Student Activists Have a New Line at Middlebury

College

An innovative attempt to cut pointless energy use

is afoot on college campuses in New England. It’s called The Clothesline

Plan, an educational activism project of Free The Planet!, the

largest national student environmental organization. The Clothesline

Plan seeks to educate people about the dangers of nuclear power

and the benefits of solar power.

Soon sheets will be hanging on clotheslines at almost

every college campus in northern New England. “We intend

to air our grievances about nuclear power,” said Alexander

Lee, the Middlebury College senior primarily responsible for the

Clothesline Plan. “I feel that encouraging people to hang

out their clothes is a proactive way to respond to our overly

consumptive habits and to point out the dangers of nuclear power

plants.”

Consequently, college students are encouraging people

to give up their clothes dryers and use the sun. “Our ultimate

goal is to eliminate the need for the electricity generated by

nuclear reactors in New England,” said Nicole Lanthier ‘99,

who has dedicated hours to coordinating this effort at nearly

every accredited university and college in New England. “Clotheslines

alone won’t be enough, but they will raise consciousness and they

are easy for everybody to use. We intend for the idea to catch

on beyond college communities.” And so, disturbed by the

attempts of American corporations to build new reactors in China,

and spurred on by the noted Australian activist Dr. Helen Caldicott,

the group of students set out to make a difference.

Here in Vermont at Middlebury College, where the

movement began, it is planned that a hundred feet of clothesline

will hold three sheets inscribed with very clear messages, such

as “The Clothesline Plan: A Positive Approach to Change in

Your Own Backyard.”

Mr. Lee, who went to high school not far from Seabrook,

New Hampshire, the home of one of the most controversial reactors

in the nation, recounted, “I would bike to Hampton Beach

and look at the plant looming about a mile away. I always thought

about the possibility of an accident and the impossibility of

an escape. There was and is still no reasonable evacuation plan.”

Some people are skeptical, but Mr. Lee said, “My

mother has always hung out the laundry, even in the middle of

winter. Sublimation-that high school chemistry stuff about ice

turning to vapor without going through the liquid phase-makes

hanging out laundry out possible almost anywhere the sun shines,

no matter what time of year.”

Where clotheslines are illegal, The Clothesline Plan

seeks to make them legal. Free the Planet! also seeks to help

the students of this country strengthen their voice through unity,

distribution of information, and activism.

For more information about Free The Planet! and The

Clothesline Plan, contact Alex Lee at Middlebury College Box 2932,

Middlebury, VT 05753; by phone at 802-443-3519; or via email alee@panther.middlebury.edu.