The 13 cars in the funeral procession for the environment were outnumbered by the 16 vehicle presidential motorcade for President Bush’s Earth Day address. Bush spoke at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm.
Matt Powers of Portland, who organized the funeral, straightened the hem of his black suit jacket while he spoke about their intentions to drive directly to the estuary. “We’re going to be turned away. We want to push the edges a little bit.”
Powers’ group joined the protest on Route 9 in Wells, just up the road from the Bull and Claw Restaurant lot, where protesters were allowed to park. Approximately 200 people were gathered in support of the environment. The majority of the crowd sported anti-Bush signs, such as “Love the environment, uproot a Bush” and “An environmental Bush? An oxymoron.”
Matt Prindville, an outreach coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) said, “Bush’s policies have contributed to Maine having some of the highest mercury levels in the state. He’s trying to tote his environmental record. He doesn’t have an environmental record.”
The protest was sponsored primarily by the NRCM, the Sierra Club and Environmental Maine.
Not everyone at the protest was in favor of ousting Bush. On the opposite side of the Coles Hill Road, Val and Karen Burgess of Boston, Massachusetts stood with two dozen Bush supporters. “I support our country,” Mrs. Burgess said. “We support what he stands behind. He stands behind the people.”
The Burgesses agreed with the protesters that people need to care for the environment. “But they’re going about it the wrong way. If they want to change the environment, they should get on their hands and knees to care for the earth. We’re for clean air, too,” said Mrs. Burgess.
Bush’s recent Clear Skies initiative has provoked strong reactions. Garret Vail, a middle-school teacher from Belfast, explained some of Bush’s policies. “Power plants that retrofit are grand-fathered; they don’t have to meet current emissions standards.”
The coal-powered plants are a primary source of mercury emissions. Nearly eight percent of women in Maine have unhealthy levels of mercury in their blood. Mercury has been proven by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a neurotoxin. Large enough doses result in sensory disturbances, deafness, blurred vision, decreased peripheral vision, speech difficulties, motor skill problems, and an impaired level of consciousness.
America Coming Together (ACT), a non-profit organization that aims to educate people about progressive issues and encourage them to vote, stood with their picketed signs, “Toxic Fish for Bush.” Delacey Skinner, the communications director for ACT New Hampshire, explained that the fish would be in favor of Bush being re-elected because “his current Clear Skies policy will keep people from eating fish for years to come.”
Melissa St. Germain can be contacted at [email protected]