Re: Who is Louis Ricciuti?

[Steven Dapra <sjd@swcp.com>]

June 12



	On June 11 I reported here that Louis Ricciuti had written a petition

"requesting the formation of a self-governing committee of citizens to

oversee environmental cleanup of rad-contaminated sites in the Niagara

Falls area."  (The text of the petition is at

www.petitiononline.com/uranium/petition.html.)



	Susan Gawarecki then offered a posting that began:  "As executive director

of an oversight organization, I am going to step up and defend Mr.

Ricciuti's petition.  No matter what you think of his opinions, research or

how he presents himself, local communities have a right to oversee

environmental decisions that affect them.  In my considerable experience in

this arena, the more informed that interested citizens are, the more likely

they are to understand the technical issues and agree to realistic

solutions.  In addition, they often can identify issues or concerns that

would otherwise be technical or policy pitfalls for their sites or

communities."



	To briefly return to the petition, at the bottom of it you can click on a

link to a list of signatories, and the comments that some of them have

posted along with their signatures.  Nineteen of 50 signers posted

comments.  Six of the comments follow:



"Entirely too much illness not to be environmentally related."



"With disease rates as they are in the area, some group needs to be

watching over things-and it's about time this is done. Bravo."



"How could they have allowed 3rd grade babies to be used as experimental

guniea [sic] pigs? Do they sleep at night?"



"I have removed my children from the immediate danger by moving to the

eastern end of the county."



"Our children are at stake--kids like dirt."



"I would have had NO idea of the danger of this problem if I had not had

this information released to me. I am very thankful to know now, though I

would have liked to have known 4 years ago. I came here for an education at

NU; but I may be going away with more than that. Thank you to the county

for increasing my chances of an already abundant problem in my

family...cancer."



	Admittedly, I have chosen the most provocative comments.  The others are

milder, or are general statements of support.  But I ask you, 'ladies and

gentlemen' of the jury, do these sound like the comments of citizens who

want to get more informed on the technical issues and find realistic

solutions?  Does anyone at RADSAFE believe Louis Ricciuti actually wants to

learn anything about radwaste - or any type of waste - and the relative

risks it may pose?



	Some 12 years ago I attended a public hearing (in Albuquerque) concerning

the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP), located near Carlsbad, NM.  It

was a long and dreary day of anti-nukers making ludicrous and nonsensical

claims, whining and complaining about "THE BOMB," slandering and vilifying

their villains du jour, and telling outright lies about radioactivity.  I

attended a small portion of another WIPP hearing in Albuquerque three or

four years ago and in his "testimony" a certain man began moaning and

groaning about a bunch of social issues that had nothing to do with WIPP.

They were not even remotely related to it.



	I am not denying Dr. Gawarecki's experiences.  I am saying that in my

experience, the people who sign petitions of this sort, and who agitate for

cleanup and so on, do not want to learn anything.  They don't even want to

teach.  What they want is a soapbox so they can complain about the

military-industrial complex, the poisoning of everyone and everything, how

we are all going to die of cancer, and so forth and so on.



	They don't want to learn anything, their minds are made up long before

they arrive at the meetings or hearings, they have a political agenda, and

you can not reason with them or explain anything to them.  If they learned

anything about radioactivity or waste in general it would force them to

examine their entire array of political beliefs and - and maybe have to

abandon some of those beliefs - and they are not about to do that.   



	This has been my consistent experience for over 15 years.  Other people

reading this may have had different experiences.



Steven Dapra

sjd@swcp.com







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