ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603110127
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY BOB FISHBURN
AUNT CARRIE'S WAR AGAINST BLACK FOX NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. By Carrie Barefoot Dickerson. Council Oak Publishing. $24.95.
Can a 56-year-old nurse and operator of a nursing home with absolutely no knowledge of nuclear power plants find satisfaction in a nine-year battle against an array of federal agencies and monied interests?
The answer lies in this book, which is the story as told by that woman to her daughter, a free-lance editor and writing coach. Winners write history, at least the history of this encounter. It is a wondrous tale of how Aunt Carrie started from scratch and through doggedness led the successful battle against a proposed power plant near her Oklahoma farm.
If you believe her, she did it virtually without making an enemy, or at least an enemy willing to publicly rebuke such a homey, lovable woman. The nine years brought her frustration, disappointment and the depletion of her life savings. But she, at the head of a gathering band of nuclear opponents, stopped what seemed to be a bureaucratic juggernaut.
"Aunt Carrie's War" amounts to something of a handbook for others fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds, even if it is a bit too heavy on homilies and unnecessary details. By the end of the struggle, her idealism is strained, but her essential decency is intact. The reader can almost see Aunt Carrie now in her rocking chair, a needlepoint oval on her wall with the inscription: ``Don't Mess With Me.''
The story is a fascinating one and proof, if needed, that individuals don't have to roll over when the technocrats charge, their bundles of studies rolled up like lances.
Bob Fishburn is a former editor of this newspaper's commentary page.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB