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Travesty Island. a drama by Peter Taber.
(Three Grim Reapers come through the gate onto the island in single file and then fan out with Baldacci one long step ahead, the other two trailing to his left. They halt abruptly when the Green Knight addresses them.)
GREEN KNIGHT BALDACCI Hail, Green Knight. And hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is John Baldacci and I'm the governor of the great State of Maine. I sincerely want you all to know how very very gratified I am to be out here with all of you on this lovely afternoon on lovely Sears Island in lovely Searsport. Are there any babies to kiss? No? Well, anyway, I want you all to know how very, very impressed I am with the very wonderful people that I called together two years ago to take part in a very special planning process, a process to figure out how the heck we can take this lovely lovely island and finally do something useful with it. GREEN KNIGHT Cease your blather. Your words drip with honey, governor, but they stink of death. Go back. Leave this island. BALDACCI (advances three steps forward as the other two grim reapers advance one step to positions immediately behind and to the left of the first reaper.) GREEN KNIGHT Go back, I say! (All three reapers advance in unison one additional step until they are just over the green line.) GREEN KNIGHT Halt! You have entered onto an enchanted island on a special day. You have just crossed over a green line into a place whose beauty wilts your lies and compels you to speak the truth. Dark Figures, I command you to tell us who you are, why you are really here, what it is that you really want? BALDACCI Uh aagh (gasping struggling voice at first then irritated and nasty) I already told you, I'm John Baldacci, the governor of Maine, and that's no lie. I and my colleagues are here, if you really must know, to carry off the lifeless body of Diana lying behind you in that coffin. When it comes to finding uses for this island we developers have no use for the patron goddess of all things wild. Before we can fire up a single bulldozer she must be removed from this island. GREEN KNIGHT Diana is not lifeless, governor. She merely sleeps. When this island is no longer troubled by the folly of you and your kind Diana will arise anew. Now tell us, what mischief are you up to? I command the truth. BALDACCI Well, just like all my predecessors in the Blaine House over the past 40 years some were Democrats like me, some were Republicans, one even called himself an independent like all of them, I've worked diligently on behalf of my most important constituency. GREEN KNIGHT And what is that, governor? BALDACCI What is that, indeed. Maybe you think I'm talking about the four out of five Maine workers who are self-employed or work for micro-businesses that employ maybe a handful of people at most? Guess again, sucker. You think I really give a damn about what is by far our largest industry, tourism? Or about the retirement sector of our state's economy? Or about what might be the most promising sector, the creative economy? Guess again, stupid. Businesses like those depend on Maine's rich and abundant natural resources to thrive and furthermore they do so without using up and destroying those resources. That's not good enough. Those businesses are small businesses and they have little centralized voice in Augusta. They don't hire too many lobbyists and political fixers. For people in my line of work, they just don't offer enough highly paid revolving door jobs when our days of government service are over. No, my most important constituency is big corporate business. You know, the kind that operates from board rooms in New York and Toronto, the kind that depletes forever the state's natural resources and on short notice pulls up stakes and moves to Alabama and China. That's why I'm here on Sears Island this afternoon. GREEN KNIGHT Tell us more, governor. BALDACCI At 941 acres Sears Island is the largest wild island still remaining in public hands on the Eastern Seaboard. Imagine that. I'm determined to see more than a third of the island clearcut, bulldozed level and paved over for a cargo container port. I don't care that in the many years this tired proposal has made its rounds no one has ever made a credible case for the need for such a port. Like so many of my colleagues in Augusta I simply lack the imagination and moral depth to understand what a crime it would be to destroy this precious island for the short-term financial gain of a very few. Furthermore, I'm committed to handing over to a private land trust organization what's left of the island, the part we don't need at this time to build a port. The people of Maine are the island's owners. I've arranged for the people of Maine to make a gift of this 600 acres to Maine Coast Heritage Trust of Topsham. This port buffer area will then be used for another big development. I believe they're going to call it EcoWorld. As I understand it, EcoWorld will be a sort of environmental theme park. But just as surely as an industrial cargo port, EcoWorld will displace and destroy forest and meadow, field and stream. Too bad. How else are you going to provide classrooms and auditoriums for the kiddies so they can learn about the wonders of nature? GREEN KNIGHT Enough! I've heard enough, governor. Let's hear from someone else. You, sir (points to [Cole] Reaper immediately to left behind Baldacci figure. Baldacci steps back one step as Cole steps forward into his place.) Who are you and what evil do you bring to this island? Remember, you must speak the truth. COLE My name is David