Archive for June, 2008
Anyone else annoyed and confused with the partisan yap-fest about what we can - and should - do about the high gas prices? Will drilling solve the problem or is there really nothing there? Are speculators raising the price of gas or is that a red herring?
I’m rolling up my sleeves and trying to delve into FACT beyond partisanship on the mucho dinero YOU have to pay for a tank of gas. Give me a few days and I’ll let you know what I’ve found out…
Feel free to let me know what you know.
June 25th, 2008
“History at its best is about telling stories. Stories about people who lived before, about events in the past that create the contours of the present. By studying the lives of others, we hope that we - the living - can learn from their struggles and their triumphs… We have lost the art of letter writing, the discipline of keeping a diary, but as Tim showed, we have not lost the capacity for talking; for sitting around a simple table and conversing - in a civil and illuminating fashion about the most important issues of the day… ”
–Doris Kearns Goodwin, Historian, author of Team of Rivals, as delivered at the memorial service for Tim Russert
June 18th, 2008
The nicest young man rang my doorbell in hopes of obtaining a
signature from me on a petition to make congress look at alternate
forms of energy (wind, solar, tidal) to reduce of dependance on fossil
fuels. He got so much more than he bargained for once I opened the door.
I stood in the doorway and gave him my best synopsis of all our energy
dinners (who knew i was listening so well?). I went over the facts I
had gleaned about nuclear energy being very clean energy. We discussed
the storage and transfer of energy and how solar, wind, and tidal
energy is strictly good for local use and doesn’t store or move over
long distances well. I also pointed out the LARGE land needed for wind
energy and how renewables don’t produce nearly enough power. And i
touched a bit on the fact that the his point was that we used too many
fossil fuels and foreign oil and that would not be helped by tidal,
wind, or solar power (unless a solar car is invented).
Really, I was a font of energy knowledge. I even amazed myself. Seems
that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
The young man was very polite and listened very well. I don’t think I
changed his mind and i didn’t sign his petition. But it was one small
step for civility… all politics is local, all politics involves
beginning at our front doorstep and having a lively and civil
conversation.
He even wrote down the web address for tothevillagesquare.org. Perhaps
he is reading this blog entry today…
June 16th, 2008
There are moments when you hear news that knocks the breathe out of you. The death today of NBC’s Tim Russert took mine. He’s nearly a member of my family, joining me as he does on Sunday mornings for bagels and coffee for as long as I can remember.
It’s not that I haven’t whined at times when in his company. Some question he could have asked differently or didn’t ask at all.
But I offer a yardstick by which I think Mr. Russert can be judged, one of our very American DNA poetically offered by Dr. David Abshire of The Center for the Study of the Presidency:
I argue that in the great historical accomplishments of America,
these apparent opposites—commitment and tolerance—are bridged
by civility. Civility, as used here, is not simply following rules of etiquette
and decorum for the sake of tradition or in order to coat over
any differences. In its deepest sense, civility means respect, listening,
and dialogue. It does not mean watering down or giving up cherished
principles. Indeed, civility has often been exercised in the American
experience in order to move to the higher, common ground.
Commitment and tolerance as our great American traditions. Bridged by civility. By that measure - and I suspect many others - Russert was a giant.
June 13th, 2008
Yesterday my Uncle Tom died. He was 90.
My Uncle Tom was something special. He’s the kind of guy who just by being himself makes his great niece walk just a little taller, aim just a little higher.
Tom was the last of four brothers, who grew up to be - in order of their birth - a Methodist minister (as was their father), a pediatrician, another pediatrician and an obstetrician (Tom).
Uncle Tom was a son of the South, as was my grandpa - though long since transplanted to care for the children in an Ohio mill town, an Ohio mill town which has long since died.
Tom was the last brother. He was the most amazing husband, steadily loving and caring for his aging wife with Alzheimer’s.
Miriam.
Even with Alzheimer’s, Miriam is such an amazing lady. Warm, welcoming, even though she forgets who you are.
Miriam and Tom were the beautiful people - you know… the kind who would rightfully sit a bit above the rest of us regular folks… well-educated, well-heeled, well-paid. Gorgeous.
They didn’t. They were the salt of the earth.
Uncle Tom, as far as I know, was a lifelong Republican. So was my grandpa, who died long before Republicans and Democrats seemed to so hate each other.
My grandpa would have never hated me.
I believe my grandpa and his doctor-brothers all felt that they were taking care of the children and babies in their towns just-fine-thank-you-no-need-for-government-here.
Knowing Tom, Ken (brother 3) and my grandpa, I’m betting they were right.
I’m a lifelong Democrat.
I never talked to Tom about politics. Frankly, it just didn’t matter. Lots of things mattered a whole lot more.
About a zillion years ago my boyfriend-almost-husband found himself with a dead car on the top of a suspension bridge two states away from me. We called Uncle Tom who, obstetric practice and all, drove to the top of the bridge and rescued my husband.
You know how busy obstetricians are?
In his last letter to me, Great Uncle Tom thanked my husband for “taking my nephew fishing all the time… and bringing him back again.”
So, if you’re a Democrat like me and you’re inclined to hate Republicans, you’re going to have to do it without me.
Because the Republican you hate might just be like my Uncle Tom, whose absence today makes the world more than just a little bit less.
