Sherwood resurfaces for air!

I just spent an hour on the phone with Sherwood this evening... he's been camping upstate New York, hosted a great tiki party for a hundred people... been riding around in a golf car with Shut Down Indian Point stickers all over it... he promised to post a picture to the blog. But that's not what I logged back on to write about.

Remember when the NRC wouldn't allow Sherwood to file his own contentions for FUSE USA because he'd gone and called the judges a bunch of pro-nuclear pricks? Well, the NRC allowed Sherwood to refile everything, doubling our labor and our cost of printing and shipping, under different names.

So guess whose signature sits at the bottom of the 500 pages of contentions Sherwood filed under the name of FUSE USA? Three people.

~ John LeKay who interviewed Sherwood, myself, Summer Rayne Oakes and May Lindstrom (aka Betcee, our Rock The Reactors girl) for his magazine Heyoka magazine.

~ Heather Burns-DeMelo, founder of CT Greenscene and co-founder of Fairfield County Greendrinks, ex-editorial director of AllGreen magazine.

and mine!

For all intent and purposes, until I find out any differently, these contentions are in good order, have been accepted by the NRC, giving John LeKay, Heather Burns-DeMelo and myself legal standing in the contentions process.

Ah... but would it only be that simple. When three board members of FUSE USA walked away with Sherwood's PDF files, then refiled them as their own for Clearwater, IPSEC and a couple other organizations, Sherwood was never compensated for the work he did, the computer he bought, the hours he put in.

Many of the contentions filed by these ex-FUSE USA board members were all thrown out by the NRC because of legal technicalities. (Don't quote me, I got no idea about any of this stuff... ask Sherwood!) Exactly which ones are still standing and which ones are dead is unknown to me, since these ex-members have not shared this information with either myself or the general public.

Sherwood suggested I call the NRC and find out, since I have legal standing as a filer in the proceedings. I have always tried as best I could to avoid talking to anyone from the NRC, because I just give myself away when I do, except maybe for Richard S. Barkley, who I happen to like as a person, who has been acting as moderator between the general public and the NRC at all the meetings held at Colonial Terrace in Cortlandt Manor, NY.

Why can't Sherwood call the NRC himself you ask, since this isn't my forte, I'm just the PR viral marketing guy in this operation? Sherwood tells me he's got a stack of NRC letters piling up in his house which he hasn't opened, and threatened to throw them all in the garbage, unless someone comes up with the resources to continue his fight, our fight!

I got into this to WIN! I started working with Sherwood because I beleived he was the best man for the job, because he knew his stuff. I didn't ask these other ex-FUSE USA board members to come and spoil all the work we'd spent months building. And now, I find out, we're still in the running, but Sherwood won't put anymore time or money into this effort unless someone comes up with some money.

Just so you know, I'm the one who originally talked to Gail Merrill and convinced her that investing into the creation of FUSE USA was a good tactical move. She wrote a check for $10.000 to Joe Mangano's organization, under the stipulation that the matching funds be turned over to FUSE USA, which used that money to secure the services of its nuclear expert.

Other monies necessary to pursue the process, the printing of the contentions, each time the NRC had us do it over and over again, costing over $700 for each set, the travel, the research, etc... ad nauseum, were going to come from a concert FUSE USA had been planning at Riverspace in Nyack, a concert I came up with the bill for, the idea to bring Ani DiFranco and Pete Seeger together for a duet!

But it wasn't to be. When these ex-FUSE USA members left the organization, they took the concert with them, which had been one of them's responsibility to book through the Guacamole Fund. The only thanks I got, was being dragged into court for telling her to go to ELLE, having to borrow $1500 from my family so I could afford a lawyer to defend myself.

Bottom line, FUSE USA ended up with none of the proceeds from Ani's concert, costing me a fortune, while all these other organizations, whose contentions have since been thrown out by the NRC, profited from all the earnings, only to pay the salary of a man who did little else than sit around while Sherwood did the bulk of the work.

