F-35 foes are escalating their protests against hosting the next-generation fighter plane at Burlington’s Air Guard station in anticipation of a final decision after November 4. About 100 demonstrators jammed the hallway outside Burlington City Hall Auditorium on Monday evening to hear Progressive city councilors and leaders of the anti-F-35 coalition denounce the plan. A brass band on the steps of city hall serenaded protestors arriving for the rally (pictured, right).

“Burlington,” activist Paul Fleckenstein told the cheering crowd, “can be the Waterloo of the F-35.”

F-35 opponents are focusing their lobbying efforts on three Democratic city councilors: Kevin Worden (Ward 1), Bryan Aubin (Ward 4) and Tom Ayres (Ward 7). If the three targeted Dems vote with the council’s four Progs and independent Sharon Bushor (Ward 1) — and if Mayor Miro Weinberger approves — Burlington could still go on record as rejecting the Air Force’s plan to station up to two dozen F-35s at the city-owned airport. Such an expression of opposition by the Air Force’s “preferred” host city might influence the final basing decision expected in less than a month.

Kevin J. Kelley is a contributing writer for Seven Days, Vermont Business Magazine and the daily Nation of Kenya.

12 replies on “F-35 Foes Making Final Push to Sway Burlington City Council”

  2. I’m certainly not happy with the anti-everything socialist-wannabe hippies who attempt to run Burlington via knee-jerk, left wing ideology, rather than reason. No. I’m certainly not. But I’m obviously no unhappier than those people themselves are. They’re unhappy about everything: F-35s, the Burlington police, the “1%,” evil corporations, nuclear power, wind power, fracked gas. The list goes on and on and on.
    So who’s unhappy?

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