Good week of activism - even from home

 

During this week we had a series of workers coming to our house in Bath, Maine to do some jobs. Since we bought this house last summer we've been steadily fixing things around this 100-year old home.

We had two new windows installed to replace leaky ones, had a major plumbing job done, a new door installed and also had some windows measured for new blinds that help keep the cold out of the house.

While at the house each of the workers initiated a discussion about US military and foreign policy.  One of them, a self-declared Trump lover, asked me about Biden's recent bombing of Syria.  We went over to my world map and had a 15-minute dialogue about what the US imperial project is all about as the Pentagon encircles Iran, Russia and China with its string of more than 800 bases.

The window installer asked me if I was busy on space issues (he had previously been to our house and talked politics).  He went on to tell me how his daughter is a big space fan and he mentioned that Elon Musk is launching thousands of satellites.  I responded that these launches are increasingly punching a larger hole in the ozone layer and exacerbating the problem of crowded orbits which will ultimately make the current space debris problem dramatically worse.

I handed the four workers the latest copy of our Space Alert newsletter as they were leaving - with the window installer saying that his daughter will be anxious to read it.

So in spite of the pandemic - masking and social distancing - and few chances to get out and talk to new folks, it felt good this week to be able to speak with four guys who are not members of the choir.  I found each of them to be open minded, eager to take our newsletter and most importantly of all - fed up to the gills with politics in Washington.

So even though I am largely stuck at home I was still able to do some good work.

Bruce

PS We got a check for the Global Network in the mail yesterday and in the envelope was a clip of the donor's letter to the editor in the Gainesville, Florida newspaper.  She wrote:

Better use of tax dollars

News coverage of the latest NASA Mars launch fails to acknowledge the use of plutonium to power this and other questionable ambitions.  The associated risks are real and arguably unnecessary.

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, makes a plea for sanity in urging that Mars can wait while tax dollars are spent taking care of the legions of people without jobs, health care, housing, food, water or heat.

Patricia Mason, Gainesville