Skip to main contentThank you for the tribute paid by Willamette Week, but I must set the record straight ["40 Years in 40 Days: A Vietnam vet decides to stop Oregon's nuclear plants," WW, Nov. 5, 2014].
I served in the Navy from 1966 to 1967. I was an assault boat coxswain, serving on a cargo ship and delivering supplies at locations in Vietnam, including the Mekong, but I never patrolled the river.
In 1970, I lived with a woman, pregnant with our daughter, who introduced me to Perils of the Peaceful Atom. We were not married; she was not my "wife." We were both concerned about exposing our daughter to nuclear accidents and considered moving to Canada.
While I played a central role in confronting the nuclear industry, I do not consider my contribution as doing "more than anyone to end the madness of atomic energy proliferation in Oregon." There were many others who worked in opposition to nuclear power. Our combined involvement helped convince PGE to permanently close Trojan. It was a group effort, even when we were working on different objectives. For example, I helped gather signatures to put an initiative "setting tougher standards for Oregon Nuclear Power plants" on the ballot in 1980. Its champions were Peter Bergel, Chuck Johnson and Sen. Jan Wyers (D-Portland).
Thanks to persistent nuclear opponents, Oregon is nuclear-free, but our work isn't done. Washington state's Columbia Generating Station, California's Diablo Canyon Power Plant and the rest of the nuclear industry need to be permanently shut down.
Editor's note: In addition to misstating his marital status and military service, our story on Marbet incorrectly credited him with leading the 1980 ballot-measure campaign that effectively blocked the proposed Pebble Springs nuclear plants. WW regrets the errors.
FIRE OFFICIAL TAKING BRIBES?
The city would do well to eliminate the entire Fire Marshal's Office and not rehire ["Service With a Smile," WW, Nov. 19, 2014]. Assembly inspectors are a legalized racket that come for their take as soon as a club is making a little bit of money.
There are no safety issues here, just the city punishing businesses for being successful.
—"Lose Cruser"
THE OLCC AND MARIJUANA
OLCC commissioners seem oblivious to understanding that total ignorance of legalized recreational pot leaves them unqualified to make decisions about it ["Waiting to Inhale," WW, Nov. 19, 2014]. Let's hope the OLCC staff that will develop proposed rules and regulations are not similarly uninformed.
—"Jim Gardner"
CORRECTION
Last week's cover photo ("Still Life") mistakenly omitted the credit for photographer Daniel Cole. WW regrets the error.
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