Why are you posting to RADSAFE?????

[Paul Lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>]

The following is NOT a Flame. It is a commentary on how I feel about 
Norm, his daring to ask us for information, and how he has been 
treated.

How dare anyone ask this gentleman "WHY are YOU posting to radsafe?"

The Health Physics Society bemoans the fact that some in the public 
don't get "our" message, the HPS has a public information section, we 
all state that education is part of our goal. Yet - when the first 
person who does not share our information or views pops their head up 
on radsafe we tell him to "declare yourself" and demand to know "what 
you aim to [do with the information]?" We go on to accuse him of 
getting "statements for your anti-nuclear business by
distorting them?"

Is anyone other than Norm expected to tell us the WHY of a posting.

Well here is our opportunity to make Norm so uncomfortable that he 
leaves and he leaves with the opinion that we are not only uncaring 
we are just a club to which he is not welcome. After he leaves we can 
get back to wishing for a dialog with those who we believe are in 
need of the information we have to give.

Was I required to tell the radsafe audience "why I wanted to know of 
others experiences with digging for "lost" rad materials?" How did 
you know that this was not just my secret way to get information that 
was harmful to other licensees so that I could release it (after 
distorting it of course) to make them look bad or incompetent? Is it 
that my signature line (Paul Lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu> 
RSO and Director Office of Radiation Safety at the University of 
California - Berkeley) has axiomatically included me in some secret 
handshake club.

Has anyone here seen the movie Starman. One person demands that they 
stop trying to hunt this "visitor" down and reminds them that "we 
invited him." Isn't that what we did here? Didn't we invite those 
like Norm?

I am more than disappointed in our hospitality.

Finally, if you do not wish to be a part of these discussions with 
the Norms of the world then just do not read them.

Paul Lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
RSO and Director Office of Radiation Safety
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