Laws are codified public sentiment. They are supposed to represent what’s right. They exist to protect us.
But sometimes laws don’t feel like that.
Case in point: the laws that allow two local companies to act like outlaws. I’m speaking of course of Entergy and Eversource, both widely perceived to be endangering the public health and welfare.
Entergy, the owner of Pilgrim nuclear power plant, announced recently that they’ve decided they will be refueling in 2017. (It had been hoped by many that it would make good economic sense for them to close down before their announced 2019 date rather than come up with the $70 million. It must somehow positively affect their bottomline to keep going.)
Meanwhile, Eversource merrily continues the rape of all our towns with their spraying of pesticides on the powerlines.
Both these companies have the law on their side. In both cases the public regulatory agencies charged with looking out for the public interest have given them their blessing (even though the NRC has ranked Pilgrim the 2nd worst nuke plant in the country).
Both are legal, yet, in contempt of virtually all concerned parties—customers, the public, our town meetings, and elected representatives, they feel like outlaws.
The first definition of outlaw (I just looked it up) is “a person who has broken the law.” But the synonyms are “public enemy, outcast, …pariah” All of which seem to apply to these companies in contempt.
When laws fail us, when de facto outlaws have the law on their side, what recourse do we have? There’s one obvious answer, illustrated by a anecdote about Henry Thoreau capturing the essence of civil disobedience.
Thoreau is in jail for having refused to pay the poll tax, believing that it supported the expansion of slavery.
Emerson comes along and sees his friend behind bars. “Henry, what are you doing in there?”
Ralph, retorts Henry: “What are you doing out there?”
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