“You’ve done this twice before, I have problems also with Dominion’s nuclear stuff, but why do you have to break the rules?” the magistrate from Orange County was angry, referring to my two prior US trespassing offenses at the Exelon Headquarters outside of Chicago and Vermont Yankee reactor complex. “This is not the only thing I do to try to stop this reactor. I am a Dominion stock holder, I go to every shareholders meeting and talk with senior management about the problems with this proposal. I write letters to the editor, I lobby the county supervisors, I work with organizations which lobby in Washington…”
“Good, so why do you have to break the rules?” He interrupts exasperated.
“Because these things are not effective enough. It is like Martin Luther King fighting for civil rights.”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” He dismissed
“You asked me why, I’m telling you.”
6 hours, $1000 bail and two different county jail cells later I was released. Along with 5 other climate heroes, including my dear friends Spot - who i played Magic with for hours until they confiscated our cards.
Angie and Caroline had ended up taking care of Willow for far longer than expected. Most of the activists involved in taking over Dominions “Information Center” at North Anna had estimated we would be released by the early evening. We were quite wrong.
Willow refused to stay home. Angie had warned him that it would likely be quite late before I was released and that he would be more comfortable if he stayed home. He was having none of it, he was going to be there when I got released. Caroline reported that he was incredibly well behaved on the long ride out to the Orange County jail only asking once when they were going to get there and mostly just reading to himself on Angie’s $5 reading lamp.
He finally fell asleep about half an hour before my 2 AM release. On the way home I positioned him so he was laying in my lap while he slept. I got into this work, because it is the right thing to do. But looking down at his sleeping face and tangled blond curls as we drove home exhausted, I know now that I stay in it for him. My determined 6 year old, who is going to wait for daddy to get busted out of jail if it takes all night.
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12 comments:
It's pretty sad that Paxus won't allow free speech on his own blog. There were two comments here earlier from people who disagreed with him that he's already deleted.
there is free speach and there is grafitti. you can clean you walls of trash as you like. my understanding is that the NEI has copied this blog entry (which i find slightly charming) and is posting all comers on their site. Rail on!
Neither free speach not grafitti need be stiffled.
Hey Pax, I bet the judge didn't kow what a shrewd investor you are... that share of Dominion stock in early 2005 was worth around $68, since the 2-for-1 stock split you now have two shares at $42 each! You're quite the capitalist... not just a Dominion customer but a nuclear capitalist too!
Hawina wrote this for the NEI blog - i thought i would repost it here.
Providing safe and clean energy from a nuclear power plant ? What about radiation, from plutonium
and radio active waste ?
There is no such thing as a safe dose of radiation. Radioactive waste is, fundamentally, the lethal byproduct of the nuclear age.
Plutonium has a hazardous-life of 240,000 years. It moves in the environment much more rapidly than previously believed by the federal government. At the Nevada test-site plutonium has been found moving in a plume more than a mile away from an underground test that was set off only about 30 years ago. Previous estimates were that it would take more than 10,000 years for this deadly substance to travel this far.
Like other radioactive materials, in addition to initiating cancers, plutonium is highly mutagenic and can disrupt reproductive cells. The high alpha radiation of plutonium makes it especially lethal when inhaled or ingested. Tiny particles of plutonium caught in the lungs have a high probability of causing cancer.
Plutonium also tends to attack the liver and attach to non-calcified areas of the bone, which affects blood formation. It threatens the entire web of life, upon which we depend for food, oxygen, water purification and materials for most of our products.
Even the so-called “low-level” radioactive waste can give a lethal dose in just 20 minutes if exposed unshielded, that “low-level” waste includes all the same radioactive elements as high-level radioactive waste such as plutonium, cesium, strontium and hundreds of others.
Also, the claim of nuclear energy being a non-CO2 emitting energy is untrue. When the entire fuel chain is examined, nuclear power is found to be a producer of greenhouse gases.
Calling opponents of nuclear energy misguided denies the simple fact that there are good reasons to be concerned about nuclear power. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power.
It is certainly true that i have made money on the single share of Dominion i bought 5 years ago to get into shareholders mtgs. And if had timed it right i could have made a killing on Enron. Clearly criminal behavior can be profitable
i dont have much interest in commenting on blog entries here that come from people who have prohibited profiles. If you are so paranoid or secretive that you dont want to identify yourself, i have no interest in chatting with you here. We can debate on the NEI site. i will just simply delete you here. Bye have fun.
This Blog is reposted onthe FEC website and this comment came in from Lion at East Wind
comment 'Awesome!' by Lion
To start with thank you for being out there on the lines and fearless
this is to be commended. Second what a fun read I could feel the judges
frustration I imagine at times you had more answers and decided to leave
the poor bastard alone, if for no other reason to assure you would see
Willow sooner.
Thank you!
Paxus,
I have a public profile, and so does Kelly Taylor. And by your own words, grafitti need not be stifled. YET you still deleted BOTH my and Kelly's comments. It seems to me the only criteria you have for supressing free speech is if you happen to disagree with it.
And I don't work for NEI, I work for Dominion. But just because I work for them doesn't mean they own me. I speak for myself.
i deleted another blog comment here. from a very pleasant guy just named mike who is into thorium reactors. he promises inherently safe, quick (only 300 years!) radioactive waste decay and some other stuff.
i deleted him because he is another one of these invisible profile nuke people who want to be here.
mike stuart seems to think that the primary function of my blog is as a vehicle for free speech. this is not how i view it and it's my blog. i am sure there will be some debating of the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power - this i a big part of my life.
and in this format, i choose who plays and some of the pro-nuke folx are very friendly and civil and those (who have public profiles) will be welcome, most of the time.
there are lots of forums for unmoderated debates on nuclear. people wishing to escape the autocratic control i place on my blog have all that turf to go to.
i am convinced i can create an anonymous blog and put up postings that even the NEI will pull down (or not let thru since their blog is moderated as well).
Maybe i will do that as my next blog entry on my site, just as a thought experiment.
Paxus,
Thank you for being an activist. What you are doing serves all of us who do not have the guts to do what you do.
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