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The thoughts were stirred by the fact that Aaron was one of the last surviving members of the Manhattan Project, the highly secret effort that created the "doomsday weapon" that long ago August. Because Aaron and his colleagues succeeded, World War II came to an abrupt end when the nuclear attacks on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, brought Japan's surrender. No one called it the "doomsday weapon" at the time. But the frightening impact of the devastation registered on project members when they were shown gory photos of the carnage where the bombs hit. While he at first shared in the Allied euphoria over the war's end, Aaron later had nightmares over what it meant for a human race unable to put the cap back on the bottle from which he had helped the atomic genie emerge. I was 12 when the war ended. How it ended did not impress me as much as the fact that it was over. Admittedly, other priorities occupied one of my age in Illinois, blessed by living in a nation spared destruction that brought havoc to most countries beyond our protective oceans. While Europe and Asia began long, painful recovery, my classmates and I were occupied by joys and petty frustrations of schooldays in an unreal environment virtually untouched by what had torn apart the rest of the globe. But, as I learned from Aaron years after I'd left home, no one is untouched by the atomic genie that has escaped containment. The son of immigrant parents who had immigrated to Ohio, Novick became part of the historic race to create the atomic bomb in the early 1940s, after he earned his doctorate in physical organic chemistry at the University of Chicago. After being sworn to secrecy, Aaron was introduced to the project at the university, where Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard directed the effort. From there, he worked on plutonium production at Hanford, Wash., where poisonous buried waste today filters into Oregon through the Columbia River. Then he joined the brilliant crew of scientists assembled by Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, N.M., where he witnessed the experimental detonation that set free the ominous genie. In later years, Aaron often recounted how the jubilation at the war's sudden end -- orchestrated by him and his fellow scientists -- turned to bitterness they directed at themselves. "The cheers were barely out of our mouths, after hearing of the successful bombing of Hiroshima," Aaron recalled, "before most of us came to our senses, realizing what terrible things this meant for the future of the earth." Aaron made hundreds of speaking appearances to talk of how continued development of nuclear weapons would threaten the life of the planet. I remember his comment to a group of fifth graders at Eugene's Washington School: "We as human beings are used to settling our conflicts through wars. You as children can try to educate adults that there are other ways to settle those differences." Asked about his feelings of guilt, Novick told the students: "I feel guilty. We established the bad, bad precedent of being willing to use a terrible weapon we could not control." At the UO, Aaron in 1959 established the Institute of Molecular Biology. As he nursed the institute to international prominence, he remained true to his commitment as an activist for peace. He was a founder of the UO Arms Control Forum, involving some of the university's leading scientists in discussions of how to control the nuclear arms race. The atomic genie, Novick always reminded anyone who would listen, still is out there. Aaron's legacy is the reminder to never cease in the effort to control it. When I last saw Aaron, weeks before his death, I asked in half jest, as I had dozens of times before, "Can the Earth survive?" He answered as he always did. "That," he said, "is up to you." George Beres is a longtime Eugene resident, former sports information director for UO, and a free-lance writer.
Californians are paying through the nose for deregulated electricity. Oregonians are being asked to conserve power. The Northwest is experiencing energy shortages and winter's just getting started. Can things get any worse? Oh yeah! In Mead, Wash., nearly 400 steel workers employed by Kaiser Aluminum Corporation got laid off in early December when the company shut down its smelter there. Company officials cited tight energy supplies as the reason for the shutdown. Did Kaiser run out of power? No. Was the price of electricity too high to make operating the plant profitable? No. Kaiser shut its smelter and threw 400 people out of work, so it could make a huge, windfall profit by selling its "guaranteed" supply of low-cost, taxpayer-subsidized Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) electricity on the open market at a tremendous mark-up! Because it's considered vital to our region's economy, Kaiser pays BPA only about $29 per megawatt hour for electricity. Now, instead of using that power to produce aluminum, Kaiser is reselling it to us at $3,000 per megawatt hour! Amazingly, Kaiser's contract with BPA allows them to do this. Initial estimates are that Kaiser brought in about $52 million in December from electricity sales. By next September, when their contract with BPA expires, Kaiser should have pulled in about $300 million. That's when the company anticipates bringing the Mead smelter employees back to work. Don't you just love it -- corporate welfare and a deregulated economy! And George W. isn't even in the White House yet. Kurt Willcox Eugene Pointless Bashing I would like to say that Nader bashing is pointless and moot. If it were not for 19,000 dunderheads in Florida who thought that their vote didn't really count and didn't bother fixing the problem then and there -- Gore would be the president-elect and no more would be said. I saw an interview of the man who invented the system that the infamous "butterfly ballot" derived from, he said the whole point of his system was to avoid things like the "butterfly