14.10.04
Seven_Stars_Republican_Socialist_News
Bombing the Panhandle
Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
By BRUCE K. GAGNON
I have just returned from a one-day trip to Perry, Florida to speak to a
gathering of concerned citizens who are organizing to stop the placement of
a new bombing range in their rural community. It was one of the most
inspiring trips that I have ever made.
Perry is up in the Florida panhandle, just south of the capital city of
Tallahassee. The region is called the nature coast as Taylor county touches
the Gulf of Mexico and has several key rivers that run through its pine
tree forests to the gulf. The county has a relatively small population as
Florida goes and that is one reason the Pentagon sees it as a good place to
put a bombing range.
There is a bombing range already in the region, just further west at Eglin
AFB near Ft Walton Beach. I lived there while in high school when my father
was stationed at Eglin and I hiked through the middle of the bombing range
as an explorer scout. It is one of the largest military bases in the nation
but population has grown near the base to the point where the noise from
the bombing range has begun to draw complaints. Most recently the Mother of
all Bombs (MOAB) was tested at Eglin. The MOAB is the most powerful
non-nuclear bomb ever created that creates a mushroom cloud and shockwaves
similar to a small nuclear explosion.
Rural Taylor County already has huge problems. The Buckeye paper mill has
been contaminating the Fenholloway River that flows into the Gulf. Long ago
classified as an industrial river, it is essentially dead and dumps toxic
pollution into the Gulf. Groundwater contamination in Perry has long been a
result and one local activist, Joy Towles Ezell, has been working to
organize people in their company controlled town for years. Joy is a fifth
generation Taylor County resident who has now taken on the military over
the bombing range.
I met Joy years ago when I worked for the Florida Coalition for Peace &
Justice. We tried to support her work around the paper mill and she
supported our efforts to alert people when cruise missiles were fired from
Navy ships in the Gulf that flew over the panhandle and then crashed into
the Eglin bombing range. Before the meeting Tuesday night Joy showed me a
letter she wrote to then Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1991 on our behalf
protesting the cruise missile tests. Years later when I organized a
700-mile Walk for the Earth from the Everglades to Tallahassee we camped on
her land outside of Perry and held a rally at the paper mill. My son had a
great time riding one of her prized mules while we were there.
Fifty local residents gathered Tuesday night in the back room at the
Chaparral restaurant. The first thing Joy did when we arrived was make two
of us go out front and put up on the portable advertising sign the words
"Don't Bomb Nature Coast Meeting 7:00 pm" just below the words "Country
Buffet."
The first speaker was Dr. Ronald Saff from Florida State University in
Tallahassee who is an expert on coal fired power plant pollution. In
addition to the paper mill and the bombing range, there are also plans to
build a coal power plant in Taylor County. The decision has been made to
turn the county into a wasteland, a sacrifice area.
Taylor County is your basic southern, rural, conservative place. People
vote Republican and they don't take to outsiders very well. They don't do
radical politics either. That is what made the meeting Tuesday night so
special.
These 50 folks who gathered were retired school teachers, good church
goers, the local industrial development officer, well dressed, quiet and
concerned. One of them, a refined southern woman, Republican and
Episcopalian, had been in the group that the Air Force recently flew to
Eglin so they could see how nice the bombing range looked. The Taylor
County delegation was promised that depleted uranium would not be used in
their county. Joy was not invited to go along on the trip.
The Eglin AFB bombing range has been testing depleted Uranium (DU) and
since 1973 over 220,000 pounds of DU penetrators were expended there.
Cruise missiles that crashed on the Eglin range carried DU as ballast in
the nose cones in place of a warhead. After so-called "clean-up" a public
health assessment at Eglin estimates that 90-95% of the DU remains in the soil.
People in Taylor County have been told that cruise missiles will be tested
over their heads and that the weapons will circle around in Alabama and
come back to the proposed bombing range to crash land. The military "needs"
the Taylor County range they say because they need to practice flying
cruise missiles off ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The Pentagon has been
telling the residents that the tests are practice for "missile defense" as
part of homeland security. A pro-bombing range group called "Citizens for
Homeland Security" has been set up but residents say it is just a couple of
those who are involved in the money trail behind the bombing range and the
coal plant.
I told the residents that it was time to redefine the term "homeland
security." I asked how secure they were when their water, air and land was
becoming so contaminated that they future generations could not live there?
I also told them cruise missiles were first-strike, sneak attack weapons
that have nothing to do with "defense." I told them cruise missiles are
part of a preemptive military policy that violates international law. I
asked them how they'd feel if another country launched sneak attack weapons
onto the U.S.?
The local Rotary Club has been offered a gift of $10,000 if they will
support the bombing range. The county government has been offered $40
million. Local hunters have been promised continued access to the range so
they can hunt deer and wild boar on the land. In spite of all that the
local residents are organizing and have forced a non-binding referendum on
the question on the November ballot. They think they will win the vote but
fear the county will agree to the range anyway.
The folks have yard signs, buttons, bumperstickers and will have a booth at
the up-coming forest service "Forest Festival" and draws 20,000 from the
region. They keep letters to the editor flowing into their local paper in
order to combat new rumors put out by the military.
The meeting ended with Joy calling Vieques, Puerto Rico and getting one of
the leaders of their long and successful campaign to close down the
military bombing range on their beautiful island. I can't describe the
feeling to listen to Robert Rabin as Joy held the microphone up to her cell
phone. I looked around the room at the people as they deeply listened as
Robert told the story how the Navy dropped a bomb on a Navy building
killing one of their own security guards. A moan went through the room like
a knife through the heart. The Taylor County community had been promised by
the military that they never have accidents. It was incredible to hear
Robert use the word love a dozen times to describe the core of their
campaign against the Navy and how they used non-violent civil disobedience.
The people just listened and after his 15 minute talk they applauded with
great vigor.
There is nothing like life experience to change people. The folks in Taylor
County are changing rapidly. One woman, a life long Christian and good
Republican, told me she'd never vote for another Republican again. (I
couldn't help but think how stupid the Bush administration is to bring this
bombing range issue up right before the November election in a state where
EVERY VOTE really counts.)
At the end of the meeting the people asked me two things. What more can we
do and do you think we can win? I told them that the people in Vieques won
because they became a "pain in the ass" and they had to do the same. I also
told them they could not do this alone, that they needed to send folks out
around the state to educate others about the issue. I acknowledged two
people in the audience from the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (John
Linnehan from Jacksonville and Bob Tancig from Gainesville. Bob is the new
director of the organization. John had picked me up at the Jacksonville
airport and drove me to Perry.) They pledged the support of the Florida
Coalition.
I urge others to send a message of solidarity to Joy and the folks in
Taylor County. They could use some encouragement and some hope. I know they
have just given me a bunch of it. You can reach Joy Towles Ezell at
hope@gtcom.net
This is how America will change.
Bombing the Panhandle
Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
By BRUCE K. GAGNON
I have just returned from a one-day trip to Perry, Florida to speak to a
gathering of concerned citizens who are organizing to stop the placement of
a new bombing range in their rural community. It was one of the most
inspiring trips that I have ever made.
Perry is up in the Florida panhandle, just south of the capital city of
Tallahassee. The region is called the nature coast as Taylor county touches
the Gulf of Mexico and has several key rivers that run through its pine
tree forests to the gulf. The county has a relatively small population as
Florida goes and that is one reason the Pentagon sees it as a good place to
put a bombing range.
There is a bombing range already in the region, just further west at Eglin
AFB near Ft Walton Beach. I lived there while in high school when my father
was stationed at Eglin and I hiked through the middle of the bombing range
as an explorer scout. It is one of the largest military bases in the nation
but population has grown near the base to the point where the noise from
the bombing range has begun to draw complaints. Most recently the Mother of
all Bombs (MOAB) was tested at Eglin. The MOAB is the most powerful
non-nuclear bomb ever created that creates a mushroom cloud and shockwaves
similar to a small nuclear explosion.
Rural Taylor County already has huge problems. The Buckeye paper mill has
been contaminating the Fenholloway River that flows into the Gulf. Long ago
classified as an industrial river, it is essentially dead and dumps toxic
pollution into the Gulf. Groundwater contamination in Perry has long been a
result and one local activist, Joy Towles Ezell, has been working to
organize people in their company controlled town for years. Joy is a fifth
generation Taylor County resident who has now taken on the military over
the bombing range.
I met Joy years ago when I worked for the Florida Coalition for Peace &
Justice. We tried to support her work around the paper mill and she
supported our efforts to alert people when cruise missiles were fired from
Navy ships in the Gulf that flew over the panhandle and then crashed into
the Eglin bombing range. Before the meeting Tuesday night Joy showed me a
letter she wrote to then Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1991 on our behalf
protesting the cruise missile tests. Years later when I organized a
700-mile Walk for the Earth from the Everglades to Tallahassee we camped on
her land outside of Perry and held a rally at the paper mill. My son had a
great time riding one of her prized mules while we were there.
