Re: Nuclear Waste, Science, & Politics

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 6/3/01 3:19:56 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 

jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET writes:



> On the planet where I live, good political solutions are those that gain 
>
> public acceptance. 


I would like to remind RADSAFERs that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not 

have "public acceptance" in much of the South.  In Maryland, where I grew up 

and where I "sat in" to desegregate public accommodations, the state public 

accommodations law certainly had no public acceptance.  Roe v. Wade still has 

no public acceptance among many.  School desegregation had no public 

acceptance 15 years after Brown -- I know this because we were plaintiffs in 

a lawsuit to force desegregation of  the Denver Public Schools (Keyes et al 

v. Denver Board of Education).  The Fulbright Act and the Marshall Plan had 

no public acceptance.  And (hey, I can't resist)  Hitler had public 

acceptance in Germany, and the mass slaughter of the Jews of Europe had 

plenty of public acceptance in Poland.   Legislators and "policy makers" 

sometimes have to walk a fine line between public desires and doing the right 

thing, and it is difficult.  


Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com