My desperate attempts to reach Ani DiFranco, who often played a nightclub called Wetlands in New York I helped create, fell on deaf ears... I wasn't able to get through, everyone on her staff played interference, while three witches labeled me a crazy man. Ani needs to know she ended up raising all that money for all the wrong people!

Other things transpired off course, this isn't all there is to it... But I think it's necessary to get all this out in the open, once and for all, wash our dirty laundry in public, save the lawyers to fight against the NRC, not each other, otherwise we're just going to lose... Indian Point will get its new license, and we will walk away beaten!

Sherwood, because he's always talked me into going out and getting money for him, which I am not happy doing... is still right in the sense that he holds a winning hand, and is therefor playing it. If we want to shut down Indian Point, we need Sherwood Martinelli, his expertise, and all the contentions he filed under the name FUSE USA.

What Riverkeeper, Clearwater, IPSEC and other groups have filed is not enough to deliver a killer blow to Entergy, but with the additional backing of FUSE USA's contentions, and the supporting research of someone like Sherwood Martinelli who has been investigating the NRC for over ten years, we stand a chance to get the job done, to win... not simply force Entergy to spend 1.7 billion on cooling towers, which Sherwood says will pay for themselves in just over a year in profits, but to shelter the plant forever... give the people of the Hudson Valley, its farmers, and the residents of Fairfield County, a sigh of relief... and a dramatic drop in cancer rates!

So wake up people, give Sherwood what he wants so FUSE USA can get back in business, (we've already lost our website!) and finish the job it set out to do... Don't let me be the only advocate of this strategy. I'm exhausted dealing with all the egos, the temper tantrums, the theft of property, the bad faith, the lies, it's NOT what I got into this fight to do, to baby sit a bunch of whinners! We got work to do, and it's all about to come together thanks to the support of the fashion industry, people like Christie Brinkley, who even though she has her own problems at home, still comes out swinging with a beautiful smile when she's required.

I hope this didn't bore you, because we're all guilty of massive BS behavior here... and in the end, the NRC, Entergy wins! The new space I created in Norwalk Connecticut, The Aquarium, is hosting an Indian Point general strategy meeting on Wednesday evening with members of the Connecticut Green Party. Join us if you can, make the drive... lets pick this back up. Lets finish what we started. Let's finish the job. Lets raise some money for FUSE USA, since that's the name the last standing contentions are filed under!

But don't count on Sherwood... He won't help unless he's paid... because he's seen how much money Ulrich Witte has made at his expense! There's a viable organization there in FUSE USA for who has the talent to bring it back into focus. I'm not a lawyer, I don't know how to do these things. It's basically sitting in a pile of broken Lego bricks... that have been kicked to the ground by evil ways, jealousy and puerile imbeciles! Myself included I guess.

In the meantime, the Indian Point time bomb ticks on, and nothing much is happening... when we could get it all going again... and kill the dragon on the hill. This time, send ME the money... I'll make sure it's spent the way it should. I don't trust anybody anymore. Because even though we may still be able to take down a bunch of old nuclear reactors, human nature on both side of this issue stinks in equal measure.

a soldier for the dark side of the force!

Our friend and colleague, John LeKay, artist and activist on behalf of Native American issues, on the advisory board of FUSE USA, just released a video interview with Benny Zable, Australian anti-nuclear performance artist, and myself, shot one day this August.

If I look worn, tired, drained, a walking corpse, it's because I was horrifyingly sick that day... It had been a great effort for me to drive to Peekskill to participate in this action with Benny. I've been suffering from chronic Lyme disease since 1984, many in the pro-nuclear camp will be glad to hear. So if people wonder sometimes why I get so stiff, so useless, it's because the pain just becomes intolerable.

Another friend of ours, Jon Nowinski, also on the advisory board of FUSE USA, has done considerable research on the provenance of Lyme disease, which we are now certain came from Plum Island off the coast of Connecticut. I urge you to read his research. This is another facility which desperatly needs to get shut down before it takes us all along with it!

