Re: OEPA , montel ramblings

[Ruth Weiner <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

        I would like to suggest the book "Illness and Metaphor"  by Susan 
     Sontag.  I used to make my students (antinukes every one) mad by 
     making them read it.  Sontag points out all the myths and metaphors 
     about tuberculosis that evaporated when the cause was found (infection 
     with the tubercle bacillus) and then analogizes to our attitudes 
     toward cancer.  Doesn't give any answers, but VERY illuminating.
     
     I don't know what to do about those TV shows, and since I never watch 
     anything but "Mystery" once in a while I'm not a good person to 
     critique them.  I find TV irritating and superficial at its best.  
     Maybe we should make a concerted effort to write the producers and the 
     network to point out that misinformation and distortion are as 
     unethical as the portrayal of violence.
     
     
Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
Transportation Systems Department
Sandia National Laboratories
Mail Stop 0718
P. O. Box 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
505-844-4791
505-844-0244 (fax)
rfweine@sandia.gov


My own opinions only, of course!

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: OEPA , montel ramblings
Author:  Chasmig@aol.com at hubsmtp
Date:    1/10/98 9:21 AM


Great testimony Andy!
Perhaps he should make an appearance on Montel!
     
Unfortunately, he would be made into the "bad guy".
     
Anyone see the 60 minutes bit  on Clinton power station a few years ago? These 
TV guys sure know how to distort the facts in the name of sensationalism. 
(granted, that place has its problems....) Alec Baldwin's scientific 
credentials are obviously beyond question... he WAS after all on board a 
nuclear sub for a few days to film a movie. And Dr. Caldicott.... well she IS 
a Doctor, after all, she should know. Nobody ever lies on TV. Those poor kids! 
Of course Brookhaven is to blame! Its a Big, Bad, Secret Government NUCLEAR 
lab! (The 'NUCLEAR' part says it all, right?) I wonder if the Pittsburg doc 
could give a good estimate of the tritium dose the kid got? (or from whatever 
other alleged radioactive waste is in the water) I wonder if the kid ever had 
a chest x-ray. Wonder how that exposure compares to radwaste exposure....
     
I really feel for those people, but the way their sorrow is being used for 
other's gain is even more tragic.
     
I heard a woman who called in on NPR science Friday's discussion of cloning 
yesterday. She said "we shouldnt do cloning research because look what 
happened with nuclear power that was supposed to be such a wonderful thing 
bringing us all kinds of benefits which never materialized but instead we have 
Hiroshima, TMI , Chernobyl, and Nagasaki, killing millions of people, and now 
we have the threat of nuclear terrorism and babies getting cancer from these 
extremely dangerous nuclear plants still in this country..."
     
This kind of ignorance makes me want to scream! When is the public going to 
get it that nuclear weapons and nuclear power are not the same? Every gallon 
of gasoline is not used to make napalm.
     
If a utility ever wants to build another nuc unit in this country, there will 
be a cadre of activists using the public's ignorance to make their political 
careers. It is a an easy, no-lose situation for them... trot out some babies 
with cancer and get a politically ambitious crackpot with some credentials 
(like H.C.) to say "see, the nuc did it!"
If someone has cancer within a thousand miles of a nuc, obviously the nuc is 
to blame. ("how else do you explain this poor, innocent person's illness?")
     
Ugh.
     
Charles Migliore
Chasmig@aol.com