Cole and I'm the commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation. I'm way behind in dealing with a backlog of severely deteriorated roads and bridges. I've been known to build a new bridge that costs at least three times the originally estimated price. I'm a public relations disaster when it comes to widening a road and mowing down a line of ancient trees. No matter. What really interests me is looking after my corporate buddies by providing them with entrepreneurial adventures on places like Sears Island. About five years ago when I thought no one was really looking, I did my best to sneak a liquefied natural gas terminal onto the island. I held secret meetings with local selectmen and gas company executives. Compared with back then, I've been remarkably candid of late about my ambition to see a port built on Sears Island. It's true that back in 2007 at the beginning of the planning process sponsored by the governor, back when the predominant public sentiment clamored for leaving the island entirely undeveloped, it was back then that I publicly scoffed at the idea that a cargo port would ever be built in my lifetime. But once members of the public tired of attending the endless planning meetings after all, they had jobs to go to, livings to make, so we usually scheduled these meetings during business hours on weekdays once the pesky public fell by the wayside, why then we were able to get really serious about marketing Sears Island for a container port. It was then that we were finally able to negotiate secret deals with some of the remaining participants. You'd be surprised how cooperative the so-called environmentalists were. I'm talking about the well paid representatives of the land trusts and the volunteer lady from the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club, people whose primary reason for existing seems to be in order to attend meetings. GREEN KNIGHT I understand another Maine commissioner is among the forces of destruction threatening this island. Step forward. (Cole steps back and McGowan steps forward.) McGOWAN I am Pat McGowan, commissioner of the Department of Conservation. Despite the charge of my department, to be a good steward for the natural resources of the state of Maine, my primary interest has been in being a good team player for the Baldacci administration. They ask me to do something, hey, I do it. My reward is I'm looking for a good recommendation so should the Democrats take the White House this fall I'll secure another plum federal job. Last time around, for the length of the Clinton administration in fact, this strategy of mine earned me the directorship of the New England division of the Small Business Administration. At the beginning of the current Sears Island planning process, no one trusted the Department of Transportation. I wonder why. Anyway, the governor agreed my department should be the one in charge of the process. But as commissioner, I never advocated for conserving Sears Island. I never once spoke out for protection of the island's diverse collection of ecosystems, for its animal and plant life, for the critical role its immediate offshore resources like its extensive eelgrass beds play in the health of a host of fisheries farther down Penobscot Bay. Instead, I allowed my department to be used as cover for the industrial development ambitions of my bosses. My most important role in this process was in hosting a series of secret meetings in late 2006 at my department's headquarters in Augusta. It was at these meetings that a select group of planning process participants worked out the critical language for a consensus agreement. Among other things, the signatories to the resulting draft document agreed that putting a container port on nearly 40 percent of Sears Island was quote unquote appropriate. Even the lady from the Sierra Club, the group that once successfully defeated another cargo port scheme for the island, she signed on. GREEN KNIGHT How shocking, Mr. McGowan. How you must hate hypocrisy. Now I smell another politician in this lot. Step forward, whoever you are. (McGowan steps back and is replaced by Damon.) DAMON I am State Senator Dennis Damon. I represent Hancock County. I may be a third-generation fisherman and I may be the Senate chair of the legislature's Marine Resources Committee but the role Sears Island plays as a spawning and nursery ground for some of the important fisheries of Penobscot Bay is of little interest to me. I could care less that the last time the state tried to build a port on the island federal government scientists pronounced it the most destructive proposal they had ever reviewed in terms of its impact on marine life. Current plans for a container port are even more extensive, consequently that much more destructive to the environment. Now that I'm out of the fishing business myself the people I'm determined to help are not the struggling fishermen of Penobscot Bay. No, I take my marching orders these days from Maine Maritime Academy, which just this month received a $2.5 million construction grant from Fortune 500 interests. Maybe some of that kind of largesse will rub off on me. I also happen to be the Senate chair of the Legislature's Transportation Committee. I can't wait to get back to my fellow committee members there to urge their endorsement of proposed legislation coming out of the current planning process that would divide the entire island into two development zones, one for a port, the other for EcoWorld. GREEN KNIGHT I smell yet another politician who has an important hand in all this. Come forward and identify yourself. (Damon steps back, McKenney