Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen and three other "human guinea pigs" converged on Burlington City Hall today to protest the possibility of the F-35 fighter jet being based at Burlington International Airport. The group's intent was to express their feeling that basing such a new fighter jet so close to Burlington's dense population makes residents "guinea pigs" for the Air Force.
Burlington City Councilor Vince Brennan stopped by the small protest outside city hall. He expressed his frustration with City Attorney Eileen Blackwood's delay this week of the council's discussion on an effort to ban the F-35.
"I'm very disappointed in the delay," Brennan said. "As one of the co-sponsors of the resolutions, we did everything in our power to put the resolutions in a timely fashion. We followed all procedures and I feel that the delay is very very unfortunate and it seemed like we were having votes in favor of the resolution, and I really hope that there isn't any politics in the delay."
Blackwood's office is looking into the legal possibility of a city ban on the F-35.
