Someone’s got to tell these protesting environmentalists to check the calendars of those they’re protesting. Because chanting outside the homes (Obama’s) and offices (Shumlin’s) of our elected leaders while they’re hundreds of miles away on vacation looks kind of silly. Just saying.
I was on lunch break today in Montpelier when I got sight of the Bread & Puppet bus parked at the Statehouse. And then I saw the gathering of people who seemed like the same people who always gather on the Statehouse to seemingly prove that – once again – they have absolutely no power.
I mean, really, when did the last protest on the Statehouse lawn ever lead to change? To me, when a movement gets to having a protest on the Statehouse lawn it’s almost like waving the white flag.
“Yep, it’s come to this,” say the slumping shoulders of the dutiful few who gather to show just how committed to losing they are.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for raising hell on the Statehouse lawn. But, for fuck’s sake, is it too much to ask that those leading the protests try a little something different in terms of strategy and tone? And here’s where they can start: No more Bread & Puppet. Please.
And I’m a fan of Bread & Puppet. In my younger years I spent a lot of time in Glover during the summers. I splashed more than my share of paint around the place – on houses, barns, buildings, buses, placards and torsos.
But, at this point, if all you’ve got is Bread & Puppet and a protest idea, try harder.
I mean, if Vermont is so full of creative change agents, why is Bread & Puppet so alone?
The protest today was all about fighting industrial wind, and about 100 or so Vermonters gathered to…ahem…watch Bread & Puppet make fun of corporate wind (deservedly so, I might add) and listen to a few well-meaning folks challenge Governor Peter Shumlin’s pro-wind ninniness.
One of the problems – other than the fact that Shumlin is never going to change his mind about big wind because he is full of it – is that Shumlin is on vacation. So making a big production about making a delegation visit to deliver him the petitions when he’s hundreds of miles away just doesn’t feel all that empowering.
Call me when you’ve got him surrounded. Or when you’ve got something in addition to Bread & Puppet.
The same thing happened late last week in Washington, DC when Vermont’s eco-darling, Bill McKibben, led a protest at the White House over Tar Sands and global warming. They burned enormous amounts of carbon to travel great distances to deliver Obama a message. The problem was that Obama was also burning enormous amounts of carbon to be on vacation.
In other words, those profiting from burning carbon won. Bummer.
It comes down to strategy. And these eco-folks seem more than a bit clueless.
Because while they do the same chanting on the OUTSIDE of power, the suits INSIDE are calling the shots. Moreover, everyone INSIDE knows that those on the OUTSIDE are doing the same old shit: Yak, chant, and Bread & Puppet. Rinse and repeat.
First of all, these protests have got to be happening when those you’re protesting against are forced to see it, feel it and – most likely – run from it. For example, instead of standing at the designated – and largely ignored – protest site of the Statehouse lawn, how about holding it at one of Shumlin’s scheduled events? Shumlin will be there. The media will be there. And I’ll guarantee the energy will be there when the confrontation begins.
Or, if you’d rather, how about a rally on the lawn of a corporate honcho – say, like, Mary Powell of Green Mountain Power. And make sure she’ll be home. Better yet, bring a 400-foot wind tower replica and set it up and watch her complain about it. But what’s “good” for our mountaintops must be “good” for Powell’s yard, right?
I do wish these anti-industrial wind folks the best. The boondoggle of industrial wind – especially in Vermont – will eventually go down as the wallet-stuffing charade that it is. The only question is whether it will go down before too many more mountaintops and towns are bastardized and forever changed by the big-money lies that fuel it.
Color me unimpressed – by Big Wind and the Big Duds that pass as protests around here.
Now get back to work.