March 23, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 15 fishing in a pond on the outskirts of the plant. Many of the workers died with real courage in trying to put down the catastrophe. One older man took risks to spare his younger associates, plunging three times through water he knew to be radioactive so they wouldn’t have to. He paid with his life. Another man’s eyes turned from brown to blue because of exposure to radiation. Another fallen worker had to be buried in a lead coffin. I’d be willing to bet that some Japanese workers also stepped forward and took big chances. We could use workers with this kind of courage in America, but we don’t need the kind of potentially lethal technology that caused their premature deaths. The irony here is that while Japan has almost no petroleum and very little coal, Russia has plenty of petroleum, natural gas, and coal, and is a major supplier for Western Europe. I suspect that the Chernobyl plant was built to show the world that, having been first in space and having narrowly missed being first on the moon, the Russians could be pioneers of mankind in nuclear energy. If that is so, Chernobyl was not just sad, but tragic in the true meaning of the world. Americans generally prefer melodrama to tragedy. The Russians and the Japanese tend to prefer tragedy because they have seen more of life. We can hope that this is a melodrama: a scary plot with a happy ending. The happy ending is out of reach for Fukushima as it was for Chernobyl, but right here in America there are a few things we can do to make sure there are no nuclear tragedies. First, we have to waste less energy. Do your kids really need a car to drive to school, even if you can still afford one? My daughter thought she did. She had three minor accidents in one year. The last one finished off a car that still had a couple of years left or a resale value approaching four figures. Cynics might say two figures on each side of the decimal point, but it was a good car, made in the U.S.A., and deserved a better demise. Forget cars for any student who doesn’t live more than a mile from the school. The squirrels, the pedestrians, and the other drivers will be glad you did. If the parents can’t take the whining, the schools might need to insist on this by instituting student parking bans. Try walking to your destination any time you have a little time and no heavy burdens to carry. One good thing about school property taxes is that the muggers can’t afford to live here. The streets are pleasant, some people take beautiful care of their gardens, and basic shopping is often accessible on foot. Try it. Avoid knee-jerk negativity to solar panels and other energy-saving and energy producing devices. I’ve actually heard people complain about solar panels on the Public Service Gas & Electric poles – and some council or committee members agreed, though others said that the solar panels were acceptable if they were placed above the easy line of sight. Of course they are! Anything that fosters the mere habit of clean energy is vital to saving what is left of the atmosphere and reducing dependence on foreign oil – and of course halting the oil companies when they try to bribe their way into control of politicians, the way the railroads used to do in the days of the Robber Barons. Lose the lawn, unless you’re a devotee of badminton or croquet, and grow shrubs, hedges, ferns, and non-lethal well-rooted trees in the front yard and perhaps vegetables in the back yard – with organic fertilizer and homemade mulch of course. No big lawns to mow means less gasoline for the mowers. No big lawn to water means more water in case the fire department needs it, and less electricity to move the water around when gravity doesn’t suffice. People who market stuff that’s bad for you, or bad for the planet, will stop at nothing to denounce anybody who isn’t a regular customer. When I was a kid, the only situation-comedy character who ate health food was a bald guy with black horn-rimmed glasses who traipsed around in leotards. Get the picture? Come off it. People who don’t know how to think may buy into that because they aren’t thinking. Northwest Bergen isn’t that kind of place. Smart people live here, and I often hear them talk about saving the planet. Saving energy isn’t just about saving the hypothetical planet. It’s about saving our lives when the energy is nuclear. It’s time NOT to act on this one. We needed nuclear weapons when Stalin was still alive. We don’t need nuclear reactors in America. Ask anyone in Fukushima if they’re still happy to have one in the vicinity. Stay glued to your computer. You’ll get a spectrum of opinions to dazzle and stretch the mind. Four-fifths of the respondents want to help Japan after the earthquake and the tsunami and the break-down at the nuclear plant at Fukushima. Ten percent blame President Obama. Five percent blame ex-president Bush. Another five percent still think that the Pearl Harbor attack was unprovoked and surprised Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Half of this last 10 percent think Japan and China are the same country. If we saw off the lowest quadrant and drop it into the garbage can, where most of the other respondents say it belongs, we’ll achieve a consensus of the people with common sense. The world isn’t ready for any more nuclear plants. The ones that already exist should be inspected and closed if they don’t pass muster. Above all, we should stop building them in the United States as a means to control the greed of the oil companies. The vast majority of respondents, whether they love or hate Japan, love or hate Obama or Bush, or love or hate the other respondents, seem to concur that nobody can control nuclear plants in such a way as to render them safe. Most people want these plants closed, or at least they want us