L E T T E R S
OUT WITH A BANG

To the editor:

I would now like to take this time to thank all the individuals who helped me with this year's Fourth of July Fireworks. Although it is always hard to call them off on the actual night of the scheduled event, it is always better to be safe then sorry.

Thank you to Dave Fronzuto for his constant professional commitment in making sure that the fireworks make it securely onto the barge and for keeping our waters safe. Thank you to Libby Gibson and the Board of Selectmen for offsetting our extra costs and contributing to the event. In addition, I am grateful to Police Chief Bill Pittman for his help and Acting Fire Chief Mark McDougal and both their Staffs for their time. In addition I would like to include Grucci Fireworks, Coast Guard Senior Chief Sheila Lucy, Park and Rec Director Jimmy Manchester, the Nantucket Lodging Association and the Nantucket Visitor Services Committee for their assistance in this event.

I truly want to thank David, Kevin and the rest of my Staff for their continued support during a challenging time and let them know I truly appreciate their efforts.

Lastly, I would also like to acknowledge and express gratitude to the community of Nantucket and my appreciation for their encouragement and patience. I want you all to know that no one is happier then I am when I see that first shell light up the sky and amongst the cheers, I am sure you might hear one lone sigh of relief. Most Sincerely,

- Kate Hamilton,

Director JOHN Q PUBLIC, PLEASE SPEAK NOW

To the editor:

When Cape and Island residents began a vigorous dissent against Cape Wind's effort to build the world's largest offshore wind project in Nantucket Sound, Cape Wind and its legions began attacking opponents as wealthy homeowners motivated only by their selfish view of the Sound. The developer then began to decry what they claimed was a pattern of wealthy people forcing power plants into poorer communities, in this case the city of New Bedford which had been listed briefly as an alternative site to Cape Wind's preferred site in Nantucket Sound.

But how does Jim Gordon, a career power plant developer who has steamrolled over every community that tried to stop him, actually lay claim to being a fighter for poor communities? Is Mr. Gordon the true visionary that he claims, a developer who understands and fights for what many people would describe as "Environmental Justice"?

And how does Mr. Gordon explain his company's recent bid to build a fossil fuel plant in the City of Chelsea, a proud community that suffers from above average poverty and chronic environmental pollution? Cape Wind has taken great delight in thumbing its nose at Cape and Island residents by playing the wealth card and daring anyone to argue against their project on the basis of environmental justice. They even convinced one Norris McDonald, the head of an organization calling itself the African American Environmentalist Association to take up their cause during the permit application process with the Army Corps of Engineers.

What is the African American Environmentalist Association? I don't know, even though I am African American and an environmentalist. Until I saw their letter defending Cape Wind, I didn't even know that "we" had such an organization, and I can't say I have ever met or even heard of Mr. McDonald.

So, where is Mr. Norris on Mr. Gordon's latest "vision" of building a diesel fuel power plant in a poor community that can't defend itself against such a development? How does Mr. Norris justify such a project in a city that is largely populated by immigrants and minorities and on a site that is literally across the street from an elementary school?

The stupidity of Cape Wind's misplayed environmental justice card is now coming home to roost. Wouldn't it be more environmentally just for Cape Wind to propose its lofty new age wind power plant in the city of Chelsea to demonstrate its commitment to justice? Apparently those are projects fit only for wealthy (color-neutral) communities, not for the likes of Chelsea which can only aspire to get a diesel power plant. It's one idea to defend poor communities from filthy plants, but quite another to deny them the "clean" plants reserved for nicer communities (that also don't want them) while plotting to build the diesel plant all the while in that poor community.

Now Cape Wind, embarrassed by the revelation of what it is trying to do in Chelsea, is furiously backpedaling, defending this diesel plant as cleaner than clean, making this project out to be some sort of economic engine for Chelsea.

Who's the elitist now? Who is the symbol of environmental injustice more than Cape Wind? It is environmental hypocrisy to castigate everyone who stands in your way as a polluter because we didn't buy your spin about how the Cape Wind project benefits us. Now that we see what this company is really all about - money and opportunity - we no longer have to listen to Cape Wind's contemptuous arrogance about how much better and more enlightened they are than the rest of us.

We have fought the Cape Wind project because it is in our back yards and in our front yards and it would forever change the character of Cape Cod and the islands. We have a right to defend our communities just as much as Chelsea has a right to defend theirs. But that has nothing to do with a spoiled view or some aesthetic tick that we are collectively suffering from down here.

I only raise my own racial heritage to call into question why Mr. McDonald felt it necessary to tell the Army Corps his racial status. And why did Cape Wind calculate that it was somehow to their advantage to have a black man take up their cause in the fight for an Army Corps permit? Yes, the environmental justice card!

Well, here's my card Mr. Gordon. Your project cannot be permitted to be built in Nantucket Sound because what you are seeking to destroy in the name of your own profit is a gift that we need to protect from your industrial plans. NIMBY is not a bad thing when motivated by a clear sense of right and wrong, and the Cape Wind project is just wrong. His projects lack real ingenuity and vision, and fail to seriously address our energy needs. And if he ever gets to build it, he'll move onto Chelsea or New Bedford and any other community he thinks he can overwhelm with plants that will continue to pollute.

If Cape Wind really wants to make some friends, they should take up the Chelsea City Councilor who said the city would rather have the wind project than the gas plant. I say let him put the wind farm in Chelsea if it is really that clean a source of energy and then build his diesel plant in his own rich neighborhood and see how his neighbors like it. What say you Brother Norris, Rev. Sharpton, John Q. Public? Speak up now!

- Stephen W. Williams