Monday, March 15, 2010

Activists Speak Out on WOMR Sunday


On a dark and rainy day I journeyed down to Provincetown with four other Cape activists for guest appearances on Michelle Calling’s bi-weekly Organic Thinking radio show called “Healthy Food For the Mind.” With me were Jared Collins of Concerned Citizens, Laura Kelley of Littlefield Landscapes (right, listening to Michelle, before going live), as well as Sandra Larsen of Green Cape and Eastham Selectman Aimee Eckmann. The topic was, of course, the utility company’s plan to spray herbicides under the power lines here on Cape Cod. Below is Michelle, right after we went on the air. Two people called in with questions. I felt as if I were representing grandmothers who care about the environment, as well as green innkeepers. Spraying of herbicides will contaminate our drinking water and introduce new toxins into the dust on the popular bike trail, along the power lines. These toxins will be tracked into our homes and inns by bikers, hikers, children, and pets, anyone who enjoys nature along this magnificent stretch of Cape Cod. (Two weeks ago Time Magazine did an article called What’s in Household Dust? Don’t Ask. DDT was banned in 1972 but the toxic chemical has turned up in dust samples examined by Silent Spring Institute.) If you listen to the Herbicides broadcast on WOMR, you can hear the passion in my voice when I discussed the need to change our way of thinking and be more careful of what we put into our environment, especially here on Cape Cod where herbicides can and will leach through sandy soil into drinking water. The reason activists were on Michelle Calling's show was to urge Cape Codders to respond to DAR Commissioner Scott Soares, who has requested, by March 26, scientific facts and legal reasons why the herbicidal spraying should be challenged. Activist Jared Collins will be on the air again on Wednesday, with Rep. Sarah Peake, for Ira Wood’s new talk show Outer Cape Debate.