Return to the ground floor of this tower
Return to the Main Courtyard
Return to Fort Freedom's home page
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] TWO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [[[[[[[[[[[[[
Both short and to the point! (5/21/89)
[Kindly uploaded by Freeman 07656GAED]
We Are All Living In a Radioactive World
Letter to the Editor, The New York Times, 5-18-89
To the Editor:
I disagree with Michael Mariotte's premise (letter, May 8): "If
radiation were the color and texture of oil, there would be no oper-
ating reactors, because citizens would quickly realize that radiation
releases occur routinely, not just in accidents."
If everyone could see and feel radiation, we might not even notice
the radioactive emissions from nuclear reactors. These releases make
up just a fraction of our total radiation exposure.
According to the 1980 report by the National Academy of Sciences'
committee on the biological effects of ionizing radiations, each per-
son living within 10 miles of a commercial nuclear power plant
receives an average of 10 millirems a year from effluent releases.
To put that into perspective, all of us receive 50 to 200 millirems
a year (depending on altitude) in natural background radiation from
space and the earth; medical personnel in radiology or nuclear medi-
cine receive 260 to 350 millirems a year from X-rays and gamma rays;
airline passengers, 3 millirems a year from cosmic rays; pilots and
flight attendants, 160 millirems a year from cosmic rays; people who
live in brick or masonry buildings, 7 millirems a year from terres-
trial radionuclides (radium, uranium, thorium).
Indeed if radiation were the color and texture of oil, everyone
would realize that we live in a radioactive world.
Linda E. Ketchum
New York, May 8,1989
The writer is co-author of "Living with Radiation: The Risk,the Prom-
ise" (Baltimore, 1989)
--------------------
A Plea for Keeping Guns
The (Bergen County, New Jersey) Record, 5-ll-89
Editor, the Record:
Throughout most of the free world, we proclaimed the week of April
30 to May 5 as Holocaust Remembrance Week so that the memory of those
martyrs who perished in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943 would not
be forgotten. Those gallant fighters for freedom who gave the supreme
sacrifice in their struggle against the Nazi forces remain an ever-
lasting symbol in the hearts of free people everywhere. We must make
certain such things never happen again to any minority or ethnic
group.
To make certain that these events are not repeated,the people can-
not ever again allow themselves to be disarmed. We must not allow
government, no matter how good its intentions, to disarm loyal, law-
abiding citizens. If we are disarmed, how do we, the people, prevent
another Holocaust from happening again?
We should take heed from or Colonial history and the gun policies
in Israel and continental European nations that experienced the Holo-
caust first hand. These nations allow fully automatic weapons
(machine guns and submachine guns), handguns and ammunition to all
able-bodied people. Only in this way can we assure ourselves that
the words, "Never again." will have true meaning.
Domenick Porco
Westwood
* * *
Return to the ground floor of this tower
Return to the Main Courtyard
Return to Fort Freedom's home page