June 12th, 2008
We’re out with our draft guiding concepts on nuclear energy from our third dinner. Find a full discussion of these concepts here.
You can find the draft guiding concepts from our first dinner here and our second dinner here.
Tell us what you think.
1.
Nuclear power is a significant source of zero to low greenhouse gas energy
that should remain part of a diversified energy mix.
2.
Nuclear is the only zero/low greenhouse gas energy source currently capable of providing the baseload (24/7) power required to meet a projected 35 to 40% increase in demand and/or the international goal of a 70% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.
3.
If we’re concerned with greenhouse gas emissions, choosing not to build new nuclear capacity is giving up a sure thing in favor of a hopeful bet.
4.
In comparing health effects and mortality rates, nuclear power is statistically safer than coal & natural gas.
5.
The long radioactive half-life of nuclear waste is not a measure of its danger.
6.
While it is true that nuclear waste is radioactive for 100,000 years, the risk decreases substantially in a tiny fraction of that time.
7.
Waste disposal is the fundamental technological challenge ahead.
8.
U.S. nuclear plants are unlikely targets for terrorist attacks given the absence of highly enriched uranium.
9.
With nuclear, subsidies are the rub.
10.
Defuse the debate by knowing whether you’re talking domestic nuclear issues or international nuclear issues.
11.
Building new nuclear plants is expensive, we just don’t know how expensive.
12.
Transparency,
transparency,
transparency.
13.
To maximize our ability to use nuclear energy intelligently (likely with reprocessing) we need to address the challenging international proliferation picture.
June 10th, 2008
This week it looks like we have our two presidential candidates, a Democrat and a Republican. So, it’s on. That makes this a perfect time to start work on a Village Square election manifesto of sorts. Just how do you participate in a spirited hard-fought race in a civil way? One that will leave America stronger than it found it? How do you fight like founding fathers? Here’s a first go at it…
Country first, party second. While it would seem to go without saying, apparently it doesn’t. We are living in a time when we must reach deep into our souls to remember that we are Americans first.
Allow facts to inform judgement, rather than judgement to cherry-pick fact. Know that the chickens of factual distortion almost always come home to roost eventually. May as well just man-up and accept what’s real right up front.
Give a hearing to both candidates. While it’s OK that your mind may be made up, your willingness to hear out each man will ultimately help us move on constructively no matter who the winner is.
Listen to whole speeches. There will be many speeches of substance in this campaign. There you will find a more cohesive picture of the breadth of the candidate than in sound bytes. Can you validly spend all that time whining if you didn’t hear all of what they had to say?
Know your source of information. Are you listening to opinion or fact, entertainment or information? There’s a big difference.
Lose the venom. Lose the venom-spewers as well, it’s a job that pays far too well these days. It wouldn’t if we didn’t listen.
Anxiously awaiting your brilliant additions…
June 10th, 2008
Thanks to the Center for the Study of the Presidency for pointing to this profound and timely Lincoln quote:
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must
rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew,
and act anew . . . Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.”
—Abraham Lincoln
June 5th, 2008
Lea, in a nervy act that did - in fact - confirm for me that she is a Republican, was a special guest last weekend of President George W. Bush for his Furman graduation speech.
News reports don’t seem to be specifically mentioning Lea, although I’m still researching. Surely they didn’t miss that story.
Lea warned me that she may not associate with us mere mortals after the whole shebang, although I’m putting my money on the theory that she hasn’t reported back because she finally saw the error of her ways???
Waiting for her Village Square correspondent first person report and any pithy post-partisan perceptions (and I would like to know if she can say that 10 times fast) …
June 3rd, 2008
One of the most surprising facts I learned while studying nuclear power is just how much radiation we absorb in our daily lives and how miniscule the percentage of that total annual absorption you’d get even if you lived next to a nuclear power plant 24 hours a day, grew your food there and drank all your water from a well on your property (this describes “the Fencepost Man” - a theoretical person the EPA limits to 15 millirems annually). Below is a rundown of millirems associated in various aspects of our lives.A millirem “is a measure of the actual biological effects of radiation absorbed in human tissue.” To give you a sense of scale, 100,000 millirems within a short time might kill you, although the short time is a critical part of that lethality.
Associated with energy
Living within 50 miles of a coal-fired plant .03 millirem/year
Living within 50 miles of a nuclear plant .0009 millirem/year
15 millirems - EPA limit for the “Fencepost Man”
21 millirems - Average annual exposure of a uranium miner
180 to 240 millirems - Actual average exposure of nuclear power plant workers
5,000 millirems - Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for exposure of nuclear plant workers
80,000 to 1.6 million millirems - Inside the reactor building at Chernobyl
240 millirems - Average annual background radiation we receive from sources like the below:
Roundtrip flight from New York to LA - 3 millirems
Natural gas in your home - 9 millirems
Chest x-ray - 10 millirems
Drinking water - 32 millirems
Cosmic radiation - 50 millirems
Xray technician – 500 millirems
Living for a year at Grand Central Station made of granite – 600 millirems
Living in northeastern Washington state - 1,700 millirems
2 packs of cigarettes a day 16,000 to 20,000 millirems/year (even then, the chemical aspect is probably what causes cancer, not the radiation)
Living in a particular city in Iran - 26,000 millirems (no evidence of health risks)
June 1st, 2008