steps forward.) McKENNEY I am former Rep. Terrence McKenney of Cumberland. Three years ago after the public rose up in indignation and rejected a plan to sneak a liquefied natural gas terminal on Sears Island, I grew concerned the Department of Conservation would take over the island and turn the place into a park. I thought this was outrageous. And that's why I sponsored the original legislation that got the current planning process rolling. With my legislation, LD 277, I was having no part of this green nonsense. The way I see the world, everything in it should be exploited for the benefit of business. That's why my bill would have mandated that the Department of Transportation take over the island with the requirement to develop the entire property for industrial and commercial use. Unfortunately, liberals on the Transportation Committee forced us to work with the treehuggers. That's why it looks as though if we want to get our port we have to put up with EcoWorld. GREEN KNIGHT Rep. McKenney, Senator Damon, Governor Baldacci, the two commissioners, I sense there is someone higher up, someone you all work for. Let that individual step forward. (Damon steps back, Grindrod steps forward.) GRINDROD My name is Robert Grindrod. I am CEO of something called the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway. In truth, this is an old railroad with a new name. Does anyone remember the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad? For 30 years, the B&A struggled along, frequently on the edge of bankruptcy. During this time, the state's forest products industries and especially its pulp and paper industry plunged into a steep decline that continues to this very day. Because the bulk of the B&A's business involved transportation of pulp, petroleum, chemicals, other raw materials as well as finished paper and other woods products, the state of the rail line's fiscal health was long tied to the fortunes of these industries. In 2003, the B&A went under, $113 million in debt. A group of entrepreneurs whose interests I represent bought up all the assets from the bankruptcy court at fire sale prices. Business is hardly any brighter these days for my company. After all, in a few short days 208 papermakers will lose their jobs at Millinocket and after more than a century a town that was once the nation's most productive papermaker will cease all production. But there's a potential bright spot for us and that is Sears Island. In the probable absence of steady long-term profitability for the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, our earnest hope is we can persuade the Maine Legislature to throw a little corporate welfare our way. It's not for my health that I've attended virtually every one of the current planning process meetings. This is the only way we're going to keep our heads above water. Come on now, the precedent has already been set. In the 1980s and 1990s Maine taxpayers reached into their pockets and provided $22 million on behalf of corporate interests for a causeway, a highway, a port staging area, a pier stub and dredging. And the port never got built. Come on, it's our turn to receive a free handout. You don't really expect us to live and die according to the market, do you? We deserve to make a profit. GREEN KNIGHT Now, most troubling, I understand there are those who profess to be environmentalists who are part of this travesty to destroy Sears Island. Let the one they call "the lady from the Maine Sierra Club" speak. Come forward, Lady from the Maine Sierra Club. (Grindrod steps back, Saxe steps forward.) SAXE I'm Joan Saxe. I'm a volunteer with the Sierra Club's Maine chapter and the one chosen to represent the club in the current planning process. At the beginning of this process, back when the public turned out in droves to demand the island be left alone, left in its wild state, I was in total agreement. I even led a discussion group at one session at which I advocated for removal of the causeway, thereby ending all possibility of development. After that I must have fallen asleep at a lot of the meetings I did attend and I know I missed more than a few others. Somewhere along in there I must have gotten confused about what I thought because I guess I signed an agreement that said it was okay "appropriate" was the word they used okay to take about 400 acres, almost the entire west side of the island, and clear and level it for a container port. I also agreed I wouldn't oppose the port plan. I don't really want to see a port on the island after all, wasn't that why the Sierra Club spent so much money on lawyers the last time this port business was proposed? Well, I comfort myself knowing that at least we'll get EcoWorld out of this. I'm so confused. Ken, can you help me? (Saxe steps back, Cline steps forward.) CLINE I'm Ken Cline. I'm with the Maine Sierra Club, I'm an environmentalist, a professional environmentalist. I teach at the College of the Atlantic, an institution of higher education whose only curriculum is the environment. Oh yes, I'm also a liar. I mean a lawyer. As a lawyer I have the training to explain such things as what the meaning of is is. That's why I see absolutely no conflict in declaring at the chapter's website that the club has never endorsed a port on Sears Island while at the same time also acknowledging that Joan has signed an agreement on the club's behalf that says a port is appropriate there. The fact you think I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth only shows you're not a professional environmentalist and lawyer like me. I've ducked out of public debates on this topic because it was