by Jonathan David Farley

"Palante, Siempre Palante!"

Hijacking Democracy in "Cheat 'em" County

I had gone to the Cheatham County Courthouse to attend a public hearing on a power plant that was in the works. Initially I was indifferent. After all, I don't live there: I just went to pass out fliers for the Green Party. But what I saw made me angry. I saw how corporations have hijacked our democracy. While the people in favor of the plant had well over an hour to make their case, the citizens against the plant had a mere 15 minutes.

The Dominion Corporation has proposed building two power plants in Ashland City. The advantage to the county? A measly $1 million over the next 15 years. Who's to say that Dominion couldn't pay Cheatham ten times that? After all, if they were taxed at the same rate as you and me, they'd be paying at least $4 million a year, forever. The fact that some of the people making the decisions stand to personally gain hundreds of thousands of dollars never even came up.

Roughly 9 million gallons of water will be drained from the river each day. What will be put back in? County Executive Bill Orange, who supports the plant, quips that it doesn't matter -- the river is already dirty. And an environmental "expert" (a paid Dominion employee) assured us that, sometimes, the water that's put back in even helps the fish!

What about the air? Ignored was the fact that carcinogens like formaldehyde will descend like a shroud over one-third of Ashland City. Don't worry, the "expert" said, about ammonia and other "harmless" invisible chemicals. Wait a minute: just because something is invisible doesn't mean it's harmless. The Mack truck you didn't see on the highway was invisible -- until it totaled your car.

Dr. Jonathan David Farley is a mathematics professor at Vanderbilt University (Nashville TN), a graduate of Harvard and Oxford.

In their rush to judgement, the county council failed to discuss how much Cheatham would lose in terms of property values, emigration, health costs, and quality of life. (They want to build a park next to the plant. Do you want your kids playing there?) It never occurred to them that the Dominion Power Plant might become a man-eating monster, like in Little Shop of Horrors.

What about noise pollution? No problem. The Dominion "expert" said that the noise generated by the plant would be no louder than a conversation. I didn't hear what else he said, because people next to me were talking.

We need to stop coddling corporations. Instead of tripping over ourselves to see who can give the most away to these godless businessmen, local governments across the region need to work collectively, to force companies that want to move in to pay their fair share in taxes, and commit to safety standards _beyond_ what the Environmental Protection Agency requires.

In the end, the Cheatham County Council voted for the power plant. Dominion had lost the vote at the previous meeting, so all they did was schedule a new one. None of the council members questioned any of Dominion's "facts." No expert from the other side was allowed to present a different view. Essentially, Terri had lost her home. The Dominion "expert" grinned like a gargoyle.

Let's wipe that grin off his face. And let's wipe the tears off Terri's. Because it's not just Cheatham County's problem. The air coughed out of their smokestacks today will be in our lungs tomorrow.

Let's end corporate welfare -- and take our democracy back.