Environmentalists Gag Selves In Protest
Calling a congressional hearing on the Endangered Species Act a travesty of justice, some 50 environmentalists interrupted the hearing Monday, then gagged themselves and marched to their own rally on the banks of the Columbia River.
“The point was not to disrupt anything,” said John Kart, with the Portland-based Oregon Natural Resources Council. “The point was this is not a fair hearing, and if we’re not going to be heard in there, we’ll speak out here.”
The environmentalists felt they weren’t fairly represented among the 22 people who were allowed to testify before the congressional task force.
“Basically, of 22 people asked to speak, 17 were against the Endangered Species Act. That’s anything but democratic. These hearings are basically a sham.”
Only five of the 19 members of the task force attended the hearing Monday at the Red Lion Inn in Vancouver. None of the Democrats on the task force attended.
The Republican Congress is considering greatly easing provisions of the act on grounds it does too much damage to people.Security was tight - with more than 40 uniformed
Vancouver police officers and numerous Secret Service agents, who used a hand-held metal detector on everyone entering the hearing room.
More than 1,000 people attended the hearing, and several rallies were held outside. Before the five-hour hearing began, more than a dozen property-rights advocates marched in front of the hotel dressed as convicts in black-and-white striped jumpsuits, wearing placards that said, “ESA Hostage.”
Loggers and other timber industry workers wore yellow ribbons on their arms “to show our support for the industry,” said Marlin Aerni of Halsey, Ore., a pipe fitter at Pope & Talbot.
“It’s our jobs and our future,” he said. “And our future isn’t going to be worth a poop if they keep forcing our mills overseas. People seem to forget you have to cut trees to make paper.”
Tempers flared as the afternoon drew on and the task force didn’t break for lunch. The audience hissed and jeered when it didn’t like questions from the task force or the responses from those testifying. And some members of the task force snapped at the speakers, telling them to answer direct questions.