Re: Question for Norm Cohen

[Norman & Karen Cohen <norco@bellatlantic.net>]

Hi Andrew,

My comments below:

"Karam, Andrew" wrote:

> I've been following these threads with intermittent attention.  I really
> have only one question that I would like to pose to Mr. Cohen because I
> think that the answer will be of great help to many of us.
>
> What would it take to convince you and your colleagues that radiation and
> nuclear power are no worse than any other accepted technologies in terms of
> short- and long-term risks?
>

--------- I can only speak, of course, for myself. I didn't come to this list
for an epiphany or conversion. There's a book by a Catholic writer called "Many
Mansions". In there he talks of his experience in the dialogues he has had with
religious people from many other religions. He gained from each experience, but
remained Catholic. The purpose of his dialogues was not conversion, but
understanding.  Thats the long answer. The short answer is: "I don't know".
I've already discussed this in answers to others' posts about "why are you
here".------

>
> In my opinion, your answer to this is crucial.  If you state that no
> evidence will be convincing, then any attempts to communicate with you are
> fruitless because your mind is closed.  If your requirements are
> unreasonable or impossible to meet, then, again, attempts to communicate are
> doomed to failure.  If your requirements are high, but reasonable, then we
> have the basis for continued dialogue.
> ------- Let me try this. In early 1999, when Y2K fever began to hit, some
> activists in UNPLUG Salem wanted us to spend alot of time and media talking
> about how the world was going to end on 1/1/2000. We stayed away from that,
> except to occasionally criticize PSE&G for the slowness of their Y2K
> preparations. And we stayed out of the Y2K fray because the majority of us
> felt that, no matter what one wanted to say about the NRC and nuke companies,
> it was hard to believe they'd deliberately ignore the Y2K dangers. This
> decision was made after months of listening to 'all sides' and making a
> reasonable decision.

Now with nukes, it may well be that my personal 'risk tolerance' for nukes is
just too low for me ever to embrce this technology. But it is also true that
I'll continue to listen and to learn and to try to think rationally about the
subject.-------------

Thanks
Norm



>
> Respectfully,
>
> Andy
>
> Andrew Karam, CHP              (716) 275-1473 (voice)
> Radiation Safety Officer          (716) 275-3781 (office)
> University of Rochester           (716) 256-0365 (fax)
> 601 Elmwood Ave. Box HPH   Rochester, NY  14642
>
> Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu
> http://Intranet.urmc.rochester.edu/RadiationSafety
>
> Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship which grinds
> you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out
> depends on what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not
> extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a
> definite result out of loose data.  (T.H. Huxley, 1869)
>
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--
Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr Ave.,
Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8537 or 609-601-8583 (8583: fax, answer machine);
norco@bellatlantic.net;  UNPLUG SALEM WEBSITE:  http://www.unplugsalem.org/
COALITION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE WEBSITE:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~norco/  ICQ# 54268619; The Coalition for Peace
and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action.
“We have two lives, the one we’re given, and the other one we make” (Mary Chapin
Carpenter)
“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights...Get up, stand up, don’t give up
the fight!” (Bob Marley)




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