As is the norm, I've had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend spent with friends (old and new) as we all ate and drank too much, and talked into the wee hours of the morning. These people were college educated intellectuals, in short well informed members of society...what was surprising to me, was the lack of knowledge, and in too many cases concern for all things of a nuclear issue, and specifically Indian Point. One person actually (and seriously) quipped, "Indian Point, you mean that old relic is still around, I thought it was closed years ago." Another was convinced I was wrong, because he'd heard Patrick Moore state otherwise, and who was I to question Patrick Moore. This man got rather upset when I pointed out that Patrick Moore was a corporate shill earning $15,000 a speaking engagement, and accused me of just trying to make him look bad...uhhh, excuse me, but Mr. Moore does a fine job of that all by himself.
So, where is the disconnect? If the public is dumb to the issue, we have little chance of mobilizing them for a fight to shut down the plant, and without massive public outcry, the battle is doomed before it ever starts. How can people who spent hours picking out the perfect vegan bottle of wine, who will only let all natural fibers touch their sun blocked perfect skin be so ill informed about a 40 year old reactor (almost) that is dumping tritium and strontium 90 into their drinking water supplies, and the Hudson River...have we reached a point where the environment is only a fun issue if it involves shopping? Are environmental issues only important if you don't have to work at them, only worth pursuit if you can run a success PR and fund raising campaign around them?
My wife and I seriously discussed selling our house this weekend...it's too big for us, and we saw a beautiful small apartment in a gated community right on the water with a view of the Statue of Liberty at a price we could afford. Maybe Entergy will buy this place and turn it into a public shelter, or some absentee landlord will snap it up, and fill it up with 30 or more illegals. Continue to fight the good fight, but do it from a distance. Staten Island is outside the area of death known as the ten mile evacuation zone, and besides, the shopping there is far better than the pickings we have around here.
This past week, got two letters from the NRC, and one from the DOE, and it is obvious all the federal agencies are in on the fix to relicense these aging nuclear facilities in the name of a new energy policy, a Nuclear Renaissance in the name of a false promise of a Hydrogen Economy with nuclear reactors said economy's birth mother...what I find sad, is that the masses accept this rhetoric on blind faith, when the least little bit of research would show it for the lie that it is.
The BIG Clearwater Festival is coming up in June...what we know from the IPSEC list, is that CAN spent $700 dollars in ink pens, bumper stickers, and matchbooks...is that the best we can do in this fight? MoveOn.org can raise a million dollars in a day, mobilize millions of people for some cause, but where are they in this fight? 50 communities across America have already been ordered to continue hosting aging reactors, and because most people want CHEAP electric, are not willing to conserve or sacrifice for something more important than their cappuchino machine, it's OK to keep producing nuclear electricity until the next Chernobyl
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