Cape Downwinders' "Pilgrim 14" continue to protest
Civil disobedience results in another arrest for the group
Fourteen anti-Pilgrim activists, all from Cape Cod and members of Cape Downwinders, appeared in Plymouth District Court Friday morning.
All were arrested for acts of civil disobedience at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in South Plymouth where they continue to protest in an effort to force the plant to shut down permanently.
The third arrest for some
The case against the so-called "Pilgrim 14" who were arrested for trespassing at the Pilgrim Nuke facility on May 20, 2012 was dismissed on March 13, 2013 much to the distress of the group who wanted to go on the record in a court proceeding.
Five of those protestors left the Plymouth Courthouse after the dismissal and went back to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant and were promptly re-arrested.
"They can dismiss the case but they cannot dismiss the issue!"
Paul Rifkin of Cotuit said at that time, "They can dismiss the case but they cannot dismiss the issue!"
Three of the five who returned to the plant to protest (Susan Carpenter of South Dennis, Mike Risch of Falmouth and Paul Rifkin of Cotuit) had been arrested previously on May 20, 2012
The new protestors are-arrested at that time were Elaine Dickinson of Harwich and Ben Almada of Manomet. Ben pled out leaving four of the five who returned to court yesterday.
Group promises the protests will continue
The Downwinders are concerned with the similarity between Pilgrim Nuclear and the Fukushima Nuclear plant in Japan. They also warn that while Cape Cod is downwind from the plant, there is no adequate evacuation plan to allow Cape Codders to escape in case of a nuclear meltdown in Plymouth.
They also protest that although it has been ten years since the law was passed, Cape Codders still have no supply of
KI pills.
They have repeatedly promised to continue their protest until the nuclear power plant is shut down permanently.
More of the same
In May of this year
Cape Downwinders co-founder Diane Turco and nine others (Arlene Williamson of Mashpee, Sarah Thacher of East Dennis, Janet Azarovitz of Falmouth, Debbie McCullough of Truro, Joyce Johnson of Falmouth, Bill Maurer of Falmouth, Femke Rosenbaum of Wellfleet, Doug Long of Orleans and Margaret Rice Moir of Brewster) were arrested while attempting to deliver a letter to the owner of the Entergy nuclear facility in South Plymouth.
Marge Piercy's poem - We are the throwaway people
At the recent protest in May of this year, Wellfleet's internationally renown author and poet, Marge Piercy, read a poem about the Pilgrim plant entitled "
One of the expendables".
It's last stanza reads:
We’re the throwaway people,
not as real as corporations.
Chop off the crooked arm
of Cape Cod and let us bleed.
No comments:
Post a Comment