| Earth=20 First! in Lincoln, Maine | =20
| May=20 4 , 1998 | =20
| Lincoln,=20
Maine - An early morning reports tells us that the eco-terror group, =
Earth=20
First!, is in Lincoln this morning, May 4th, 1998. Estimates number t=
hem=20
about 30. This time, their "protest" is about "clean water",=20
tied in with some kind of Native American reference, which is becomin=
g a=20
favorite ploy =
with environmental=20
groups. =20 This appea=
rance in=20
Lincoln follows an activist pow-wow among radical Greens over the w=
eek-end,=20
here in Maine. The we= ak-kneed reaction=20 of the State of Maine four years ago emboldened the radicals, so do= n't=20 underestimate them. Earth First! members occupied an office o= f =20 the Maine Dept. of transportation to protest plans to build a cargo= port=20 on Sears Island in the fall of 1994.=20 Protes= ters entered=20 the DOT office and demanded a meeting with a DOT lawyer. When told = that=20 she was not available, they entered the working (non public) sectio= n of=20 the office, disrupted office workers for 20 minutes until Capitol p= olice=20 arrived. Workers could not function until the intruders were = cleared=20 out, according to reports from Associated Press. One protester dama= ged=20 a couple of ceiling tiles when he tried to climb through the ceilin= g to=20 enter the lawyer's office. Two or three of them had to be phy= sically=20 removed.=20 NO ARR= ESTS WERE MADE. =20 =20 Their "= penalty"=20 for doing what anyone else would have been arrested for, was to be = able=20 to confer with the DOT lawyer for 2 hours. According to Jim Freeman= , member=20 of Earth First!, Maine Greens, and head of the Native Forest Networ= k here=20 in Maine, "the action, with no arrests, was viewed as reasonable=20 by the press..." Freeman claimed that approximately 50 Earth First!= ers=20 raided the MDOT office to go through their files after they first r= efused=20 to meet with the activists. Freeman lives on Verona Island, near Bu= cksport.=20 MDOT w= ould have done=20 everybody a favor if they had displayed zero tolerance and treated = them=20 as they would you or I if we had done the same thing. = =20 The Na= tive Forest=20 Network, you may recall, shut down a chip mill in Shelburne, New Ha= mpshire=20 last June 16th, when a protester fastened himself to a wood-chipper= shaker=20 with a kryptonite lock. Chip mills are another of their lates= t targets.=20 The rationale? "We don't need chipmills on our land. We= =20 need to protect our surviving forests." There was also a demon= stration=20 at the Mead plant in Rumford last fall.=20 That's= the kind of=20 people who are in Lincoln today.=20 | =20
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