December 1980
Sunbeams
The contrast between that bright blue and white Christmas-tree ornament and the black sky, that infinite universe, and the size and significance of it really comes through. It is so small and so fragile, such a precious little spot in that universe, that you can block it out with your thumb. You realize that everything that means anything to you — all of history and art and death and birth and love, tears and joys, all of it, is on that little blue and white spot out there which you can cover with your thumb. And you realize from that perspective that you have changed, that there is something new, that the relationship is no longer what it was.
The New Nuclear Tyranny
An Interview With Dr. Rosalie Bertell
Of course a lot of people are ignorant, but geneticists and radiobiologists should know that this excessive irradiation of the population will cause a loss of vigor in the gene pool and a loss of mental ability. . . . The other overt sign is overweight Americans. The average weight has increased rather dramatically. This is a logical outcome of the presence of radioactive iodine in the average American diet having gone up.
No Safety
An Excerpt From Cover-Up: What You Are Not Supposed To Know About Nuclear Power
A massive dose, even a mid-range dose of radioactivity, the kind you’d get from a nuclear plant accident, is not necessary to produce cancer. “Routine” radioactive emissions will do it.
Waiting
Everything that has ever been in this house is alive, in you, in us. We’re going to spread that kindness — the winter fires, the rain splashing in on your bedroom curtains in July, the kitchen’s warmth, the light of the chandelier in your eyes, your moonflowers, your roses, the red in the dogwoods. I’ll give it away again and again and you do the same, you hear?
To Move The Stars
We depend on the men with blackboards to show us quarks; we depend on men with backward collars to show us some equivalent of quarks. But suppose that neither show us anything.
And Endless Sorrow
Book Review
There is an immense sadness to this book, especially at the end, but it is a sadness that is squarely faced and thus in a sense overcome. It is the sadness that the past inevitably has, that these things happened and those did not, a life was given to this and not to that, a happiness that seemed available was not achieved. It is a sadness that the reality of our lives always has, but to find it expressed with such clarity and poignance in a work of art is rare.
People Of Plains, Ga.
Photographs By Steven Borns
People of Plains, Ga. is an intimate portrait of President Jimmy Carter’s hometown, seen through the camera of Steven Borns and told in the words of the people who live there. In 25 interviews with white and black townspeople, Borns conveys their humanity, trust, and warmth as they talk about their love for the land, their belief in God, racial relations, and neighborly responsibilities.