Yesterday, I attended the lecture given by Andrew Shapiro at Yale (why does the last name Shapiro come up so often in the context of my life?) who founded GreenOrder with monies from Wetlands, the environmental nightclub I helped put together in New York with Larry Bloch. But Andrew never asked me to join the board of advisors. Instead, he used his ivy league pedigree to court and greenwash major corporations, like GE.

In the late 60's GE developed a state of the art electric car. Ralph Nader was involved in the project. But GE decided not to pursue the idea because they didn't want to go into competition with their number one customer, GM.

Today, while GE used the EcoMagination campaign GreenOrder developed for them to sell a few solar panels and wind turbines, it's getting ready to put hundreds of nuclear reactors at sea for an ALL nuclear Navy.

GE brings good things to life... I remember taking the ride through the GE pavillion during the 1964 World's Fair in Queens... It never left me... this complete disconnect between nature and technology. I live in Fairfield County. I've met many GE executives... they have not changed. They're all stuck in a 1950's time warp, in the way they think, they dress and view the world. Anyone who still doesn't understand the relationship GE has with this country, should read Gravity's Rainbow.

I guess Andrew should be commended for the little GreenOrder accomplished at GE, but to me, that's just perpetuating the misery, giving GE another lease on life, so the bulk of the atrocities they wreck on this Earth continue unimpeded.

Sorry, Andrew... but you're just a foot soldier for the dark side of the force, a Palm Beach socialite, no matter how many coats of green paint you schlack on their facade! And you used Wetlands to get rich doing it, without putting anything back!

Sherwood Interview by John LeKay ~ Heyoka Magazine

Journalist John LeKay, friend of Rock The Reactors, Green Nuclear Butterfly, and FUSE USA, has interviewed Sherwood Martinelli for Heyoka Magazine.

John and Sherwood discuss the growing movement opposing the relicensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, and the rise of FUSE USA, a new coalition focused on getting the job done.

The interview with Sherwood appears in Heyoka Volume 9, alongside interviews with Rock The Reactors Betcee May and model/environmentalist Summer Rayne Oakes.

A few months ago GNB revealed Summer's association with ETS Energy store, a green business majority owned by BGA Engineering, which does maintenance work at Indian Point. Summer has since come out in opposition to the $50 Billion Federal loan guarantees to the nuclear power industry.

John LeKay runs the Silkwood Project, chronicling the disastrous effects of uranium mining on Native American lands.

SRO Speaks out on Nukes & her Cherokee roots...

John LeKay, publisher of Heyoke Magazine asked Summer Rayne Oakes:

What are your thoughts on alternative energies?

Summer Rayne Oakes: I'm becoming more and more vocal in this area as my work unfolds. I've written letters to my state Senators urging them to stop the $50 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear energy and voiced my concerns on coal. We need individuals, communities and the federal government behind clean renewables. The amount of subsidies and loan guarantees still supporting dirty energy is absolutely mind-boggling!

On the clean energy front, I like to put most of my own energies into positive movements. Over the last few months, I've been working with a number of young leaders on PowerShift 2007, which is the first national youth Climate Summit headed by Energy Action and the Campus Climate Challenge. The organizations have really been the backbone of much of the climate change actions, like Step it Up, Focus the Nation, and the President’s Climate Commitment. I feel invigorated when the youth take the lead in getting their campuses and communities to start taking progressive steps in reducing their carbon footprint.

For the rest of the interview, logon to:
http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.9.Fashion.htm

Benny Zable Climbs Monteverde

I picked up Australian anti-nuclear performance artist Benny Zable at the Peekskill train station on Sunday morning. We headed off to the Bear Mountain Powwow in Harriman State Park to deliver a message from Harold One Feather who is attending the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action before coming up North to join the new FUSA USA coalition.

