In the aftermath of the Bank of America protest that took place in downtown Asheville on Aug. 13, Mayor Terry Bellamy sounded a note of bewilderment during a City Council meeting. “It was amazing to me as mayor to have that happen in the city of Asheville, when just two hours down the street in Charlotte is the Bank of America’s headquarters,” she said. “And I was thinking, ‘Why would you come Asheville to do your protest … it takes our city dollars and our city resources to deal with this issue.’ … If they don’t like the investments Bank of America is making, go to the headquarters two hours away.”
Evidently, at least one Asheville resident took her advice to heart. Yesterday morning, four protesters — including one Asheville resident — were arrested and charged with first-degree trespassing after dropping a banner from a construction crane facing the Bank of America headquarters. The banner read, “Bank of America Coal Funding / Killing Communities,” a reference to the bank’s financial backing of coal companies that engage in mountaintop-removal mining. San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network took credit for the action. Click here to read the full story, as reported in The Charlotte Observer. (Photo is from the Observer‘s Web site.)
— Rebecca Bowe, contributing editor
glad to see you guys are following my lead. ;)
we posted this this morning at: http://ashvegas.squarespace.com/journal/2007/10/24/protesters-take-it-to-the-bank-in-charlotte-this-time.html.
thanks for reading!
Rebecca, I know you didn’t hear about this from the Observer, since it reads like you plucked it straight off Ashvegas, where I read this item earlier today.
At least you might have had shame enough not to rip off Ash’s Bellamy reference. Goodness gracious.
Ash: We’re glad to follow any lead to news we all need to know, so thanks for introducing the topic.
Hmmm: It’s no rip-off to quote Bellamy’s reference to taking Bank of America protests down the road to Charlotte. From our perspective, that’s a key part of a story that we’ve reported extensively on. We’d be remiss if we didn’t report the important contextual information about what the mayor said about the matter.
Jon Elliston
Managing Editor
Ash: Thanks for providing the link, and yes, I did see your thread about it.
And Hmmmm, you are right, I didn’t get it from the Observer: I heard about what happened from people who were involved in the protest.
It’s fun to watch journalists have “scoop”fights.
I’m glad to see the info getting spread far and wide, regardless of who said it first. Of course, it’s always best to link to source material, especially if the source is a wildly popular local blog…
For the record, Asheville Indymedia made a mention of this as well.
http://www.ashevilleimc.org/
And you can also catch more discussion about it here on the Rainforest Action Network blog: http://understory.ran.org/2007/10/23/charlotte-banner-tells-bank-of-america-stop-funding-coal/
(I got that link from AIMC)
Anyone gonna talk about the protests, or just who wrote abut it first?
Boomshnap.
Score one for Bowe!
I have a question for the protesters. “Do you use modern technology? Do you use electricity? If so, STOP. You are contributing to the problem by being a CONSUMER of coal burning electric plants. And for goodness sake, quit WHINING if you cannot live up to your green philosophy.
Well, seems that Bush Jr.& associates are not going to get that Iraqi oil they dreamt of for the folks. Hence that someone is proactively thinking in alternative ways to sustain the living standards quite a few got so used to.
Back to coal! And plenty of employment in hard working mining –I foresee a renewed forge of genuinely tough guys covered in soot, well determined to kick in-fashion activists along with corporate leeches’ asses outta the scene.
“Being engulfed by a consumist rat race? Come to us, The Green Side, where we sell.. -oops- ‘offer’ you The Salvation.”
Reply:
“It’s all bollocks” (adage)
Nam Vet,
The only “Whining” I can see on here is being done by you. The people who took part in the ‘action’ (re: not just typing) put up their freedom and safefty to get a point across to the American Public. If you diagree with their point, fine, but what does name calling without any fact add to the conversation? Your lifestyle ‘accusations’ have no bases in fact, only rhetoric. I challenge you to investigate the individuals who took part in this and report back on their actuall lifestyles, as opposed to rumors and assumption.
I hate to point it out to you, but this article gives no information regarding the personal lifestyle choices of these actual people you are making blanket generalizations about.
If you are really so concerned about their hypocrasy, I suggest going to one of the many Earth First meetings where you can engage in actual conversation with real humans who may challenge your blande and predictable assumptions.
One of the points of the protest is that much of our public infrastructure needs to be dealt with. Coal production and conversion (burning) is a destructive, environmentally expesnive way to produce fuel that enriches large companies like B of A, and impoverishes local communities not too far from here. Just ‘unplugging’ does very little on an individual level for any of the serious energy issues this region is facing. People who involve themselves in these kinds of protests are aware of the need to take their actions to a larger arena, where more of the public can be made aware of these kinds of issues. I applaud them for exercising their rights to protest, and for being willing to sacrfice their freedom through arrest to do this. This is far more Honorable and Patriotic than sniping from the annonimity of the internet.
But methinks you arent really interested in looking at the issue of energy production, or even in delving into some investigative journalism; you just enjoy making generic potshots from your computer. Well done, then sir, well done.
Is that how the military trained you to fight in that rightous war for my freedom in Vietnam? By making potshots at vague shapes from afar?
Would you enlist again today to fight off those communists trying to save thier mountain communities from being destroyed by the Freedom-loving coal companies? Perhaps you could Napalm them?
Cassandra, I’m sure you are sincere. BUT my points ARE valid. I ask those who protest if indeed they USE the very products they protest against? My guess is that they do. Unless one lives a complete green life style, the hypocrisy factor figures big here. Completely green in this neck of the woods means NO electricity from the primary public utilities because they use coal to produce a lot of it. And if you oppose the oil industry, do not purchase or use gasoline. If you protest the timber industry, do not purchase or use wood products. These are very valid points and expressing them does not rise to the level of internet “sniping”. After all, this forum is about ideas and criticisms. My God, a “protester” should be able to take a few criticisms since that is what gthey are all about. If you live in a glass house, do not protest! And don’t light it with Progress Energy electricity!
It must hurt to many genuine, honest, old-days hippies, for what they fought with regard to this topic; but nuclear power stations pose a fairly good ratio green/efficiency solution for the time being I am afraid.
–If any mid-long term slightly radioactive residual stuff, dispose of it by sending it by post with an A class stamp to Iran, North Korea… Have heard somewhere of them being quite keen on developing this alternative source of energy.
There was a fairly recent debate in the UK (other side of the pond), whether to build up more nuclear power stations, so that not to become dependent on fickly gas suppliers (Russia…) once the North Sea tap goes dry. Dunno how it ended up.
Ah, I forgot, “fuel cells”, google it, and devote yourself to speed up research and plan its implementation; contribute effectively to a plausible alternative, rather than exercising fairly futile efforts not needed to mention. “Efficency” is the key word.
Bollocks –I reply myself. The problem is too many of us on the planet, there is no room for this many. Nature will restore some order one way or another. World War III, human nature’s fate, fight for power, by any means, nuke it all if necessary. “Star Trek” is a fairy tale… or not, there also ill-mannered aliens and lethal laser beams… Well, then Star Wars VIII will put an end to the whole thing.
Nothing lasts forever. Nature equals regeneration, and its ways are inscrutable.
How deep