Open Letter to the Vermont Congressional Delegation
I am writing to you to express my concerns about basing F-35’s in the Burlington area.
First of all I’d like to call your attention to the front page article in the June 27, 2012 Burlington Free Press, “Grave Mistakes Made in Choosing Burlington” http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120626/NEWS02/306270004/Councilor-Grave-mistakes-ranking-Burlington-F-35?
I think you should investigate thoroughly both the data and the scoring model used by the Air Force in determining that the Burlington area is a “preferred alternative” for hosting F-35’s. It’s been clear to me after deciphering the Air Force’s own Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that local basing of the F-35’s is a disaster both for my community of Winooski and the value of the home I own. So it’s hardly a shock to me that “mistakes” might have been.
Second, I’d like to call your attention to the June 25 front page article in the Burlington Free Press “Life in the ‘Dead Zone.’” Since the boundary that includes homes inside the 65 dB DNL (not considered suitable for residential use) is expanded to include a good part of Winooski where I live, I am very much concerned that this article forecasts the fate of my community.
Here is what Senator Sanders wrote to me in response to my concerns:
“I have serious concerns about maintaining and protecting the environment and quality of life for people living near the airport where the planes would be based, and believe it is essential to learn what steps will be taken to manage noise pollution and environmental issues, should Vermont be chosen to deploy the F-35s.”
With all due respect this is like trying to reason with the fox once the fox is in the hen house. What if Senator Sanders finds out that NO “steps will or can be taken to manage noise pollution…..”? Then what? We deserve better.
To be a bit crass about it, here’s what I hear from Vermont politicians about the local basing of F-35’s: “It’s military pork! It’s free money! It’s all good! Trust us!”
I have progressive leanings, and I have supported progressive candidates with time, money, and energy in the last several election cycles. One might think that, since I live in Vermont, I could devote my efforts to supporting as many progressive candidates and issues as I could. However, the progressive politicians in Vermont, whom I have supported in the past, are now making it difficult for me. This is the issue: All of the significant Vermont politicians – Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, Congressman Peter Welch, and Governor Peter Shumlin among others are supporting the basing of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the Burlington. A total of 2944 homes would be in this noise area including my home in Winooski, Vermont. In general the local basing of F-35’s would be devastating to communities near the airport.
The Vermont politicians are acting like teenage girls excited about a cute guy in their excitement over the possibility of getting this military pork. They have been uncritical of the potential damage to communities like mine. Furthermore they have been uncritical of the F-35 itself. Winslow Wheeler wrote an article in the magazine Foreign Policy entitled “The Jet That Ate the Pentagon” http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/26/the_jet_that_ate_the_pentagon From the article: “The current appraisal for operations and support is $1.1 trillion – making for a grand total of $1.5 trillion, or more than the annual GDP of Spain. And that estimate is wildly optimistic: It assumes the F-35 will only be 42{33979494efa9b9c28f844b5c37a1ddedf4bb90a2eb3dac7a83ede58b7eac2e67} more expensive to operate than an F-16, but the F-35 is much more complex.” So this is the kind of spending our “progressive” Vermont politicians favor?
I bring this up because there’s a part of me that wants to support Obama and progressive candidates. But I can’t. I’m spending all my time fighting the basing of the F-35 in Vermont. More generally I imagine there are many like me who in this election cycle have been distracted from supporting progressive candidates by politicians who have made “expedient” choices or in some cases have been outright sellouts.
Here’s a map of where I live. Note that I will be in the zone “not considered suitable for residential use.”
https://saveourskiesvt.org/map
Igor Zbitnoff, Winooski
