Paxus’ letter to the Richmond Times Dispatch on MLK Birthday
About a year and a half ago the RTD published an editorial critical of my decision to appeal the jail sentence I received for protesting Dominion Resources plan to build a third reactor at North Anna (Opinion Sept 28, 2008, “Power Play”). You said,
(T)he essence of civil disobedience consists in accepting an unjust
punishment in order to highlight the inequity of a circumstance.
My purpose in appealing my conviction was not to be found not-guilty, which I knew was unlikely, but to be sentenced by a jury of my peers. Now, on Martin Luther King’s birthday I find myself writing to the RTD from the regional county jail in Orange, accepting my unjust punishment.
Being here has reminded me why I made the decision to be arrested in 2008. I grew nervous on the ride to jail, afraid of what my time would hold for me. But when one of my cell mates asked me if I’d do it again, if I was really doing time for my beliefs, I knew I was where I needed to be. I would come back to this cell, or to another, and serve out an unjust punishment, to stop a greater danger.
MLK taught us to use non-violent protests to spread awareness of injustice, to stand up for what we believe is right, and to speak truth to power.
Here is what i believe is true:
– Nuclear power is expensive, slow, and unreliable, and so cannot be a solution to either climate change or peak oil.
– No country in the world has an operating long term high level waste storage facility, and the US currently does not even have a plan for one.
– No private investment capital has been spent on new nuclear plants in the US in years.
– Nuclear power has received two sets of public bail outs in its
history and without another it will not get built in the US.
– Dominion is the largest campaign contributor in Virginia
Finally, I believe that before Dominion builds another reactor at North
Anna, a whole lot more people will be writing the RTD from jail about it.
Paxus Calta is a resident of Louisa and works with the People’s
Alliance for Clean Energy
