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Anti-Nukes Harass Miss Nevada

A couple of weeks back we pointed to the story on how Miss Nevada expressed her support for the Yucca Mountain project in a Q&A session with officials from the Miss America Pageant. Now comes this sad report:
The family of Miss Nevada Crystal Wosik has been taunted with threats and harassment from unknown sources in the aftermath of remarks she made Jan. 19 to Miss America pageant judges in support of the planned nuclear waste repository, her mother, Lena Wosik, said.

In telephone interviews Friday and Monday, Lena Wosik said, "It's been horrible for the family" to receive messages that mentioned "baby killer" and which chastised her 23-year-old daughter for backing the federal government's effort "to dump toxic waste on our families," in the words of one messenger.

"It's been hurtful and sad for the other kids," Lena Wosik said, referring to Crystal's brothers.

She said the messages were left on a telephone answering machine and delivered to the family's doorstep in a neighborhood near Rainbow Boulevard and U.S. Highway 95.
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Comments

David Bradish said…
Are you kidding me? How low can they really get? What a bunch of garbage!
Anonymous said…
David,

Some anti-nuclear anti-nuclear activists apparently know no bounds. In November (if memory serves me correctly) such protestors trespassed on private property and tried to break into VY's offices on Old Ferry Rd in Brattleboro, VT. Because the police didn't file the right paperwork with the courts on time, the protestors were let go scott free. Then they tried the same thing again in January (article reprinted below). These people have no respect for the individual right to life, liberty or property. The principle of the non-initiation of force is foreign to them. The only thing that matters is their fear. Read on and wonder not why Harry the Dog on the Hudson gets upset at giving any air time to the likes of these. (No, I am not Harry, but I empathize with his frustration because this is what we daily face in Brattleboro or Westchester County or other areas where there are contingents of agitators incited into frenzy by professional anti-nuclear organizations.)

Yankee protesters arrested
< http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102%257E8860%257E3204994,00.html?search=filter >

Yankee protesters arrested

By CATE LECUYER
Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO -- Eleven people were arrested Monday after making it inside the Vermont Yankee headquarters on Old Ferry Road.

In the vestibule of the building, protesters banged on the locked door for about five minutes, and tried to use the intercom to be let in, before they were arrested for trespassing by the Brattleboro Police Department.

More than 200 people crowded the parking lot outside the Entergy Nuclear offices -- almost four times as many people as in the past. This was the third organized protest in three months. Organizers vow to continue the monthly protests to draw attention to their opposition to the proposed power boost at the nuclear plant.

Entergy is seeking a 20-year extension of its license beyond 2012 and for a concurrent power boost of 20 percent. The nuclear facility has been operating since 1972.
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Arrested Monday were Mary Alice Herbert of Putney, Jane Newton of South Londonderry, Sylvia Pigors of Putney, Christopher Williams of Hancock, Eesha Williams of Dummerston, Teresa Caldwell of Shelburne, Mass., David Detmold of Turners Falls, Mass., Jacquie Dauphinais of Florence, Mass., Cory Mathews of Greenfield, Mass., Harvey Schaktman of Shelburne Falls, Mass., and Eric Wasileski of Erving, Mass.

They were issued a citation and released, pending a Feb. 21 court date in Windham District Court.

Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizens Awareness Network, which helped organize the demonstration, said it was not only a call for action, but a tribute to a leader in nonviolent action, whose birthday was celebrated Monday.

"Martin Luther King [Jr.] advocated civil disobedience and that's what took place today," Katz said. "It was a real validation and respect for what King stood for."

Fewer police were present than at previous staged protests, in part, because Chief John Martin did not call in off-duty officers as he had in the past. Martin said he is frustrated by the continuing protests because it draws the department's manpower away from other important townwide policing activities.

On Monday, some of the arresting officers were late in responding to a 911 hangup call, Martin said, possibly jeopardizing the welfare of other residents. The 911 call turned out not to be serious, but there is no way to know that at the time, Martin said.

"All our resources are in one place," he said. "You don't send two officers into a crowd of 100, or to arrest 11 people even," he said.

Martin hopes having fewer police at future protests will make them less effective.

