Special thanks again to Ron Richards (63) for the idea of
putting THE SANDBOX here -- after the Alumni Sandstorm.
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THE SANDBOX ~ Petty Gripes, and Cat Fights
Issue #125 ~ 07/15/01
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David Douglas (62), Bill Didway (66), Betti Avant (69)
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>>From: David Douglas (62)
Innocent (non-combatant) people, including children,
died in the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. That is certainly one way of assessing the
morality of using the bomb.
But, as I understand it, had the conventional war
continued there would have been many more casualties, on
both sides (including, most likely, many Japanese
civilians in an invasion of the main islands), than were
killed in dropping the bombs. So another way of looking
at the morality of it is -which saved more lives? If
fewer (though different) people died as a result of
dropping the bombs, would that not be preferable? Police
are instructed to use the minimum force necessary to
accomplish the task.
And, there's a third way to look at it. My dad was in
the Marines in the South Pacific during that time,
including the battle at Iwo Jima. He was scheduled to be
in the first wave of an invasion of the main Japanese
islands. As I recall him telling me, casualties for that
first attack were estimated at 90%. There's a strong
probability that if a conventional war had continued, my
dad might not have returned home. Would it have been
moral to ask my family to give up my dad for innocent and
not-so-innocent people we never knew?
Ultimately, in life we all have to make decisions
based on less than complete information. We can't always
know all the consequences of decisions in advance - but
we have to make them anyway. We do the best we can. It is
absolutely futile to kick ourselves afterwards because we
didn't know everything when we had to make some
decisions. Although had I been responsible for it, I'm
not sure I would have changed this decision even if I'd
known all the consequences ahead of time.
-David Douglas (62) ~ Gilbert, AZ
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>>From: Bill Didway (66)
It is always amazing to me when some people make
assumption that all things must be true in the way they
see them. That could be true if you assume that reality
is only your perception at that time... that having an
intelligent discussion will change people's minds. This
assumes that any discussion before was unintelligent...
that calling people ultraconservatives or ultraliberals
adds to the intelligence of the discussion... that making
statements that are usually used by one hard core side or
the other will change the other's opinion.
I would like to see people enter a discussion without
resorting to name calling or assuming the other side is
not capable of intelligent thought or that it is
impossible to understand the other person's position and
still not agree with it.
I have gone from voting the party ticket to voting
for the best person "I" believe is best suited for the
position. Because of my life experience I am more
conservative in some things and more liberal in others.
But the one thing that is an irritant to me is people who
assume things must be correct if their party or "holy
man" says it is without doing any research of their own.
-Bill Didway (66)
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[The following is one I've been saving since April 29,
2001.,, waiting on a moderator for THE SANDBOX. -Maren]
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>>From: Betti Avant (69)
Re: just a thought
I know this belongs in THE SANDBOX, but being as we
don't have an editor for it (and know I don't want it) I
have something on my mind. I don't know how many of you
reading this have thought about this subject, but with me
working in the medical field I think about it all the
time. Have you noticed that so many of our friends,
classmates, and even spouses have died of cancer? What is
odd to me is that most, if not all of us had a parent or
parents working at Hanford. I know some of the "older"
generation have died of the C-word, too, but it seems so
many of the people I know who died of it never worked out
there. It gets me wondering if, perhaps, our parents
"brought home something with them" that has caused the
number of young people dying of this dreaded disease or
maybe has made us more susceptible to it. This is just
something I had to get off my chest and I my hopes are
that a cure is found very soon.
-Betti Avant (69)
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~125~