Bird Dogging the Duke

We wanted Massachusetts to intervene against the Seabrook nuclear power plant at the federal level. Attorney General Francis X. Belotti wanted to but Governor Michael Dukakis was on the fence. So, I accepted Tom Moughan’s invitation to birddog Dukakis the weekend he announced his run for second term.

We knew it was going to be a long day. I woke up Saturday morning and went for a walk to prepare and think up fiery things to say.  But every time I cleared my mind, I kept getting this overwhelming feeling, seeing this exploding mushroom cloud.  It was weird. I needed to have something positive to say, not this paranoid nonsense.

The bird-doggers were Tom and about twenty others from C-10. Citizens Within a Ten-Mile Radius (still an energetic group from MA and NH opposed to Seabrook) included Tom’s boss, Rep. Nick Costello, at the time one of the few politicians openly opposed to the Seabrook nuke. 

The Duke spoke first in Boston at Logan Airport’s Tech Center, then in Copley Square. The Centrum in Worcester was his final big stop. His lieutenants were all over the hall and made all the other bird-doggers go outside.  I managed to get myself in the hall by wearing a suit coat and carrying a Dukakis for Governor sign. When I got down to the very front row, I wrote NO NUKES on the back of it. Facing Dukakis the sign said NO NUKES, the rest of the hall saw Dukakis for Governor.

There were a whole pack of Worcester Democratic Party women, forty or fifty grey-haired ladies in their 70s. As soon as I told them what I was doing, they said, “What a good idea! You need to rattle up that old Duke. We’ll help. We’ll sit around you and they won’t be able to carry you away.” 

They were there because they were the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. I think that generation had a much better understanding of grassroots politics; they were alive during the Depression and had an insightful and clear picture of activism. The ladies were happy to help a young activist pressure the government to come out against the Seabrook nuke. You never know who is going to support you until you go out there and do the work.

I had already heard Dukakis’ speech twice, so when he got to the part about energy and MA being a tech state, the usual stump speech, I was able to interject pointed anti-nuke messages. The ladies picked right up on it and were shouting “Yeah,” “Pay attention,” “Listen to him.” The other bird-doggers asked me later what was going on inside because the police shooed them two blocks down the street and were a little rough. 

All around the hall, word went out there was someone with a NO NUKES sign heckling the governor. But security and the state police were on the sides and couldn’t spot me. The only ones who could see the NO NUKES sign were on the stage: all the dignitaries, Mikey Dukakis and his wife Kitty (who had a notoriously tenuous hold in public circumstances).  

After the speech, the ladies said I should come shake the governor’s hand in the receiving line. I was third or fourth in line. Kitty came along first, saw me and got very excited. All she was saying was, “There’s the guy right there,” and I said, calm and concerned, “Mrs. Dukakis, what’s wrong?” It’s tough being a politician’s wife. They took Kitty away in the confusion. 

Dukakis continued down the receiving line to me. I put my best deathgrip fisherman’s handshake on him, polite, dignified, but as strong and forceful as I could be, saying, “I will personally be here to confront you on the Seabrook nuke issue. You must do your duty or we will always be there.” Then I tucked some anti-nuclear literature in his suit pocket.

I think people have an innate mistrust of nuclear energy. Maybe it’s genetic. Even when we were first organizing in Gloucester in the early Seabrook days, eight out of ten people didn’t need details. They distrusted radiation. 

That Saturday morning, when I kept getting the weird feeling during my walk, that was right around when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was exploding. It was Saturday night Russia time, but we didn’t hear about Chernobyl until Sunday. Then the governor, in his Monday morning press conference, came out for Massachusetts to intervene against the Seabrook nuke. I think it was a combination of us dogging him and political expedience.

We bird-dogged the Duke because the need popped up, but we didn’t expect him to listen to us. We just had to fight the good fight.