Public hearings on Titan Cement tomorrow and Thursday

We have learned how you operate and are hereby evoking the "to my knowledge" defense. That is a little trick we picked up from Art Pope testifying at the NC Board of Elections. It allows a person to say whatever the hell they want, as long as they have an inkling of "knowledge" that the statement may be true, which means you're likely to hear a lot of that sort of thing at the upcoming public hearings. For example, a person speaking at the hearing might decide to say, "Titan Cement is a mega-polluting company run by a cabal of scumbag liars who put profits over people at every turn." All she needs to do to steer clear of your cabal of anti-free-speech lawyers is add "to my knowledge" at the end of her comments. To my knowledge, there's ample evidence to suggest that statement may be true.

If you had an ounce of civic decency, you'd put your (expletive deleted) plant somewhere else.

Below is my public comment, spoken at the Dept. of Air Quality Draft Air Permit (DAQ) hearing for Titan Cement on Sept. 29th. The hearing was attended by about 150 people. Eighty citizens signed up to speak. Seventy of those spoke in opposition to the issuance of the permit, only ten supported it. That percentage is certainly terrific, however the public hearings for Titan's first permit application two years ago were attended by about 1500 people and I knew I needed to address that in my comments.
I received a standing ovation after reading these comments, but I think everyone who stood up to voice their concerns at those hearings should be applauded. We should be grateful to all who stand up and refuse to allow this corporate bully to silence them. Here is my comment to Patrick Butler the hearing officer:

Initially I had prepared comments concerning Environmental Justice and its significance to this issue, which is an important consideration in the issuance of this permit. However, after attending Tuesday’s hearing, I realized that, if the purpose of these hearings is to gauge the public’s level of concern based on a representative group of the community; and if that is part of the decision making process for issuing this or any other permit - which I assume is why we’re all here - than I needed to address something else.
I attended the first DAQ hearings two years ago when over 1500 citizens crammed into McKeithan Hall to voice their concerns. As I recall, a large majority of those who commented were opposed to the issuance of the Air Permit until a comprehensive review was conducted– and that was despite Titan bringing in a busload of supporters from out of state.
In my opinion, based on my involvement in this community, the opposition to this cement plant has probably doubled since that first hearing two years ago. In fact, on Tuesday, one of the speakers commented on the recent poll where 1412 citizens– a whopping 80% of the poll – voted NO on whether the state should approve Titan’s Air Permit. That number represents a much larger group than the 20 or so who spoke on Tuesday.
So, I had to wonder... why such a low turnout as compared to the last hearing? Of course, there is no way to know exactly why folks stayed home, but it surely isn’t because this community has stopped caring about this issue. The citizens of the Cape Fear region continue to be deeply concerned about the possibility of allowing one of the largest cement plants in the country – an industry that is one of the heaviest polluters in the world - to build here without first submitting to a full health impact study and full comprehensive review. Could it be possible there’s another reason more people are not speaking out? So, Mr. Butler, I would like to read you a definition:

“A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism.” [1]
“While most SLAPPs lose in court, they "succeed" in the public arena. This is because defending a SLAPP, even when the legal defense is strong, requires a substantial investment of money, time, and resources. The resulting effect is a "chill" on public participation in, and open debate on, important public issues. This "chilling" effect is not limited to the SLAPP target(s): fearful of being the target of future litigation, others refrain from speaking on, or participating in, issues of public concern.” [2]

At Tuesday’s hearing, I began to wonder if maybe this was one of those “successes”. I am one of two victims of a SLAPP lawsuit filed by Titan Cement in March of this year. Dr. David Hill, a local well-respected pediatrician and I were sued for truthful and accurate comments we made in a public forum not much different than this one. And it is with great consternation and regret that I think - how awful if even one person stayed home tonight because they felt intimidated. I KNOW that some in this community have been silenced by this SLAPP suit – because they’ve confided in me that they are now too afraid to speak out against Titan.

So, I ask that you please note that the possibility exists that certain influences preventing good, honest people from speaking out against this permit, which is, in my opinion, exactly why Titan filed this suit in the first place.
And that Mr. Butler, would be a grave injustice to this process, to this community and frankly, to democracy itself.

Submitted by: Kayne Darrell kaydee@ec.rr.com

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation
[2] http://www.thefirstamendment.org/antislappresourcecenter.html