This writing details the hardships of a family and a community in a zone where nuclear bombs were tested. Honestly, I have never heard of this before. I had no idea that there were people in the United States that were victims of nuclear radiation. It renews a cynical attitude towards our government in me. I'm not against nuclear testing, especially in this time period where it was necessary to keep up with the Soviets for the sake of national security, but couldn't it have been done a different way. Even if there was no completely desolate area available, the people could have been relocated.
It was new information to me when I read that at one time, there had supposedly been no consensus that nuclear radiation caused cancer. Where they really unsure about this, or was the government just making an excuse? The government claimed to have such sovereignty that it could apparently throw away your life at a whim if it liked, for military purposes. This is the same rationale that went into the draft of just before that period, and the draft may be viewed upon as a more necessary evil, but many more soldiers lost their lives in World War II than I'm sure died of nuclear radiation during the cold war. Preventative is better than cure. Again, I believe nuclear testing was necessary, but that the government should not have been so careless about it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
"Where after all do universal human rights begin? In small places, closes to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
"...To narrow the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time"
-Barack Obama
I believe in that universal human rights should always come before the rights of a government or collective. Due to this I believe that the simple creation of the nuclear bomb was perhaps the most devastating invention ever created by humans. I feel that humans as a collective have evolved to the top of the food chain and with that comes responsibility. One may argue that in order to stay at the top you must fight but shouldn't we have evolved beyond that by now? Are we not better than common animals?
In his speech "A More Perfect Union" President Barack Obama is calling for that sort of continued evolution from society. President Obama wants us to learn from our past mistakes so that they will not be repeated in the future. People such as Terry Tempest Williams are role models in this effort to rise above and question the status quo.
Post a Comment