|
|
|
Vice president gets mixed greeting
When Air Force II touched down at the Pasco airport, Vice President Al Gore stepped into the blustery Mid-Columbia wind looking right at home in blue jeans and black cowboy boots. But a few minutes later, he may have had a bigger helping of western bluster than he wanted. Demonstrators had lined up to send the environmental candidate a down-home environmental message. "Save the Dams," read a 20-foot banner at the airport exit. "We're here to give the Vice President Al Gore a message from real people," said Tom Flint, an Ephrata farmer. "Irrigated farmers don't do very well without affordable electricity and water." Others were blunter, yelling, "Go home" and shaking down-turned thumbs as the black, high-security limousine flown in for the vice president's visit rolled past. The rest of Gore's morning in the Tri-Cities was more carefully scripted, with nary a mention of the word "dams" passing Gore's lips in public. He'd planned the campaign stop in the Tri-Cities, a Republican stronghold, to announce the Hanford Reach would become a national monument. That designation was a foregone conclusion after Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt made the recommendation to President Clinton after Babbitt's May visit, and Republicans had further stolen Gore's thunder Thursday by leaking the news, then blasting the vice president's anticipated announcement. But Friday morning, Democrats still weren't talking. "It should be good news for protection of the Reach," was all Gov. Gary Locke would say as he chatted with reporters at the Pasco airport as he waited for Air Force II to arrive. Gore was whisked away in a 16-car entourage - complete with limousines, police cars and an ambulance - to see the Reach firsthand. His boat, with a "Save the Reach" sign on the back, led a parade of eight others up the Columbia River. Occasionally, the lead boat would slow so national and local media could get close enough to snap photos of the vice president, silhouetted against rippling dark blue water and cloud-dotted sky. He obligingly pointed to first one side of the river, then the other for photographers and waved to homeowners gathered on their decks along the river. With time short, he only got as far as the Energy Northwest nuclear reactor before turning around - missing the scenic White Bluffs, salmon spawning beds and mothballed federal reactors that were responsible for keeping the Reach secure from terrorists and developers for the last 50 years. But that didn't stop him from raving about the beauty of the Reach at his next stop, a speech before about 300 people at Washington State University at Tri-Cities. "For all the debates about the environment that take place in the other Washington, you have to come out to the Pacific Northwest to see what it's all about," he said. "... The mountains, the river, the salmon, they live inside us and inspire us." Most of those who attended had been lucky enough to get through jammed telephone lines to make reservations Thursday. "This is the very first time I'm going to vote, and I'm going to vote for him," said Li delos Reyes of Richland, a former citizen of the Philippines, as she waited in line to be admitted. "I want to see the man I'm going to vote for." Others were drawn by the chance of a brush with national leadership. "He could be the president," said Janel Baker of Pasco. Across the street, four classes of sixth-graders gathered on the grass of the Hanford Middle and High School campus - the excitement of the last day of school heightened by the chance to see the vice president drive by. Supporters of restarting the Fast Flux Test Facility waved signs along the WSU campus street, even after Secret Service agents said they'd have to remove the poles that held some of them. Scientists and cancer patients were concerned that when the vice president traveled to Spokane later in the day, he would be met by anti-FFTF demonstrators. Supporters want the federal government to restart the research reactor to make new nuclear medicines that show promise to treat cancers. Others came to the WSU branch campus to show their support for Gore and his expected announcement on the Hanford Reach - an opinion at odds with many local elected officials who wanted some local say on administration of the land. "I am really anxious to show support for national monument (status) for the Reach," said Mary Ann McKinney of West Richland. "I'm tired of all the bickering. It needs to be protected. I don't trust contractors, developers, city councils and county commissioners." "We have plenty to farm around here ... plenty of uncultivated land," said Eric Schmieman of Benton City, who sported a "Liberal and proud of it" button. "We're the real endangered species," he joked. Some of those opposed to federal control of the Reach, often called the last free-flowing section of the Columbia River, brought signs to deliver their message. But they were asked to leave them outside the venue - no signs were allowed - and they weren't directed to the 90 seats set up in front of the podium to be filled with Mid-Columbia leaders and true-blue Democrats. Gore's announcement of national monument status drew a standing ovation. But his remarks on saving the salmon seemed to be received a little more coolly. He called for bringing "together all interested parties to find a real solution" and considering environmental and economic issues. When his apparent Republican opponent for the presidency, George W. Bush, visited in February, his pledge not to tear down the four Snake River Dams drew cheers and wild applause. But Susan Vann of Richland liked what she heard. "I don't think the solution's easy, and he is looking for a solution that works," she said. | ||