| Activist Mom Speaks Out at Public Forum By Jim Correale (Published on page 1 of the East Boston Sun Transcript on May 4, 2001.) If you saw television news accounts of the April 25th meeting on Runway 14/32, you probably saw a young blonde mother from East Boston who rose to speak about the effects of the airport on her family. "I am not a public person," Libby Arsenault said later. "I'd rather keep my thoughts to myself, but I had to say something." Arsenault spoke about the thundering noise of airplanes and about the odor of jet fuel that she can smell when the windows of her Monmouth Street apartment are open. She also mentioned that her 13-month-old son has been sick quite a bit, and she wonders if any of his illnesses are attributable to pollution from Logan Airport. Her words were impassioned and effective. They reflected a parent's concern for her child, a mother fighting to make an unfeeling, profit-driven machine understand her concerns. The meeting, which was held downtown at the Radisson Hotel, began calmly enough. Opponents of Massport's plan to create a new runway alternated speaking with members of the business community, who argued that the proposal is important to the economy of the region. The room was half-full and when a few people chanted, "Where do you live?" to the corporate executives who spoke, the hearing chairman, a stodgy FAA employee, cautioned those in attendance against such demonstrations. The tables turned in the evening, when hundreds of residents from East Boston, Revere, Winthrop, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Hull, and Cohasset -- people who were unable to attend during the day because they were working -- packed the room and made quite a bit of noise. Libby Arsenault was supposed to speak during the afternoon session. She showed up with her husband and child and put her name on the list. There were, however, quite a few others who signed up to speak before her and, as the afternoon wore on, it would soon be time to take the baby home. Arsenault decided to ask if she could be allowed to jump ahead so that she would be able to leave with her son. At first, she said, it seemed as though Tom Butler, director of Massport's office of government and community affairs, was about to let her go, but then he seemed to suddenly changed his mind. "I think it's because they didn't want to see a mom with a baby," Arsenault said. "That's too human." She also said that Butler had a condescending attitude toward her. Arsenault did get her chance at the microphone during the evening session. Though her husband and son had left for home, she found another young East Boston family to stand behind her as she made her statement to representatives from the FAA and the state environmental agency. Her conviction that Massport should not be able to unilaterally decide to add a runway to an already crowded airport has pushed Arsenault to act. She has formed a group called Families Against Runway Expansion. She's been walking around Eastie, handing out literature and talking to people, trying to get them to join in opposition against 14/32. Some people tell her that the runway is a done deal and that disappoints her. "People shouldn't feel so powerless," Arsenault said. "All the moms I talked to need to realize that they can make a difference if they get out there." |