Fifty local residents gathered Tuesday night in the back room at the
Chaparral restaurant. The first thing Joy did when we arrived was make two
of us go out front and put up on the portable advertising sign the words
"Don't Bomb Nature Coast Meeting 7:00 pm" just below the words "Country
Buffet."
The first speaker was Dr. Ronald Saff from Florida State University in
Tallahassee who is an expert on coal fired power plant pollution. In
addition to the paper mill and the bombing range, there are also plans to
build a coal power plant in Taylor County. The decision has been made to
turn the county into a wasteland, a sacrifice area.
Taylor County is your basic southern, rural, conservative place. People
vote Republican and they don't take to outsiders very well. They don't do
radical politics either. That is what made the meeting Tuesday night so
special.
These 50 folks who gathered were retired school teachers, good church
goers, the local industrial development officer, well dressed, quiet and
concerned. One of them, a refined southern woman, Republican and
Episcopalian, had been in the group that the Air Force recently flew to
Eglin so they could see how nice the bombing range looked. The Taylor
County delegation was promised that depleted uranium would not be used in
their county. Joy was not invited to go along on the trip.
The Eglin AFB bombing range has been testing depleted Uranium (DU) and
since 1973 over 220,000 pounds of DU penetrators were expended there.
Cruise missiles that crashed on the Eglin range carried DU as ballast in
the nose cones in place of a warhead. After so-called "clean-up" a public
health assessment at Eglin estimates that 90-95% of the DU remains in the soil.
People in Taylor County have been told that cruise missiles will be tested
over their heads and that the weapons will circle around in Alabama and
come back to the proposed bombing range to crash land. The military "needs"
the Taylor County range they say because they need to practice flying
cruise missiles off ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The Pentagon has been
telling the residents that the tests are practice for "missile defense" as
part of homeland security. A pro-bombing range group called "Citizens for
Homeland Security" has been set up but residents say it is just a couple of
those who are involved in the money trail behind the bombing range and the
coal plant.
I told the residents that it was time to redefine the term "homeland
security." I asked how secure they were when their water, air and land was
becoming so contaminated that they future generations could not live there?
I also told them cruise missiles were first-strike, sneak attack weapons
that have nothing to do with "defense." I told them cruise missiles are
part of a preemptive military policy that violates international law. I
asked them how they'd feel if another country launched sneak attack weapons
onto the U.S.?
The local Rotary Club has been offered a gift of $10,000 if they will
support the bombing range. The county government has been offered $40
million. Local hunters have been promised continued access to the range so
they can hunt deer and wild boar on the land. In spite of all that the
local residents are organizing and have forced a non-binding referendum on
the question on the November ballot. They think they will win the vote but
fear the county will agree to the range anyway.
The folks have yard signs, buttons, bumperstickers and will have a booth at
the up-coming forest service "Forest Festival" and draws 20,000 from the
region. They keep letters to the editor flowing into their local paper in
order to combat new rumors put out by the military.
The meeting ended with Joy calling Vieques, Puerto Rico and getting one of
the leaders of their long and successful campaign to close down the
military bombing range on their beautiful island. I can't describe the
feeling to listen to Robert Rabin as Joy held the microphone up to her cell
phone. I looked around the room at the people as they deeply listened as
Robert told the story how the Navy dropped a bomb on a Navy building
killing one of their own security guards. A moan went through the room like
a knife through the heart. The Taylor County community had been promised by
the military that they never have accidents. It was incredible to hear
Robert use the word love a dozen times to describe the core of their
campaign against the Navy and how they used non-violent civil disobedience.
The people just listened and after his 15 minute talk they applauded with
great vigor.
There is nothing like life experience to change people. The folks in Taylor
County are changing rapidly. One woman, a life long Christian and good
Republican, told me she'd never vote for another Republican again. (I
couldn't help but think how stupid the Bush administration is to bring this
bombing range issue up right before the November election in a state where
EVERY VOTE really counts.)
At the end of the meeting the people asked me two things. What more can we
do and do you think we can win? I told them that the people in Vieques won
because they became a "pain in the ass" and they had to do the same. I also
told them they could not do this alone, that they needed to send folks out
around the state to educate others about the issue. I acknowledged two
people in the audience from the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (John
Linnehan from Jacksonville and Bob Tancig from Gainesville. Bob is the new
director of the organization. John had picked me up at the Jacksonville
airport and drove me to Perry.) They pledged the support of the Florida
Coalition.
I urge others to send a message of solidarity to Joy and the folks in
Taylor County. They could use some encouragement and some hope. I know they
have just given me a bunch of it. You can reach Joy Towles Ezell at
hope@gtcom.net
This is how America will change.