really too much trouble for me to bother. Later, I did agree under pressure that I would consult with the chapter's membership on this issue but that was too much of a bother as well. So sue me. I have tenure. GREEN KNIGHT Can there be a more vile man? Step back, Cline. What other supposed environmentalist do we have here? (Cline steps back, Dickerson steps forward.) DICKERSON I'm Scott Dickerson, executive director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust in Rockport. I don't see any conflict either in saying we don't support a port but we find one appropriate. I can say that because I, too, am a professional environmentalist and, besides, I've dedicated my life to conservation. I also don't see any conflict in extolling Sears Island as a beautiful and precious piece of public property, and then agreeing that most of it should be developed. If you had dedicated your life to conservation as I have, maybe then you would understand that, too. GREEN KNIGHT Can it get any worse? What other agents of absurdity stand before me? (Dickerson steps back, Miller steps forward.) MILLER I am Stephen Miller, executive director of Islesboro Islands Trust. I too can live with contradiction. I've been attending planning meetings for Sears Island for some 15 years. Going to meetings like these pays the mortgage, puts food on the table. But I'm not really interested one way or another whether Sears Island is saved from development. When it comes to action, I'd rather sit back and chatter away instead. If things get hot, I find the best course for me is to run to catch the next scheduled ferry back to Islesboro where I won't be bothered. GREEN KNIGHT Pathetic. What other quislings are left to speak up for themselves? (Miller steps back, Freeman steps forward.) FREEMAN My name is Jimmy Freeman. I'm an elderly hippie carpenter who represents the radical environmental group Earth First. The motto of Earth First is No Compromise for Mother Nature, but I really had no trouble at all throughout this planning process doing a lot of compromising for Mother Nature. My main worry is some of the kids in Earth First might figure out that I'm a total fraud and demand my head. Hey, if the white collar executives at the land trusts are getting paid to sit through these meetings, why shouldn't I get a little something out of it, too? Who knows, maybe with the new EcoWorld development my dedication to the environment might get me a carpentry job or two. GREEN KNIGHT Be gone, wretch! Now there is but one Dark Figure still to be heard from. Step forward and give a true account of yourself. (Freeman steps back, Dunkle steps forward.) DUNKLE I'm Dan Dunkle. I've had nothing to do with any of this. I don't understand why I'm called before you? GREEN KNIGHT You're not a politician? DUNKLE No. GREEN KNIGHT You're not a corporate executive? DUNKLE No. GREEN KNIGHT You're not dare I say the word? an environmentalist? DUNKLE No, I'm only a former newspaper editor here in Waldo County who's now a lowly business features reporter. I simply can't understand why I'm here. When the Sears Island story was unfolding I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. GREEN KNIGHT Nothing? What, you never once, not even once, told the people of your county how the largest totally wild island yet remaining in public hands on the Eastern Seaboard has been left in grave peril by the greed and ambition of business executives, by the machinations of politicians, by the perfidy of false environmentalists more interested in going along with the crowd, more interested in their own petty self-interest? DUNKLE No, not once. With the notable exception of the Village Soup's Tanya Mitchell, none of us in the local press corps has paid much attention to this story. I thought it was more important that our readers were kept informed who got picked up for speeding, the soaring cost of prom dresses in Waldo County, and, of course, in my humor column every blessed detail of my family life. GREEN KNIGHT The afternoon lengthens. We've heard enough from this scurrilous pack of knaves. It is time to banish them from this island before they do further harm. Be off with you, you miserable curs, be off! Go! Go! Go! Good citizens who love this island, join with me in demanding these dark creatures leave this island! You shall not take Diana. Go! Go! Go! (At first in halting fashion, then, as the audience takes up the Green Knight's cry, scurrying, the Reapers withdraw from the island. The Governor is last to leave. As he goes through the gate he calls back in an unamplified voice, "Watch out. We'll be back!") GREEN KNIGHT (Opening coffin lid) Arise, Diana, this precious island is yours once more. (Diana sits up, rubs her eyes, stands up and with the Green Knight extending his hand steps out of the coffin and onto the front of the catafalque where she extends her arms to the audience and smiles.) (The Green Knight turns to the audience, removes his helmet and addresses the gathering in his own unamplified voice.) Now folks you have to know that there may be a Diana overseeing this island who can know for sure? but I'm just an old broken-down actor doing his best to get your attention. There is no Green Knight to save this gem that belongs to all of us. Remember well the Governor's departing words, "Watch out. We'll be back." That's one promise this politician, his cronies and the people they work for can actually be counted upon to follow through on. If we are to save Sears Island from its enemies and from some of its supposed friends, it will be up to you (points at individual in audience) and you and you and you and you! F I N I S |