Jeers to members of Maine Earth First! who disrupted the transport of a wind turbine bound for Kibby Mountain on Tuesday.

When these activists — commonly referred to as eco-terrorists — stage a protest against industry, the victims are the people who work for these companies, like the truck driver who was stopped.

Not only was he stopped by a band of people blocking the road, a young Minnesota woman slid a U-lock around her neck and locked herself to the underside of his trailer. He was instructed by this woman’s co-activists not to move the truck so she wouldn’t get hurt.

The driver obliged, as any caring person would, but that’s a great deal of responsibility to put on him. What if the truck lurched as he shut it down? What if he was hit from behind by another truck on this public road and skidded forward?

The woman under his truck would most certainly have been injured.

Would that really have stopped wind power construction on Kibby Mountain, or just traumatized a working truck driver?

John O’Dea, chief executive officer of Associated General Contractors of Maine, said, “When radical groups come to Maine with the sole purpose of costing companies money, they are costing jobs and making our state less competitive.”

O’Dea finds it unacceptable for anyone’s protest to cause physical or economic harm to another person when we have political processes in place to challenge government regulations. These activists are constitutionally entitled to peaceful protest but are not entitled to hijack a truck.

As it happened, it was blistering hot Tuesday, with temperatures near 90 degrees. The young woman who ducked under the truck took a bottle of Poland Spring water with her to stifle her thirst as she sat locked up in the heat.

Coincidentally, Poland Spring’s bottling plant in nearby Kingfield was one of the reported targets of Earth First! activism last weekend. So, these young people view Poland Spring as a monster of industry unless it’s hot and someone needs hydration?

Is that irony? Or simple hypocrisy?

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Cheers to Frank Chandler and his Nateva Festival. The inaugural event was well-attended, well-organized, well-policed and well-received.

There were a couple of rough edges in the months leading up to the festival, including the failure to file a mass-gathering permit in Norway, but this was a massive undertaking in which a few glitches are to be expected and Chandler was prompt about resolving glitches as they surfaced.

The five-day event, from July 1 through 5, at the Oxford Fairgrounds drew an astonishing variety of performance talent, attracting people from around the world to dance, sing and enjoy the good weather in Oxford Hills.

Festival-goers were generally peaceable, waste was collected quickly, security was appropriate and professional, the campsites were plentiful, the stages were accessible and traffic was well-coordinated, all signs of truly competent organization.

Chandler didn’t sell as many tickets as he had hoped, and didn’t turn a profit on the event, but he is satisfied that he has “branded” Nateva for future years. We hope Oxford Fairgrounds becomes Nateva’s permanent home.

The festival demonstrated it is a good neighbor and is welcome in Maine.

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While Livermore Falls police officer Stephen Allen was logged on to his laptop and running a vehicle registration while driving Wednesday, he accidentally struck a parked car owned by Pamela Hardy of Jay.

The accident resulted in about $1,000 worth of damage to Hardy’s car, and $2,000 to the town-owned cruiser.

Clearly, Allen was distracted.

If the situation were reversed, and Ms. Hardy hit a parked cruiser while surfing on her laptop while driving, she would most certainly have been charged with distracted driving.

Will Allen be charged?

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