Benny took his peaceful earth flag inside the prayer circle... while I met some wonderful people, like Tchin and Sealy... and discovered the book Indian Tribes of the Hudson's River published by Hope Farm Press & Bookshop in Saugerties, NY.

We got lost a few times on the way there and back... all these tall trees, all these winding roads... but we made it back in time to meet up with an artist/documentary film maker who has asked for anonymity and Heyoka magazine publisher John LeKay at the Peekskill Coffeehouse. Sherwood Martinelli, of Green Nuclear Butterfly, joined us.

The Rock The Reactors poster I had placed in the window earlier in the day had been pulled down, and the flyers I had left by the door were all gone. We suspect friends of Entergy go around Peekskill systematically removing anti-nuclear literature from public view.

We headed off to Indian Point hoping to find an appropriate place for a vigil... a few people in Buchanan saw our short caravan drive towards the plant with bumper stickers clearly stating our point of view. By the time we got to the guard house, they knew we were coming.

What I did not realize, since I had not physically been to the plant since April 2006 when I photographed Betcee May... I try to stay as far away from Indian Point as possible... is they extended the perimeter with brand new barbwire fencing, Guantanamo Bay deja vu, the domes barely visible from the road. There was no place to shoot with a good view in the background, so we decided to look for another vantage point.

Someone suggested this restaurant on the hill which I did not know called Monteverde, meaning green mountain, in the Town of Cortlandt. I couldn't beleive the vista... the eerie sense of pending doom in the valley below, the irrepressible noise of freight trains... and yet... Monteverde is the home of a Yoga and Spa center, which won Best of Westchester award for "Most Transcendental Facial."

The next day I called and asked the receptionist, how does it feel to do yoga on this beautiful lawn, with a nuclear power plant in the background? She said: "People who come here to do yoga really don't want to think about negative environmental issues." So I contacted Yoga and Global Activism to see if perhaps they'd be interested in hosting an event on Monteverde at Oldstone Manor's grounds.

A recent review of the restaurant put it this way: "The carefully positioned trees on the left of the property hide a view of the Indian Point nuclear power plant on this side of the river. The land would be great if Amtrak didn’t run right next to it every few minutes. On the other side of the river there is a freight train line that runs less often, but is usually even louder."

We weren't allowed to enjoy the view for very long... The managing director asked us to leave... so we regrouped at a kayak landing for a wonderful sunset... finished the evening in Peekskill at Ruben's Cafe, Governor Pataki's favorite Mexican restaurant.

But not everybody loves living in Peekskill, as expressed by this, if somewhat funny, rather depressing video on YouTube. Seems there's always an underbelly... Despite this, looking through the official Peekskill website, I see a warm and thriving community, doing its best while living in the constant specter of impending doom. It's interesting to note that I could not find a single mention of Entergy or Indian Point on the website, in either the press releases or the 145 pages of photographs. The elephant is in the room, and yet nobody pays attention to it.

I left Benny in Sherwood's good care and bid everybody farewell... On Monday morning, when Benny called to check in with the EcoFest office in New York, he was told they had received an anonymous threatening phone call... All the caller said, in an intimidating tone, was: "So, EcoFest is involved with Indian Point now, hey?" and hung up.

Nothing like hundreds of Union Workers standing guard around Peekskill and Buchanan making sure nobody gets out of line... Little do they know, their families, their children, their friends, are all suffering the effects of low dose radiation... every new day that goes by, we are all at great risk for allowing Entergy, NRC and the political leaders in the state of New York to take such risk and liberty with the lives of millions, for just the sake of a few electrons more we can easily make up with conservation and Light Emitting Diode bulbs.

Shame on you Hudson Valley, for failing to shut down Indian Point over so many years... It takes a man from Australia to ring your wake up bell? Get it together for Pete sake. Shut that sucker down! Screw the independent safety assessment and the relicensing period. Just demand the plant closed... now, before we're all sorry... The USA is still a democracy... use it before you lose it... what are you waiting for... Isn't that what you all elected John Hall for?