Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

3 comment(s)

The Daily Gleaner has (properly) printed another letter from someone afraid of radon creeping along the ground and causing lung cancer, common colds and conniption fits.

Radon comes from the ground so I suppose that is why weasels and gophers and rats and such have such a high rate of lung disease. We don't want the rat population of the world to suffer.

They don't have lung cancer? Well then, maybe the radon scare is another of those urban myths that nasties pass around to frighten people.

What I really object to is the insidious attack on one of New Brunswick's ancient and honoured basic industries. It is no secret that almost all atmospheric radon is released from the ground by farmers ploughing their fields.

The Not-In-My-Back-Yarders have picked on the wrong industry this time. I like New Brunswick corn, potatoes, apples, etc. I won't give them up for imported stuff regardless of foolish propaganda.

Radioactivity has existed on Earth since God said, "Let there be light." (The word radiation did not exist in Moses' time.)

If it were really so dangerous, none of us would be here.

If God saw that it was good, I have no objection to background radiation either. It may be bad for things that would be worse for us.

And a Frenchman, over a century ago, found, to his surprise - and mine, when I read it - that most radiation comes from the sky not the ground. This is called background radiation.

By the way, a Geiger counter registers some count everywhere.

Stuart Mills

Fredericton

Canadian human rights

Watching late night TV, I recently saw an ad telling me I had a chance to donate to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Curious, I visited their website and saw this introduction: "a place for dialogue;-a symbol for all Canadians;-a chance to change the world."

All are wonderful sentiments, worthy goals, I said to myself, and continued reading, liking what I saw.

"Canada's greatest legacy will be the ability of our country to uphold and strengthen human rights into the future. To be able to do this effectively, we must learn from the tragedies of the past . . . Many survivors of Canadian human rights abuses including First Nations, Ukrainians, Japanese, Italians, suffragettes and others are now in their advanced years. We must record the lessons of history - the testimonials from survivors and the stories of our human rights heroes - before they are lost forever.'

I agree wholeheartedly. And then I realized they had made a huge omission. Why aren't the people impacted by the Gagetown chemical defoliant spraying program - or the Gagetown Atrocity as some call it - listed among the survivors of Canadian human rights abuses?

They certainly qualify, having been poisoned by their own government and defense department with over one billion grams of chemicals.

Victims and survivors of Gagetown are a prime example of a tragedy of the past. They are a precious national legacy, and they are heroes. Each and every one of them.

Let's do the right thing: let's honour those who have been lost and those who are still fighting to live by including them in this museum.

Sheila-Ann Woods

Victoria, B.C.

Study of English important

A call-in discussion about cutting early French immersion was on local radio recently.

As I listened to Minister of Education Kelly Lamrock, I realized he wasn't speaking proper English.

This is common - for myself and many others. However, instead of pounding this multi-billion dollar French program on taxpayers, I suggest Lamrock take a refresher course in English.

Also, any member of government, provincial or federal who does not know what the word British means, should not be in politics in this country.

Melvin Smith

Fredericton