ballot." Wouldn't it be nice if Florida can get these problems worked out before the next election? And doesn't it make you proud to be an Oregonian to hear all the arguments over hand counting, recounting, and everything else gone wrong down south? Hey, Florida, you electoring moronical nincompoops, wanna see how it is supposed to work? Come have a look-see at how we do it here in Oregon, home of the greatest football rivalry in America. We may not be the fastest on earth, but we get it done right the first time! And all the legal wrangling you are killing yourselves over is moot here; we thought of things like this that could possibly happen, so we planned for it. Was the sign to Florida back in the old days a picture of the sun, or did it spell Florida on it? Jay VanOrman Eugene Gore is No Friend Now that the election is over, the left has returned to its favorite pastime: fighting among themselves. If the Greens did anything to raise consciousness, anti-Nader liberals seem determined to undermine whatever gains were made by writing angry letters and columns scapegoating Nader for all our nation's woes. Having voted for Nader myself, I was wrong in believing that a good percentage of non-voters would go Green this time. We had hoped that Ralph would get the coveted 5 percent, but with liberals (not conservatives) railing against him, and an otherwise uninformed and apathetic electorate, our hopes were dashed. This deification of Gore after the fact, however, is ridiculous. The demonization of Nader is not based on facts about what Gore would have done, but on a difference of opinions and values. For some, a vote for Gore was worth it despite all of his shortcomings (think military, war on drugs, corporate globalization, environmental hypocrisy, death penalty, welfare "reform" and generalized corruption), but for Naderites, it was not. Rather than bickering over who was "right," the left had better start focusing its energies on reaching the millions of working people who were again duped into voting against their own objective interests, and those non-voters who could have made all the difference. If enough people are still willing to stand behind Nader and the Greens next election, we will perhaps be in a position to build some meaningful coalitions, but if all this acrimony doesn't stop soon, the progressive movement will have been paralyzed from within. Bradley Butterfield Marcola Flag Kisser Bush lost both the popular vote and the electoral vote, but has been installed as Grand Dragon by the eKstreme Kangaroo Kourt, in a ruling equalled in its perfidy only by the pre-Civil War Dred Scott decision that blacks can't be citizens, and the 1883 decision nullifying the 1865 Civil Rights Act. Consequently, we are now threatened with the appointment of the segregationist, Confederate flag-kissing traitor John AshKroft as our attorney general, whose constitutional duty will be to enforce the laws of the land. The only laws John AshKKroft sees fit to enforce are the laws of his religion, by which he will insinuate himself into your bedroom, your doctor's office, and into your child's classroom to make sure he/she is praying correctly, and often, to the White God, and isn't studying evolution. Senate confirmation of AshKKKroft would be an act of treason and must be prevented. Ann Tattersall Eugene No Corporate Control Hemp production will be legal in the U.S. when Con Agra and Archer-Daniels-Midland say so. Medical marijuana will be widespread when Merck and Galaxo say so. The VM-22 Osprey death trap won't be grounded and scrapped because $40 billion is keeping Boeing and Bell executives and shareholders in the chips. Americans will continue to die in the Mideast until we wean ourselves from OPEC-big oil dependency. Legal (regulated) marijuana consumption unrelated to medicinal will be OK when Anheuser-Busch and Seagrams say so. There is no such thing as corporate control. Greg Hume Creswell Kick the Meat The New Year provides us with an opportunity to consider how we can improve our lives and make the world a better place for all. A simple but powerful approach toward this goal is through our food choices. By shifting to a plant-based diet, we benefit our health, preserve the environment, and reduce animal suffering. According to the American Dietetic Association, studies have shown that vegetarians and vegans have a lower risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes mellitus, gallstones, heart disease, hypertension, kidney stones, obesity, osteoporosis, and stroke. Because livestock animals are injected, fed, and sprayed with antibiotics and pesticides, their waste is filled with toxic chemicals. Much of it is washed by rains, untreated, into our waters; 90 percent of the organic water pollution in the U.S. is attributable to animal agriculture. The Animal Welfare Act does not apply to animals used for food. Over 90 percent of farmed animals in the U.S. are raised on factory farms in intensive confinement. The animals spend their entire lives in tiny cages and stalls where they are often unable to even turn around or lie down. They live on concrete, slatted metal, or wire mesh floors. They are forced to live in their own and other animals' wastes. Indeed, the new millennium provides every one of us a great opportunity to examine the impacts of our diet, our health, the planet, and the billions of animals tormented and killed for food. On the first day of the New Year, let's turn over a new leaf, kick the meat habit, and get a new lease on life. Fred Arbenz Eugene True Conservatives While conservatism is a divisive word for many of us, it can be a unifying word for the liberals and conservatives we call ourselves. So also with compassion. George W. Bush states his tenure of Presidential service as a time for "compassionate conservatism." In the broadest sense, conservatives are people who conserve. Two meanings of compassion are to have pity and to be gentle. God help us if some of us are viewed as pitiful. Let's celebrate compassion/gentleness! Complete conservatives