Speech at County Commissioners Meeting

 This is a photo of Melody Shanks, speaking at the Buncombe Country Commissioners meeting on February 15, 2022. Photo by Rachael Bliss.

Here are the comments that Melody made on behalf of the Reject Raytheon Asheville group:


PETITION PRESENTATION TO BUNCOMBE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

February 15th, 2022
By Reject Raytheon AVL

Good Afternoon, Commissioners,
We come before you today to present a petition, signed by more than 300
people, that asks you to reconsider your approval of the 27 million dollars in tax
incentives to Pratt and Whitney and, more importantly and urgently, to enact a
moratorium on approving any new military industries in Buncombe County.
Instead, we ask you to work diligently to attract businesses in the green energy,
green materials manufacturing, education, and health services. Our futures
depend on the transition to a more sustainable, just, and locally-based economy.

That transition requires that the hold of the military industrial complex has on our
economy, our domestic policies, our foreign policy, and our culture must cease.
The influence of the military industrial complex cannot only be addressed at the
national level. We, the people of this county, living far from Washington, need to
work to rebalance the priorities of this country - from the local to the national to
the global—and away from the war economy. We need a diversified economy
that favors a green transition and the lives and prosperity of workers and families.
It’s frightening when CEOs of the weapons manufacturers, like Raytheon, the
parent company of Pratt & Whitney, boast about the profits they will make when
tensions between countries intensify in the world. They see conflicts in Ukraine,
Yemen, and Taiwan, just 3 examples, with dollar signs in their eyes. Really? It’s
only about money to them? In contrast, I am saddened to learn from friends
working in the social service and healthcare arenas about how thin and porous
the safety net is, especially for the most vulnerable. People with disabilities who
can’t get services. People with urgent mental health challenges who have to wait
weeks for intervention. Teachers and medical care workers whose daily work
lives are untenable. People with medical conditions who can’t afford treatment or
support. And I could go on. Billions of dollars are spent annually in contracts to
the companies in the war industry that could be more wisely spent on human
needs, on the the green energy transition. On a green economic transition.
The 300+ signatories of this petition include primarily local residents, but there
are names of tourists who were visiting Asheville. Because the area is a tremendous
draw for visitors all year round and tourism is one of the biggest industries in the county,  we did not discourage out-of-towners from being signatories on this petition.

In some ways, they are a part of this county. They walk among us in this
beautiful place. As an illustration of the importance of including the region’s
visitors on this petition, I offer you this anecdote. I was standing in Bent Creek
River Park and a couple of visitors from Raleigh—employees of major
companies—asked me about the new bridge over the French Broad. I explained
that it would be the main access to the Pratt & Whitney factory and offered them
some details about the nature of Pratt & Whitney’s business and the size of the
factory. “Why here?” they asked, “in this beautiful place?” “That’s the question we
ask,” I replied. We pose that question to you, “Why here?” Why here in this most
amazingly beautiful place?

I would also like to note that these signatures represent only a fraction of the
people in this county who are opposed to the Pratt & Whitney deal and the likely
future development on the Biltmore Farms property. We have been on the street
regularly over the past 15 months and receive primarily positive responses to our
call to stop the build up of military industries in Buncombe County. Other people
just don’t know about it. People don’t want these industries here. In fact,
residents don’t want much of the development that is rapidly springing up around
us.

We know that the construction and operation of the Pratt & Whitney plant is a
done deal. The enormous building is well on its way to being completed. We
cannot stop it. Soon the bridge will be done. We know that infrastructure around
the site is also being built up to lay the foundation for more development on the
1000 additional acres that Biltmore Farms has opened for development, and that
the Chamber of Commerce is promoting. The new gas line will power the Pratt &
Whitney plant and other industries that find their way to those 1000 acres. We
know that the new I-26 interchange is not merely a way to connect I-26 to Rt.
191. Rather, it is a way to provide easy access to the current and future
development on that acreage. We wonder what this and other development in
that area will do to the habitats of animals and plants? What about the health of
the French Broad River? Environmental assessments for the individual projects
claim there will be minimal harm, but happens when development projects in the
area are compounded? Those minimal impacts will also be compounded.

We know that good paying jobs are important for the region. We support job
development and workers who will land those jobs. We know the creation of jobs
was a big draw for landing this Fortune 50 company. Raytheon does create jobs,
but, as a comparison, the green energy sector provides 1.5 times the jobs that
the military contracting sector does, the education sector provides 2 times as
many, the healthcare sector 1.5 times as many. Many of the war industry labor
impact seeps overseas thus diluting the effect on local economies.This is all
according to the Cost of War project who compiled these data. Just imagine if
local educators, healthcare workers, childcare workers made a starting wage of
$55,000, the median salary of Pratt & Whitney workers! Wow! There are
thousands of workers in those sectors here, not only 800. What an impact on the
local economy that would have! For people like you and me.

The fact is, the war corporations just have a stronger hold on our federal, and
maybe our local governments, on the priorities of our country.

In your consideration and deliberation about future development and tax
incentives, please also remember: The parent company of Pratt and Whitney,
Raytheon Technologies, is the 2nd largest military contractor in the world. Its
main goal, and the main goal of all war corporations, is to make money. Period.
And it makes lots of money bolstered by our federal, state and local tax dollars.
Raytheon received $54 billion in military contracts alone in 2019 and 2020 from the
federal government. Our tax dollars. Pratt and Whitney received at least 10 billion
dollars worth of military contracts in those same years. Our tax dollars. Who
knows how much they received in incentives from states and local governments
across our country. Additionally, 87% of Raytheon’s total sales in 2019 were
arms sales to foreign countries, filling its pockets while extending the military
reach across the globe. Not making the world safer or greener.

Because you see, Raytheon and other military contractors contribute mightily to
our climate crisis. Just under 2 million metric tons of CO2 were released from
Raytheon processes and products in 2019. 5.2 million metric tons of CO2 were
emitted that same year by the top 12 arms dealers. (Dr. Neta Crawford, Cost of
War Project). That’s more than some 40 small to mid-sized countries. The
military is not a green industry regardless of its claims about making its products
or processes more energy efficient. Military contractors are not green. None of
what Raytheon or Pratt and Whitney or General Electric does is ‘green’ and the entire
industry exacerbates climate chaos, something that the Commissioners have pledged
to work to mitigate. This well-known slogan applies here: “Think Globally, Act Locally”

The Military/Industrial Complex is a very powerful player in our economic,
domestic and foreign policies. There are numerous and varied issues that play
into the influence it has gained in our nation and communities. If communities
don’t begin to say no to defense contractors’ glamorous deals, who will?
We all need to learn more about its hold on us. We invite you all to attend a
series of webinars on the military industrial complex—its pervasiveness and the
transition from a war economy to a human needs and earth survival economy.
The series has been created by a national coalition of organizations called the
War Industries Resisters Network . You can visit our website for more information
about these past and future webinars: rejectraytheonavl.com.

We are compelled to continue to express our numerous concerns about this plant
and to ask you to seriously re-consider what types of industries you approve to
be located in our county. Our petition lists four major concerns which I trust you
will read and consider. We and the petition signers strongly urge you to NOT
approve any more industries like Pratt and Whitney. Instead, work with the
Economic Development Coalition to recruit truly environmentally and socially
positive businesses. Be thoughtful and transparent in your consideration of any
future projects. We would be happy to talk to you in depth about these issues at
a future meeting.

On behalf of Reject Raytheon AVL and our collaborating organizations, I thank
you for your time and we present you with the petitions.