and the rest of the world to stop building them. If we dare mention Germany in the same breath as Japan, the greatest industrial power on the European continent has already moved in that direction. The greatest industrial power in the world needs to move that way too – and fast. Yes, yes, the people who have a financial or professional investment in nuclear energy will argue that the mistake at Fukushima was in building the plant in an earthquake zone and that a plant in a completely stable area would have functioned smoothly – even if nobody has yet come up with a way to safely dispose of the nuclear waste from the plant’s operation. The nuclear plant at Indian Point is perfectly safe – except that residents who live in the area frequently mention cancer in families with no smoking habits and no genetic predisposition to cancer. I remember some years ago, when I was still a relatively young man, that over several summers there would be huge streaks of dead and dying fish floating down the Hudson River. The streaks of dead fish always seemed to start just below the nuclear plant at Indian Point. The fish never proved to be radioactive, but people who examined them said that they could have been killed by a loss of oxygen due to hot water from the nuclear plant’s cooler being discharged into a river that was already polluted and already relatively warm. (The fish kills always seemed to take place in the summer.) The fish didn’t die of radiation. They were collateral victims of nuclear energy due to heated water. But they were still dead, and the environment of the river was still disrupted. Worse has happened elsewhere. The Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union killed 54 people outright: technicians, firefighters, and police, and one poor soul who was Fukushima to America: No more nuclear plants The Veteran of Foreign Wars of the United States is probably the single-most bittersweet organization that exists in this country. The organization exists, though we wish it did not have to. Many have answered the call of duty, leading to sacrifices only those who have sacrificed can fully comprehend. VFW leadership comes from those who have served in combat overseas, and continue to serve selflessly in their national, state, and local communities to recognize and assist the men and women who continue to protect the very rights and freedoms we cherish. The organization’s members come from that very same body of men and women who feel that awe-inspiring urge of camaraderie that develops from serving in combat in unrelenting environments so friends, families, and compatriots do not have to endure such harsh realities. Our nation has been engaged across a simultaneous global front in the longest period of sustained combat since its own inception. The number of veterans of foreign wars has increased exponentially up to the last decade, and with this increase, the VFW finds itself navigating through a challenging time. It must achieve new heights in its ability to recruit the most recent proud young men and women who have fought hard and valiantly over the last decade. While technology has both enhanced and encumbered our progress in this endeavor, we must even further leverage the today’s linguistic reality. With the advent of the Internet, social network creation has never been easier or more complex. In a world that thrives on bottom-up, decentralized social networks, organizations must holistically adapt themselves to remain relevant and effective. Two major points stem from this phenomenon that can enable the VFW to successfully reach the newest generation of foreign war veterans. The first is communication, and the second is connection. In order to effectively communicate with our new generation of combat veterans, we must recognize that we all Major wants VFW to connect with newest group of veterans speak a different language. Current emergent language is hyper-computerized, handheld “I-everything”, Skype, Twitter, and You-Tube virtual-reality at your fingertips. The language of books, telephones, television, and faceto-face interaction is quickly morphing as nanotechnology changes the way we live. This does not change how much we care about our servicemen and women; it merely changes how and where we can successfully engage each other. The National VFW has made tremendous efforts to bridge this communication gap, but while there are some states and local posts that have also attempted to embrace technology, it has not happened to the extent that the national, state, and local post structure lives, acts, and breathes as one system, but more like three disparate systems that struggle to bring each level into communication with the next. If we desire to successfully communicate with our newest veterans, it is critical to provide them the interactivity they require to feel connected. Our efforts must begin with connecting these young men and women, if not during their service, at the least through the Army Career Assistance Program, a link for which can be found at www.vfwdistrict2nj.com under ABOUT VFW>ASSISTANCE. It is critical to connect soldiers with the opportunities that exist in and through the VFW. More than ever before, this nation needs an organization such as the VFW because as comrades we understand, we care, and we will continue to be there when others will have long forgotten. This essay was submitted by Major Erik K. Kober of HoHo-Kus. Major Kober is currently attending the School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, KS, where he is preparing to deploy to Central Asia as a planner for XVIII Airborne Corps. He has served in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq (two tours) as an AH-64 (Apache/Longbow) helicopter pilot, and is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Washington Elm Post 192, Ho-Ho-Kus.