masters, our mentors, aiming not to end up like them, get shot, poisoned, commit suicide, end up in a pine box.
The folks in the nuclear industry are mean and cruel, dangerous, they harm people... they ran Silkwood off the road... if anything happened to Betcee May because of the high profile position we are putting her in... I would instantly put a bullet to my brain... not before tracking down the Shadow government team that would ever dare touch a hair off her head, nuke them into oblivion... The Kennedys killed Marilyn Monroe... I KNOW this... I know why also... Now you know why Robert Jr. and I can't see eye to eye, why he turns his back on me at fancy cocktail parties... I spent part of my childhood growing up in Palm Beach... I come from where he comes from... I tasted the same thirst.
To their family, it's about holding on to power... it's not about shutting down Indian Point, or giving the people energy independence... His speeches ring hollow to me, because I don't believe a word he says. It's grand standing and oratory... I can do that in my sleep. He attracts social climbers who think that by his side they will feel the beat of the environmental heart... from Robert I get pretence and shame... not the measure of a man.
These are harsh words from someone who in the eye of many is just a rumor... I spent my life lurking, advising, being like Talleyrand... look him up. 2.5 Billion Dollars to build ONE new 1000Mw reactor... A 2Mw windmill costs half a million dollars... you do the math... These are monsters. Who would rather ruin the earth than liberate mankind from the slavery and tyranny of the electron conspiracy. They send their anonymous Entergy paid hacks, who mirror what we do for inspiration... rehash the same old rethoric, can't stop the inevitable... 3 million political prisoners in America...
Free Leonard Peltier... It's about Indian Point... It's about Amerika... It's about the future of this planet and the energy we produce on it... it's about the future of Africa and Asia... decades it took to line up the alternative energy industry so it could stand up to the powers that be... and no Kennedy is going to stand in the way of windmills off Cape Cod... or windmills on Indian Lands... and no government, military, or oil baron is going to prevent the mass production of solid-state lithium ion batteries which are going to make the internal combustion engine a relic for the history books.
I'm tired of this fight, it's taken too long... I'm wrapping it up... the best PR firms (yes, these Entergy pundits were right) are lining up to take on this fight, make it their own... from South Beach to Hollywood, even little Westport... Indian Point is a lot more than just a poor ol'Nuke, it's a bastion, a beacon... we won't need good ol'fashion barricades... sure, it would be nice if John Hall sent out a call to arms, with pitch forks for peasants at the gates, demanding the plant be closed... but why bother, when this amazing tool we wield like a sword, the Internet, is doing the job for us... quietly, from the comfort of our own homes.
Instant communications, email activism... images, messages, energies in the shape of emotions running down a fiber optic cable... the money Entergy spends on pricey advisors and breasted suit men, can't match the fervor of our populist charm... which has always been on the side of right, even if we argue amongst ourselves as to the best way to lead the fight. Closing down Indian Point is going to be a party... it's going to be about helping hundreds of Entergy employees who never bargained for this... who were sold a bill of goods, sold nuclear power like others sell chewing tabacco, holding their nose all the way to the bank, justifying their lives even though they know deep inside they are sad... and we are right.
It's got to stop... this wholesale destruction of nature, wildlife, LIFE... can't go on... unimpeded. Yet, everyone is waiting for someone else to do it... a leader to emerge... someone to take the lead... don't look at me... Look at yourselves... Look at your neighbors... Your friends... your community... the allies you have in Manhattan you have not even bothered to call up on the phone in this time of need... the newspapers editors you keep putting off writing letters to, asking them to pay a little attention to grassroots effort, not so much to Entergy and NRC tampered press releases.
It's the end of an era, we've seen it all before... it just replays like a broken record... solar and wind will replace oil and coal, not nuclear... and possibly even more extraodinary means of generating clean power, that are deeply buried under layers and layers of compartementalization in secret labs all over this land... the planet is dying... look outside... look at the color of the sky over the ocean at sunset, the yellow glow... that's the dust from all the crap we spew in the atmosphere everyday, the lungs of the earth can't assimilate anymore...
A few weeks ago Rock The Reactors conducted a one on one interview with the official Peekskill historian, who gave us a cartoon of Indian Point as King Kong... and it blew my mind, because one year ago, this for me, started because I had a vision on the Hudson... for beauty to kill the beast, because nobody else, in 30 years, was able to do the job... and here it was... an old cartoon, from when the plant had first been built, before the concrete started to crack, before the pipes started to leak, before the welding joints started to give... the people knew... it was just a matter of time... a few days ago a transformer blew... a huge cloud of smoke bellowed into the Hudson Valley sky, photographed by a news helicopter... It wasn't sabotage, it wasn't terrorism... it was just a warning shot... one more in a long list of many, that enough is enough... we don't need this.
The Clearwater Festival is coming up again in June... there's a group trying to give Pete Seeger the Nobel Peace Prize... with everything that's piled up these last few months, we could shut down Indian point in two strokes of a legislator's pen... there's no need for an Independent Safety Assessement, or another catastrophic accident. The people of Rockland County have already voted a man into office they trusted would do the right thing. All John has to do is walk outside one morning and start walking... and ALL the citizens of Peekskill will follow him to the gates... Entergy workers themselves will leave their post... safely shut down the machine... let it rest... and we'll start rebuilding our world... without the threat of nuclear power looming while our children sleep, terrified to speak up... wondering why their parents would allow such a monster to fester.
Dragons die, it's OK... some things were just not meant to live forever... we got better now... plastic solar cells, ultra light materials, nano-motors... amazing green technologies... Uranium, the fruit of Gaia's loins, was never meant to leave the ground... where it serves its purpose... where it is... just like we wouldn't ask you to drink battery acid because it was a clear liquid. This pirate ship wants its figurehead back... it can't sail into harbor without its pride intact. Astro Boy can wait another day.

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