RE: Congression competence.

[Jack_Earley@RL.GOV]

<<After the nature of background radiation was explained (accurately) to

him, Mr. Rahall reaffirmed that he was sure there was no such thing as

background radiation in his state of West Virginia. >>



You may have hit on a key aspect of the problem here--inability to perform

or apply critical thinking skills, which seems to be a product of certain

environments. Shortly after I was married, I discovered that neither of my

stepchildren could understand the simplest of fractions. They were in an

alternative public school where learning was "self-determined," which for

grades 1-8 seems to me to be absurd. The older child almost failed 6th grade

for not completing an assignment; which was told to her, but not to her

mother. The younger child learned from his father the "art" of debate. It's

become so ingrained in him that when I asked him the other day whether the

lock on my bicycle seat were his, his immediate response was, "Mine?" as

though he were stalling to think of an appropriate answer.



Anyway, the point of the examples is that from these two environments the

kids have failed to learn some very critical skills and have substituted

inappropriate skills in their places, e.g., procrastination and debate. The

same seems to hold true for many of those whom we're discussing--they've

substituted prejudice and emotional outbursts for critical thinking skills,

apparently believing that if enough people agree with their positions, they

won't have to make the effort to deal with reality. BTW, some kids do that,

too--if we can get mom/dad to buy into it (e.g., cheating in school), we

won't have to actually study and learn, much less take (immediate)

responsibility for our choices.



Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer





-----Original Message-----

From: Don Jordan [mailto:ramservices@LSOL.NET]

Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 8:59 AM

To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: Congression competence.





Some years ago I posted to Radsafe the verbatim testimony of Congressman

Nick Rahall regarding clean-up standards.  When the questioner asked Mr.

Rahall if he thought it sensible to, say, attempt to clean up a site to

standards that were lower than background, Mr. Rahall replied that there was

no background radiation in his state.



After the nature of background radiation was explained (accurately) to him,

Mr. Rahall reaffirmed that he was sure there was no such thing as background

radiation in his state of West Virginia.  If the old archives (ca. 1996) are

still available, you can dig up the original post.  [I don't have it, and no

longer have a Federal Depository Library across the street to look it up

again.]



Since Mr. Rahall has been in the news recently assuring us that there are no

WMD in Iraq, his testimony may be of current interest.





Don Jordan

RAM Services, Inc.

ramservices@lsol.net

Tel.: +1-920-686-3889

Fax: +1-920-686-3899

510 County Highway V

Two Rivers, WI  54241  U.S.A.



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