Kudos to the Islanders who are stepping forward to show their opposition to Glacier Northwest’s construction project on Maury Island.

Friday morning, in a bone-penetrating chill, several Islanders — from college students to seniors to mothers with babes in arms — gathered to create a blockade, an effort to slow the corporation’s progress. A handful went to great lengths, risking arrest by locking arms in steel tubes to keep the workers’ trucks and cars at bay.

On Sunday, another remarkable showing — 500 people toting signs and banging drums — gathered on the beach. The energy was infectious, the determination inspiring.

Some say it’s too late. And it’s certainly sobering to see the company continue to move forward, albeit more slowly than it had hoped thanks to a wild month of weather.

But the tenacious souls who continue to lead this effort also continue to find new arrows in their quiver. Rep. Sharon Nelson, with the suppport of several other lawmakers, has asked the governor to intervene, citing a state law that gives the governor the authority to try to rescind a state action that was ill-advised or ethically questionable.

And at the very least, as this drama reaches its denouement, Islanders have made a powerful statement. They’ve shown — to paraphrase one of the world’s great poems — that they will not go gentle into the night. They’ve shown they care deeply about the health of Puget Sound.