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Re: salem radiation forum 9/8
>That line about lynching is quite unfair and unprofessional. Go to
>www.unplugsalem.org, read the names of the organizations signed on to the
>campaign
Apologies in advance -- rant to follow. Skip it if you don't like rants,
please.
My own most recent personal "lynching" was at a meeting in Las Vegas in
1993, where a typical question to me was (and this is a real quote, though
the speaker did not identify herself) "60% of the children in my community
are born mentally retarded. Now explain THAT to me!" and when I said there
was no way I could explain it on the basis of her statement, I was heckled
as to both why not and how could I call myself a scientist, etc. As I said,
this was fairly typical of the meeting.
Second experience: in 1980, I staged an open forum at my university on the
Initiative 383 campaign -- this was the initaitve that led to the Low Level
Waste Policy Act of 1980. I got a pro-nuke speaker, and anti-nuke speaker,
and a representative of the State of Washington. The latter turned out, to
my great embarrassment, to be anti-nuke as well (and not particularly
moderate, either). I apologized publicly to the pro-nuke speaker for having
unwittingly put her in a completely unfair situation -- a "lynching," as it
were.
I have, for about the past 15 years, attended a large number of meetings on
nuclear issues, and the "activists" (representatives of various national and
local anti-nuclear groups) apparently feel compelled to begin their
statements with a sort of ritualized government-bashing, especially of DOE
and its contractors. The bashing often extends to anyone dressed in normal
business attire (yes, I generally wear a suit) and to anyone not obviously
from a protected minority group. I am tired of hearing how I don't
understand life and the earth, how I have lost touch with myself, how I
couldn't possibly be a loving mother and grandmother, how I don't care about
children, how all DOE and DOE contractors lie all the time, how we are
bringing about the end of civilization as we know it, etc. Telling someone
that he or she or his or her agency (and all its employees) lie all the time
and you can't trust a thing they say is insulting and distressing, whether
they get a free drink at the meeting and a name tag or not. One meeting I
was at recently, I was rather violently assaulted verbally and accused of
being "intimidating" (huh?) and the verbal assault was complete with shaking
a finger in my face, yelling at me, not letting me get a word in, etc. (I
did incidentally get an apology later from the individual who did this.)
Maybe no one else on the list has experienced this sort of thing. If so, I
stand corrected and there must be something just wrong with me.
Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Norman & Karen Cohen <norco@bellatlantic.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, August 17, 2000 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: salem radiation forum 9/8
>Apologies to Melissa- but this was transmitted to the whole list.
>
>Ruth,
>
>That line about lynching is quite unfair and unprofessional. Go to
>www.unplugsalem.org, read the names of the organizations signed on to the
>campaign. There are groups like the Salem Quakers, Clean Ocean Action,
American
>Littoral, Delaware Riverkeeper, Public Citizen, NJ PIRG. All people at this
>meeting WILL be treated with respect.
>
>
>I'm sorry if you were treated differently at the meeting you attended.
>
>I'll go back to answering off list to most questions.
>
>norm.
>
>ruth_weiner wrote:
>
>> Bob is quite right. I've been there, This is an invitation to a
lynching.
>>
>> ruth_weiner@msn.com
>>
>> ---**********************************************************************
**
>> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
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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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