Three Mile Island: 27th Anniversary of Nuclear Accident
And today is the 27th anniversary of the meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was the most severe nuclear accident in U.S. history. In the pre-dawn hours of March 28, 1979, the cooling system of the plant’s reactor malfunctioned, causing temperatures inside to skyrocket sparking a meltdown that resulted in the release of radioactivity.
that's from democracy now and today is the 27 anniversary. let me round that out by talking about some stuff going on at that time. jimmy carter was president. karen silkwood had been murdered years prior. (others think she died in an accident. i say murder.)
karen silkwood was a whistleblower on the nuclear industry and 1 night, while she was going to expose the industry (with documents), she died in a car accident and no documents were in the car.
jane fonda wanted to make a film about the life of karen silkwood but there were problems with the legal rights at that time. (years later, meryl streep would star as karen silkwood in the film silkwood.) what was going on was a film michael douglas and jack lemmon were involved with and jane fonda (and her film partner then, bruce gilbert) teamed up. they filmed it and it took a lot of pressure to get the studio to go along with the desired title: "china syndrome."
it was thought that the film would be a hard sell with the best title and the studio (columbia) didn't think that was the best title. (the title refers to the effect during a meltdown).
the film comes out and, i know this hard to believe, the right wing slams it. george will stops twirling his bow tie long enough to slam the film as did others. never could happen. if it ever happened, the nuclear industry wouldn't try to deceive the public.
there was a cooridnated effort to bury the film which came out on march 16, 1979. then three miles island happend. the george will's weren't shut up (they never are, kids), but reality did take hold with the public.
trivia note, edward teller who is known as the father of the h-bomb (a title he wrongly took pride in) had a heart attack in 1979 and publicly blamed it on jane fonda.
poor mad scientist. a heart attack? i'm sure only a heart attack would have been seen as mercy to the people the bomb was dropped on in hiroshima.
so that's a bit of flashback history for you.
all the usual right-wing, echo chamber cranks lined up to destroy a film (and fonda, you know they always love to try to destroy her) and, as usual, they were talking out of their ass.
this time the truth was told on them quick.
now an apology. no, not about roberta flack. she wasn't on wbai's home fries last night because something came up, that's how it goes in live radio and it was a great program. elaine and i were on the phone listening to it together. and if she, some 1 who loves roberta flack (i think that may be her favorite female singer) could still enjoy the program than nobody has a right to have a huffy fit. it was a wonderful program and the host was a substitute host, joyce jones, who did a wonderful job.
so here's my apology. i had no idea rory o'connor was linking to me. or that he was linking to mike. c.i. heard about it yesterday and we both heard about it late last night. mike got the easy treatment because c.i. looks at him like a kid. (no offense to mike.) i explained to c.i. that i truly had no idea that i was being linked to.
that was very nice of rory o'connor to link to mike and to link to me. mike and i are both adding him to our links tonight. (we have noted his writing in our posts.) while i was in the template, i also added a link to pacifica radio because it is important that we support indymedia. and for ruth, i linked to her favorite program Law and Disorder.
it's also important to support the community. i usually tell every 1 that they don't have to highlight me. that's because i do pretty well on my own and there are so many new sites since i started. i need to note wally more. he does daily entries monday through friday and he's some 1 i consider a friend. he's a community member, of course, but he was always a big supporter of my writing. "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY PULLS BOLTEN SWITCH!" is his most recent and it's a humorous look at joshua bolton replacing andrew card as the white house chief of staff. wally takes a humorous look at the news and does a great job.
c.i. and i were talking about that on the phone too. with mike and elaine, they've got links to each other because they pick out the 2 items from democracy now that they're both going to spotlight together. so if you go to either site, you're aware of the other. but is wally getting enough support from the community sites?
that was c.i.'s question. c.i. usually only spotlights if a member brings it up. and c.i. also wants to be sure that no 1 ever feels like 'i write a lot and never get noted.'
that's why i always tell every 1 that they don't have to note me. there are a lot of sites that are out there (sites in the community). we all note c.i. (despite being asked not to). and that's because c.i. writes more than any of us. (and because c.i. writes so well and on so many things.)
me, i post 5 times a week. compare that to the common ills which has a minimum of 23 or so entries a week.
so let me say that if you haven't checked out wally, you should. he's a great guy and very funny.
