Using patriotic emotions to get you to support revoking your own most fundamental rights

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Revoking fundamental rights was easy in the weeks following 9/11. The Patriot Act was sold as a way to protect your security and national security. It revoked certain 1st and 4th amendment civil liberties, including protection from unreasonable government surveillance of our private lives. It allowed government agents to review our phone calls and emails, our bank records, our activities on the internet and the books we took out from the library, all without judicial oversight and without any allegation of criminal activity.

Notwithstanding the loss of rights, patriotic emotions aroused in the days immediately after 9/11 allowed its quick passage into law. But few–if any–terrorists were ever apprehended as a result of the Patriot Act. Nor has it halted mass shootings. The main result has been increased government surveillance and a loss of rights. As explained by the ACLU: “While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects.”

As important as they are, those lost rights are minuscule compared to the rights revoked in working-class portions of Vermont’s largest cities that are subjected to the full force of the 115-decibel F-35 flights: Lost in the oval-shaped area around the runway at Burlington International Airport (BTV), where nearly 3000 affordable homes are located, is the right of regular citizens to be free of indiscriminate government-sponsored violence daily directed against them and their children in their own homes. As well as in the classrooms, playgrounds, and workplaces in that extreme noise zone.

The F-35 represents national security

The F-35 is the most advanced weapon in the US arsenal: supersonic, stealth, capable of delivering two B61-12 nuclear bombs, and touted for its battlefield “situational awareness,” the F-35 represents national security. Twenty of the F-35 jets are based at the BTV airport in the City of South Burlington. They are used for hundreds of 115-decibel takeoffs and landings each month in and over parts of the most densely populated cities in Vermont.

The “training” with the F-35 in a city is deeply flawed

The flights are supposedly for training members of the Vermont Air National Guard. But the training with the 115-decibel F-35 is not in a location remote from populated areas, as required by the military discipline principle of “distinction.” By using it in a city, the F-35 is being used in a manner for which it was not designed that causes unnecessary suffering. The US Air Force itself said that the entire oval-shaped area around the runway and its 3000 homes are “generally not considered suitable for residential use” because of the repeated exposure to that 115-decibel military jet noise.

This means the “training” is not legal military training: airmen are being “trained” with the F-35 jets in a city location that flatly contradicts the military discipline the training is supposed to teach. Instead of training airmen to comply with discipline, airmen are being trained to violate the discipline. The F-35 flights in a city illegally train airmen that it’s OK to physically hurt and injure civilians during training in Vermont. Although it would still be illegal, such “training” would only make sense if the goal was to train airmen to commit war crimes when deployed for combat.

In Volume II of its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the Air Force stated that repeated exposure to military jet noise at the 115-decibel level can damage hearing. The Air Force further said that the learning and cognitive development of children was impaired at the level of the F-35 and even at lower aircraft noise levels than they are exposed to from the F-35. The Air Force provided the results of studies showing that “reading, attention, problem solving, and memory,” were harmed for children exposed to such aircraft noise.

Online survey results conducted by CancelF35.substack.com from March 2020 to the present confirm pain, injury, and suffering on a mass scale.

The US Air Force EIS made no secret of the vast number of civilians who would be hurt if the City of South Burlington was chosen as the location for the training, which it was. In Volume I of the EIS the Air Force disclosed that 6,663 Vermonters live in the oval-shaped area centered on the runway at BTV where they would be repeatedly exposed to the full power of the extreme 115-decibel F-35.

Nothing can justify hurting civilians for military training

Nothing justifies F-35 training in a city, not national security, not jobs, not costs. Nothing can justify hurting civilians for military training. Wherever you live, especially if you live outside that extreme noise zone, consider that if authorities succeed with this abuse against working class Vermonters, they are unlikely to stop there. Someone will be next to lose rights, and it could be you.

Acquiescence is impermissible. Solidarity is mandatory. So is persistence defending human rights and constitutional rights, no matter who is under assault and no matter where. Stop the F-35 training in Vermont cities now.

Write or call your public servants and demand an immediate halt to F-35 training in cities.

Governor Phil Scott 802-828-3333 Chief of Staff <Jason.Gibbs@vermont.gov>

Vermont National Guard's Complaint Line: 802-660-5379 (Note: the Vermont Guard told a reporter that it received over 1400 noise complaints. But the Guard won’t release what people said).

Submit your report & complaint to the still active Fall 2021-Continuing Now online F-35 Report & Complaint Form: https://tinyurl.com/5d89ckj9

See all the graphs and in-your-own words statements on the F-35 Spring-Summer 2021 Report & Complaint Form (513 responses): https://tinyurl.com/3svacfvx.

See links to the graphs and in-your-own words statements on all four versions of the F-35 Report & Complaint Form since Spring 2020, with a total of 1670 responses from 658 different people plus 77 more so far on the form that remains active now.

Senator Bernie Sanders 800-339-9834 <Senator@sanders.senate.gov>

Senator Peter Welch 888-605-7270 Chief of Staff <patrick.satalin@mail.house.gov>

Rep. Becca Balint <RepBeccaBalint@mail.house.gov>

Burlington City Council <citycouncil@burlingtonvt.gov>

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger <mayor@burlingtonvt.gov>

Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott <klott@winooskivt.org>

S. Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle <hriehle@sburl.com>

Williston Selectboard Chair Terry Macaig <macaig@msn.com>

VT Senate President Philip Baruth <Philip.Baruth@uvm.edu>

VT House Speaker Jill Krowinski <jkrowinski@leg.state.vt.us>

Attorney General Charity Clark <Charity.Clark@vermont.gov>

States Attorney Sarah George <Sarah.fair.george@gmail.com>

Vermont’s Federal Prosecutor <usavt.contactus1@usdoj.gov>

Adjutant General Brig Gen Gregory C Knight <gregory.c.knight.mil@mail.mil>

Major J Scott Detweiler <john.s.detweiler.mil@mail.mil>

Wing Commander Col Dan Finnegan <daniel.finnegan@mail.mil>

Vermont National Guard Inspector General Lt. Col. Edward J Soychak <edward.soychak@us.af.mil>

US Air Force Inspector General Lt. Col. Pamela D. Koppelmann <pamela.d.koppelmann.mil@mail.mil>

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall <Frank.Kendall@us.af.mil>