Bellingham Comments from Digital Recorder - EISs for the Proposed ...

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. II
COURT REPORTER: BETH DRUMMOND PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
Page 111
1 cultural creative, which doesn't necessarily fit your box of
2 four categories, but that's kind of my point.
3 Human beings are truly amazing. We can learn
4 foreign languages, grow nutritious food, make beautiful
5 music; we look back in time with telescopes into space; and
6 crash subatomic particles together to try and understand the
7 nature of the universe. When we imagine, we figure out ways
8 to fulfill our dreams.
9 The idea of shipping coal to Asian markets is not
10 a dream of humanity. It is not an idea that results from
11 thinking about the future and what will make our
12 grandchildren thrive and our oceans full of diverse life,
13 and our support systems healthy and nurturing and generous.
14 It's a plan to make a lot of money for a few robber barons
15 and some shareholders.
16 If you, whoever you are, were in charge of
17 inventing the future, would you turn over your dreams for
18 humanity to markets of slavery and pollution that deny our
19 interdependence and that hasten our own destruction?
20 Because anyone who makes the decision that allows
21 shipping megatons of coal a year to Asian markets is
22 choosing to value a quick dollar over a host of dreams.
23 We could be working toward a future of clean
24 energy, healthy ecosystems, and communities of people who
25 collaborate to make life better. We should be doing that.