I'm a child of the 1970's influenced by the bands that now play at the supermarket when you shop. As a kid it was called "beautiful music" or "elevator music". Maybe my parents were "grooving" to those tunes when they shopped. I can't imagine it because the music was so "square". Today I sometimes find myself humming along when I shop. I don't feel bad if my kids say the same thing about me as I did about my parents when it comes to supermarket music, but I hope they enjoy this song as much as I still do.
"Power" played live in concert makes me sad and happy all at once. Maybe its the size of the crowd, or maybe because these are some of the musicians I love: Carly Simon, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall. Musicians United for Safe Energy organized a series of concerts and a huge outdoor show in September 1979 with 200,000 people in New York City. There was a movie and a double album and I really wish I could have done a road trip to see the show. Back then I was still in Driver's Ed class so concert road trips were still a few years away.
I feel sad when I hear this song because the movement is now over 40 years old and the issues still remain.
In March 1979 there was a nuclear power accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Weirdly enough, a major movie with big actors called The China Syndrome had come out only 12 days earlier. It was about a nuclear power plant accident that was hauntingly close to what could have happened near Pittsburgh.
Then the comedians got into the act. Back when NBC's Saturday Night Live didn't suck, they did a parody of whole thing that tied the two together as a skit in 14 minutes. They called it "The Pepsi Syndrome". Hint: Don't pour cola in the console of a nuclear reactor. It's got all the best comedians: Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, and all the rest of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". Richard Benjamin was the host that show. Bryan Doyle Murray (Bill's older brother) was in it and there is a cameo by Rodney Dangerfield!
Where did the optimism and enthusiasm for alternative energy that occurred in 1979 go within my generation today? Solar and wind power is invading back yards and there is hostility towards it. People my age have become like our parents: worrying about their property value and the view out their window. It seems that empathy for others or the environment or the world isn't as important now as it was when they were younger.
In Rush you hear it all the time at the Town Board Meetings:
We are totally for renewable energy and solar power, as long as it isn't too big, too ugly, or near anyone who objects.
Goddamn hippies with their Rock and Roll and their solar power!
Rush first got caught up in the ecology thing in the early 1970's. It got forced on people; not because Rush people were "green" by nature. Farmers in Rush used to dump their junk in the closest stream or pit that they could dig. No one had their trash picked up prior to the 1990's. The Town started a landfill probably in the 1960's and issued "Dump Tickets" for a certain number of bags. You put it in your station wagon and drove to Stonybrook Road where the park is now. Harry Dell took your ticket. He had a cane made of a hooked piece of pipe. He would point to your part of the hole, and you dumped your stuff.
Dad would occasionally use our truck to go to the dump. At the corner of Rush West Rush Road and Stonybrook Road was a junkyard of old trucks just like this one. Farmers just left them to rot, and my dad and others would scavenge them for parts. It was primitive recycling by the poor farmers who were the majority of the town's population.
Then Rush Zoning shrank minimum lot sizes. That was a big fight too, like any and all change in Rush always is. The smaller lots and public water made houses spring up on the north side of the Honeoye Creek. Younger families and better educated professionals moved in. Attitudes towards pollution changed.
We were farmers that lived on the Honeoye Creek which was our dump from the 1800's until the town had one. I took pictures of the trash in the Creek on our property. It was normal stuff; horrific to people today.
In May 1971 the City of Rochester ran out of landfill space. They needed a temporary one, and they picked Rush to dump on. The State School at Industry was doing the same thing that my family was doing: dumping their trash next to the Genesee river in the wetlands where no one could farm.
The City just wanted to expand the State School's dump. Since the school was State Land, Rochester cut a deal with the New York State Environmental Commission and got a 26 month contract to dump on Rush. The City and the State didn't even have the decency to come to town and tell people. Officials at Industry got orders from the State and then summoned the City Officials to explain themselves. They wouldn't even let Rush town folk attend the meeting. The City met with Rush the next day.
Wayne Harris, special attorney for the Town of Rush, warned that if truck drivers carrying city refuse dumped in Rush, they would be arrested.
The City said they weren’t worried about any Rush laws.
Rush citizens and volunteers began round the clock surveillance of the site. People called, wrote post cards, letters and worked together as never before to organize against the landfill. This continued for months.
On June 9, 1971, the Town Board strengthened ordinances against dumping. They posted weight limits on the roads leading to the landfill to prevent heavy garbage trucks from driving on them.
Town Supervisor William Zimmer said, “With this type of combined effort, working together as one team, I am hopeful that we can prevent this illegal invasion of our rights as citizens of the Town of Rush and preserve our town and the environment.”
On Friday, August 20, 1971, the first garbage trucks arrived and started dumping trash. Protesters laid down in the streets and were dragged away. Some were arrested. There were meetings, and a court injunction, and an appeal, and the town was adamant that it would get rid of the dump.
Then an event happened that completely knocked the Rush dump issue out of the news. Only 40 miles away is the maximum security New York State Attica Correctional Facility. On September 9, 1971 inmates rioted and it got very tense in western New York. Everyone focused on the riot and what might happen.
Instead of using National Guard troops who were trained to handle riots, Governor Rockefeller ordered the New York State Police (who predominantly do traffic enforcement) to retake the prison. By the time the uprising had ended three days later, 43 people were dead, including 10 correctional officers and civilian employees.
One guard was killed by the prisoners during the initial riot. The prisoners had no guns. Everyone killed were shot by New York State officials. Governor Rockefeller made it clear that the power of New York State was not to be questioned. In my opinion, I would think it would be harder for some in Rush to keep protesting after seeing what happened to inmates who defied the State at Attica.
The protests ended. The dump flooded when Hurricane Agnes hit Rush in 1972. Town opponents and others warned that this would happen. Dumping continued. Two years went by.
The dump closed on July 14, 1973, exactly within the time contracted. It was never closed properly. Water would seep into the trash and make it float to the surface. Liquid from the site would drain out and spread across the site. It wasn't until the 1990's when funds were finally allocated to clean up the mess and regrade and close the landfill properly.
Ecology became a bigger movement in the country and in Rush. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was created on July 1, 1970. Within a few years, the DEC forced an end to the open sewer pipes which ran from the hamlet of East Rush into the Honeoye Creek. How could Rush be so hypocritical about trash dumping? How could people be against others dumping trash on Rush but continued to pollute themselves? It took awhile for the contradiction to change to action. The town gained population and the Rush town dump hit capacity. The Stonybrook dump closed sometime in the late 1990's. The truck graveyard on Stonybrook Road got cleaned up.
If history teaches us one thing, it should be that Rush, the smallest and poorest town in Monroe County, doesn’t stand much of a chance in a “game of checkers” with the State of New York.
If the State of New York wants Rush to stop dumping raw sewage in the Creek, or if the State wants to dump pollution on Rush, the State will, did and have gotten their way. No Rush town law, or letter writing campaign or even Rush residents lying in the streets has stopped them.
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