do their best to conserve and employ heartfelt and sympathetic understanding of pictures that are far broader, deeper and of greater duration than anything over which they/we have power. These pictures have proved to take a lot of courage to delineate in this culture! Tree sitters and all others working hard in behalf of our natural environment are true conservatives, practicing as conservationists -- they emphasize paramountly important wavelengths of conservatism. Taking to heart a truly conservative picture of things includes the central vitality of our becoming the best we can be as long-term inhabitants in this universe. In all future political campaigns, let's make our inhabitation the top topic of discussion--without pity! I cannot overestimate the cruciality of our going far, far, far beyond practicing conservatism in terms of money and the status quo. Though we possess magnificent tools, do we have our heartfelt hearts, the genuine gifts of fine and wise minds, the strength and inspiration of our best spirit? I submit that the true meaning of a compassionate conservatism would embody our gentle relationship with all parts of this planet, including ourselves. Peace. Scott Wylie Springfield Hail to the Thief People are saying that George W. Bush stole the election. But that's not true. Bush is not intelligent enough to steal an election. He had his attorneys steal it for him. Regardless of that, at the Inaugural Ball the band is going to play "Hail to the Thief." Danny Nordberg Eugene Tokenism Murder evergreens (12/14 editorial) to make Christmas trees? What about everything else we grow and cut down in its prime just to stuff our faces? Cabbages, peas, even (yuck!) Brussels sprouts have lives too, you know. Seriously, though, a lot of people laid down their lives for equal rights in the 1960s, but the modern "progressive" is more content with tokenism -- thinking up ever more correct names for minorities and now, of course, defoliating public buildings at Christmastime. Banning Christmas trees does worse than make the world that much grayer and odorless. It invites resentment toward minorities, and sympathy for the Christian Right. Howard Huntington Grants Pass Don't Be Passive As an R.N., I was a liberal for years. In school we were always told that the Democrats were the ones who would give us the social programs needed for the poor and less fortunate. In time, I saw many of these programs only benefited the cons, drug abusers and people who wanted to take advantage of anything they could get from the government. Not many of these programs seemed effective or fair. Then I saw Ron Reagan putting people back to work and passing hospital and nursing home reform reducing abuse. Reagan, once a Democrat himself, put programs in place that mattered and worked. He showed himself to be honest and trustworthy. This type of thinking made a real difference. I see nothing wrong with being a liberal as long as you're fighting against wrongs that are real and based on correct long-term scientific evidence. Otherwise, you'll be viewed as whiners whose agenda never amounts to much. So if you really want to make changes that really matter, run for a small elected office, join community-based groups or go to a profession school. Don't just be a passive activist, lawyer or company man as all these people really do is add to the stress and anger in our society and cause more division among us as well as the death of common sense. Dan O'Gorman Creswell What Was Left Out I am sending this to the R-G, but I do not think they will print it. I hope that you will. Once I heard my favorite professor say that if you read a quote in the paper with dots in place of words, think about what the paper left out. She said the best thing to do was find out what was left out. Two weeks ago the Sunday R-G had this quote from The New York Times about Robert Ashens who is the new artistic director of the Eugene Opera. It read "especially as conducted by Robert Ashens who ... brought ... subtlety to his highly charged account of the score." What the music critic really wrote was "especially as conducted by Robert Ashens who could have brought more subtlety to his highly charged account of the score." On the front page of the same arts section, the R-G had a nasty article by the same music critic -- Anthony Tommassini -- putting down Andrea Bocelli, who is my favorite opera singer. My message is that the R-G can't have it both ways. Either print what the man said in both places or don't print it at all. Amy Levinson Eugene Comforting Fable Re: Sally Sheklow, EW, 12/21, Ms. Sheklow playfully evokes her tribe of belonging in "Lesboland." Mercifully, her fantasy encounters only one male presence, whom she demonizes -- a "human-looking man with a bad comb-over" who "slithers." In this Garden of Sisterhood, it seems, maleness arouses only primal fear and tribal loathing. Ms. Sheklow seeks her own validation with a warm and light heart. Ironically, she retreats from compassion toward those of us who are fated to bear the broken chromosome. A creative sexual mystery animates our visit to mortal life, no matter what tour guide we choose, no matter what the sleeping arrangements. Why take refuge in the comforting fable of one gender's monopoly on humanness? Douglas Mann Eugene The Real Evil I was skeptical of the poll claiming that a quarter of Nader voters might have voted for Bush had not Nader run, but after Ken Grimsley's 12/7 EW crowing about what he still sees as a Nader triumph, I begin to wonder. Grimsley resigns far too easily to the W. trump, parroting much the very same material also in his R-G opinion piece (also 12/7) where he goes further to say one W. victory will be ultimately to the good, inspiring some distant progressive success. Sure. How to convince grinch Grimsley of the real evil afoot in the Republican Party U.S.A. and among its many collaborators? Or is he a fellow traveler beyond convincing? Of course W. shouldn't be president, he first suggests in his EW version, but changes his mind