"Part of what we're trying to do is discourage the forum that's causing everyone to protest," said Martin. "Hopefully not getting that forum will reduce the number and frequency of the protests."
Lisa Stiles said…
The article states "Anti-Yucca advocate Peggy Maze Johnson, director of the statewide environmental group Citizen Alert, said any harsh messages to the family from Miss Nevada's comments sounds more like the work of those out to smear those who oppose the project. "That's ignorant," Johnson said about any threatening messages that might have been directed at the Wosiks.

Maze Johnson said it would not be the nature of anti-Yucca advocates to make threats or even commit acts of vandalism to destroy someone's property."

Perhaps Ms. Maze Johnson has enough integrity to refrain from personal attacks, but I can say from my own experience that it is hardly "against the nature" of anti-nuclear and anti-Yucca activists to do such things.
My professionalism, intelligence, and integrity have all been rudely questioned by leaders of the antinuclear movement. Luckily, no one has threatened my safety, but I also don't have as high a public profile as Miss Nevada.
Anonymous said…
Way to overgeneralize about nuclear power opponents. That's as bad as blaming the entire nuclear industry for the Soviets sending guys onto the roof of Chernobyl with shovels. No one's defending threats against Miss Nevada, but stereotypes don't serve anyone well.
Anonymous said…
Would it be fair to say that all nuclear proponents are murderers because of what happened to Karen Silkwood? Of course not.
Anonymous said…
That just a few of the anti-nukes adopt the goon-squad tactics of threats and intimidation is a few too many. I know many good people who lost their jobs at Maine Yankee and Rancho Seco because of anti-nuke agitprop, but they didn't invade any offices or leave any threats on answering machines. IOW, they were respectful, law-abiding citizens, not lawless, unethical, heartless goons.
Anonymous said…
"I know many good people who lost their jobs at Maine Yankee and Rancho Seco because of anti-nuke agitprop, but they didn't invade any offices or leave any threats on answering machines."

Any time that anti-nuke agiprop infringes on the rights of individuals to make a decent living (i.e., interferes with the individual right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) then that agiprop is automatically and inherently immoral.

To say "I am afraid, therefore you must shut your perfectly good plant down and lose your job because of my fear" IS immoral.

That's the point. It is immoral even when the majority of people (in this case, the tens of thousands of Rancho Seco) decide because of their fear that hundreds of people must lose their jobs and a perfectly good nuclear power plant must be shutdown.

We live in a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy where tyranny of the majority can take away the rights of a minority to make an honest living. Apparently Rancho Seco was more akin to ancient Athens. Let me explain.

Socrates was killed by law abiding citizens who decided under the law that they didn't like what they were hearing. Their fear drove them by a majority to condemn him to death. In like manner the citizens of Rancho Seco killed their one source of low cost, non-polluting power in the same way that the citizens of Long Island and former NY Governor Mario Cuomo killed Shoreham.

Being law abiding does NOT mean being moral.

Sadly, in most cases, Lisa Shell is correct.
Anonymous said…
"I know many good people who lost their jobs at Maine Yankee and Rancho Seco because of anti-nuke agitprop, but they didn't invade any offices or leave any threats on answering machines."

BTW, these anti-nuke agitprops DID try to invade offices - Entergy's Offices on Old Ferry Road in Brattleboro, VT. And they did it TWICE - once in November and once in January.

They are neither law-abiding nor moral.
Anonymous said…
Let's run all their cars off the road !! That'll show them.
Anonymous said…
I have been in the business for going on thirty years now, and have met and done business with tens of thousands of people. I have met and known many more, through professional society meetings, social gatherings, and educational environments. Of all of these pro-nuclear people, I feel comfortable asserting that I have not known any of them who have run someone off the road, or left them threatening messages for anyone, or invaded someone's place of business. Everyone I have known in the nuclear industry has been a productive, law-abiding citizen. I see people on the other side engaging in goon-squad tactics. Is that what they are all about? Their actions certainly seem to indicate that.
Lisa Stiles said…
I certainly didn't say that all anti-nuclear activists use threatening tactics. Johnson was asserting that such a thing couldn't possibly be done by a member of her organization or like-minded individuals. I was pointing out that it does indeed happen and her statement was naive.

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