The Cowardly Left

Stormbringer covered a "protest" of sorts at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge.  He rightly points out the cowardice of the Left in their quest for a nuclear-free world.  That they only seem to protest ("speak truth to power") where it is safe to do so.  They never went to the Soviet Union, they don't go to China, NoKo or Iran.  Only in the Western democracies and specifically the United States, where the worst they will get is a slap on the hand, will they pull crap like this.  They are cowards, lacking the courage of their convictions.

That brings me to a story from late 1981.  I was working as a consultant in the commercial nuclear power industry, post Three-Mile-Island incident.  The assignment was to observe and evaluate the first post TMI emergency drill.  It was at the now closed Big Rock Point  plant in Michigan.  The idea was to hold the drill both with the plant and local civilian authorities and allow the "intervenors" (read "anti-nuclear Luddites") to observe up close and personal.  We were incredibly polite to these people, going far out of our way to explain what was happening, why and how.  We were friendly and engaging.  Those with my team never acknowledged us and our openness, never thanked us, never even treated us with the common courtesy one would give a stranger.  We were the enemy,apparently.

At the end of the (very successful) drill, we allowed them to speak at the outbrief.  It did not surprise me when the 30-something woman in the overalls and red bandana red from a prepared statement full of communist propaganda about the proletariat vs. the bougoisie, the evils of Capitalism and the wonders of the Workers Socialist paradise.  No "thank you", no "gee this was interesting and we learned something", not even a "kiss my ass".  This is the point at which I knew what we, as a country were up against.  An enemy within that has no desire to see the other side of the equation, no plan other than to kill the nuclear industry and, as an extension work their way to undermining all of the United States from within.    They have quite nearly succeeded.  These are the same people from the war protests, the Cindy Sheehans of the world, the OWS folks, the piad protestors of the SEIU and AFL-CIO.  They are cockroaches which we will never eradicate, but must endure until they decide to give up.  Because it is safe to be one of them in this country....for now.