later, and gleefully too: "Good. Bush should win." Do you really want to live amid such garbage, G.? As for me, having lived barely enough through too many Republican administrations, I believe indeed the Great Satan walks, call the conspiracy what you may. I call it murder, burglary, criminal sabotage of opposing campaigns, entrapment, wiretapping, wiring, mindtapping -- and the systematic disenfranchisement of millions of voters from Miami to Chile and beyond. You're wrong, Grimsley. Gore should have been president. The coup is in plainer sight than ever. Good Democrats keep their eyes wide open and never forget. John Hickman Eugene The Root Problem Just because we ignore the massive human population growth problem, doesn't mean it will go away! The planet's resources are limited, and we're already exceeding many of those limits -- without expecting to grow any more! If we don't learn to stop our own growth (in numbers and consumption), nature will do it TO us! There are many obvious warning signs indicating the combined human impact is already going beyond the earth's capacity to support, but our growth-at-all-costs economic system is doing its best to convince us that it should never end. Just because it can seem overwhelming to do anything significant about the problem (especially including you elected officials), doesn't mean we can't! We can. We can work to change laws that demand growth within our local jurisdiction. We can seek public support to change our ways of never- ending growth. We can educate others about respecting limits to human population and consumption growth -- and the problems associated with not respecting those limits! Or, we can find all the reasons in the world to not stop growth (individual freedom for people to move and live where they want; to make money; to use the land and resources as they want; to have babies as they choose, and on and on), but it won't change the reality we're facing of quickly trashing the planet, and thereby trashing our future. We can get lost in all the latest "current" issues -- just not pay attention to the many large-scale environmental and social problems that are exacerbated from too much growth -- but they will only get worse until we address this root problem. We can hope that technology will solve whatever problems we have, but it's technology that has allowed us to grow too big for the Earth's, and our own, good. How's your denial working? Mine's not working nearly well enough! Patrick Bronson Eugene Stop the Highway The Register-Guard, in its Dec. 17 editorial on the West Eugene Parkway, states that "the 1986 ballot measure was preceded by four two-page color advertisements showing a route through the West Eugene wetlands promoted by the City Council." The ballot measure did not ask us if we wanted a new highway. Apparently presuming that we did, it asked us if we favored the pre-selected route. It then added a second issue, probably rendering the measure illegal, and capped it with a five-year limit. There was no effort to educate the public about the importance of the wetlands that would be destroyed. Wetlands are essential habitat to about one third of the species on the threatened and endangered lists and, for every plant that goes extinct, 30 to 40 dependent species follow. One fourth of Earth's mammals are now threatened with extinction. No one needs a highway that much! Too, wetlands help prevent flooding, with its dispersal of toxics, by absorbing heavy rainfall, whereas paving causes toxic run-off into our waters. Vehicle fumes exacerbate global warming and the ozone hole. Highways don't decrease traffic, they increase traffic. Road building is an outmoded non-solution -- we cannot pave our way out of congestion. However, we do need to fortify the roads and bridges we already have against earthquakes, and we need to increase public transportation opportunities. Remember, "Earth was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children." Barbara Kelley, Director Save Our Ecosystems Margin of Difference I found Spruce Houser's "Squandered Power" (11/30) disloyal to democracy. There were more than three political parties that contributed to the margin of difference in the recent presidential election. There was the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party, the Reform Party, etc. Canada's elections had five parties visibly running against each other with interests as different as Canada's demographics. Every person who registered and voted invoked the power needed to "hold" the actual votes in this election. It is possible, however unlikely, the majority of the U.S. could have elected somebody by write-in. Has it even occurred to Mr. Houser that Mr. Nader campaigned for causes of his own and the Green Party's and had no intention of leaving the race? Does he think Bush or Gore would have dropped out if they thought they weren't going to win? Mr. Houser, your notion of squandering does not speak for my interests. I also suspect you do not speak for a majority of people in many communities, regardless of cultural background, who are fed up with the obvious lack of accountability and growth of useless complexity in local, state and federal branches of U.S. government. Ralph Nader is one of many in the realm of progressive politics where occupation or party affiliation are rapidly becoming irrelevant given the magnitude of political and social issues today. Nader ran for president and lost. This won't be a harbinger of change for those who voted how they truly felt. This country is around 200 years old. It was founded on a series of demands. We have the right in this representative democracy to make those demands heard again or propose more evolutionary ones. Nicholas Winlund Eugene LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and will print as many as space allows. Please limit length to 250 words, keep submissions to once a month, and include your address and phone number. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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