News
Fukushima crisis underscores need for truth about nuclear power’s danger
From the North Bay Bohemian
By Norman Solomon
On the edge of Capitol Hill, day after day, we heard wrenching testimony from people whose lives had been ravaged by the split atom.
That was three decades ago.
I was coordinating the National Citizens Hearings for Radiation Victims in 1980, one year after Three Mile Island. The voices came from uranium miners, atomic workers, veterans, downwinders exposed to atmospheric nuclear bomb tests . . . and many others. The people who testified were from a wide array of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. But in addition to radiation exposure and suffering, they had one huge experience in common.
They'd been lied to—not once or twice, but repeatedly. Year after year.
There is no danger, the officials told them. You are safe. Radiation levels? Not to worry. But gradually, the clusters of cancer or leukemia or severe thyroid ailments or birth defects became too conspicuous to ignore. Still, officials kept saying that the nuclear industry was blameless.
Nuclear Power Madness
From CommonDreams.org
Like every other president since the 1940s, Barack Obama has promoted nuclear power. Now, with reactors melting down in Japan, the official stance is more disconnected from reality than ever.
Political elites are still clinging to the oxymoron of “safe nuclear power.” It’s up to us -- people around the world -- to peacefully and insistently shut those plants down.
There is no more techno-advanced country in the world than Japan. Nuclear power is not safe there, and it is not safe anywhere.
Norman Solomon will speak to Council of Mayors and Councilmembers
Marin Independent Journal
From an article by political columnist Dick Spotswood
Marin's Council of Mayors and Councilmembers generally stays out of politics, but that may temporarily change. San Anselmo Mayor Ford Greene has invited Norman Solomon to be the speaker at the group's April 27 public dinner meeting. The monthly sessions are hosted in rotation by Marin's eleven municipalities. In April, it's the Hub City's turn.
In search of a Green New Deal
From the Marin Independent Journal
Elections come and go, but the need for a Green New Deal remains.
Dire trends are undermining our economy and ecology. Misplaced priorities have led to high unemployment, rampant home foreclosures and widening income inequality.
Meanwhile, despite important progress in certain areas, the natural environment continues to take a beating.
We can find solutions — but only if we invigorate civic involvement.
That's been the hope behind a grassroots initiative launched two years ago — the Green New Deal for the North Bay — directly involving hundreds of people in public forums, discussions and meetings.
Solomon prepares to seek Woolsey’s seat in Congress
The Press Democrat
Norman Solomon, a Marin County political activist and author, said Wednesday he will run for the Sonoma—Marin congressional seat in 2012 if Rep. Lynn Woolsey retires.
Solomon, an Inverness resident and self-described progressive Democrat, said he would “extend the Woolsey legacy” by opposing war in Afghanistan and backing green jobs, clean energy, civil liberties, gender equality, health care, education and balanced spending priorities.
“True leadership means standing up for the well-being of the vast majority of Americans, even when — especially when — the powerful push back,” Solomon said.
