Views in brief

What is happening at Fort Calhoun?

THERE'S A major story that's being ignored by the mainstream media.

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant sits outside Blair, Neb., near Omaha. As recently as March, the local news reported that the Fort Calhoun plant had made the federal regulator's "shortlist" of three reactors, out of all the U.S. plants, that they were concerned about. The primary concern was that the plant wouldn't be able to handle flooding.

Not even two months later, all that flooding in the Mississippi we've been hearing so much about happens to have literally gone right up to the nuclear plant's doors.

There have been reports that the plant is having cooling problems with its reactor--exactly what we keep hearing about Japan's faulty Fukushima plant. There have apparently been fires, although I haven't been able to verify that.

However bad it may or may not be at this point, it's bad enough that airspace around the plant has been closed, and it's officially a Level 4 emergency. I think we all have the right to know what's going on at the plant, and the media has the duty to report on these possibly disastrous events.

Especially in light of the nuclear safety discussion, I think people need to hear about such a terrifying example of how nuclear power can go wrong in the heartland of America.
Chad Donaldson, from the Internet

Weiner's lies brought him down

IN RESPONSE to "The real scandal is the media frenzy": The problem with this article, and the scandal it describes, is that at its heart, the Weiner scandal is not about sexual morality or marital fidelity (though I agree the media would wish us to see it in such a way).

It's about honesty and integrity. Wiener should have owned what he did, and he didn't. Out of fear (blame media if you like), Wiener played us for fools when he told us to believe that he "could not say for sure" if that picture was of was him, could not say for sure what pictures existed of him at all, could not be sure if anyone had access to his Twitter account. Nor could he say for sure that he even knew what was happening.

It was painful to watch this man try and be a wordsmith with his excuses, only to lack any effective vocabulary for his string of lies. Does he not expect us to notice his painful avoidance of a denial or the same avoidance of accountability? What does this man take us for? Must he believe us to be so credulous and willfully ignorant? Yes. He thinks that of us.

With a modicum of dignity and respect for himself, family or constituents, he should have come out directly and said, "It was me. I'm sorry. Let's try and get past this." If he had, he would have been able to address the "it's all the media's fault" excuse by taking responsibility for his actions.

Instead, Weiner tried to avoid responsibility as if it was chasing him with a gun. By the time it caught up with him, he couldn't even look at us. Not because we've seen more of his genitals than we ever thought, but because he knew that he was ousted as a liar and coward.

Personal responsibility and honesty are lacking in this man (and, of course, many others) and it is for that reason he should be removed him from office.
Luke, from the Internet

For an end to the death penalty

IN RESPONSE to "Now is the time to speak up for Troy": The death penalty is a brutal and unlawful way of dealing with persons who may have committed a crime. It is also a cowardly one--not much different from "an eye for an eye," which was practiced centuries ago.

I cannot understand the principle it is based on, especially in countries that are constantly proclaiming their superiority, their "Christianity," and which have even printed "in God we trust" on their paper money.

It is cowardly, because the actual executions are not carried by the ones who decide on other men's lives, but by people who are paid to do it and who then have to go back to their homes after killing another human being and embrace their children as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, nothing is said against manufacturing an ever-growing number of weapons, selling them all over the world and making a profit out of it.
Maria Luisa Etchart, from the Internet

Time for action against Wall Street

I RECENTLY read your call for action against Bloomberg, our own mini-Mubarak, and was thoroughly convinced, again. It seems like a huge number of people understand what is needed.

Every protest I go to, people claim that the next protests will not have any permits or barriers--but nothing materializes despite the obvious need.

We all know that what we require is a true resistance, not a symbolic march (as important as they are). We need to sit down in front of the stock exchange and shut it down, we need to withhold our labor, we need to refuse to go home until our demands are met, and (dare I say it) we need to be willing to confront police repression. In Egypt, an activist chose a good date for a protest (January 25, "Police Day") and everyone came, risking life and limb for a better more egalitarian future.

I think that it is time that the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and other groups set a date for a major Wall Street protest--a day when we can come together without asking the permission of the capitalist authorities.

You can invite any group that has a problem with Wall Street (socialist or not) to come and stay as long as possible.

If we mobilize a wide spectrum of the different pressure groups, we could actually forge an effective block: greens versus oil companies, feminists versus companies with sexist hiring practices, LGBT activists versus supporters of anti-gay legislation, antiwar activists versus weapons manufactures, free speech advocates versus increasingly constrained media companies, anti-racists versus those who promote discriminatory policies, poverty activists versus basically all of them, education activists versus privatized education. Christ, we could even get (honest) Tea Partiers to come out against companies that accepted bailout money.

Indeed, it is hard to think of any group of concerned citizens (even on portions of the populist right!) that would be against a true Wall Street protest.

So if the ISO actually sets the date and works to invite every possible group, we have a chance. If not now, when?
David Klassen, from the Internet