Page 8 RAIN May 1982 and despair it evokes kept me awake many a night. Based on government documents, personal interviews and published research, Wasserman and Solomon have written a penetrating analysis of atomic radiation and its impact on the health of Americans. Their investigation encompasses a wide range of incidents involving radiation exposure indicating disproportionate levels of cancer, respiratory illnesses, progressive muscle deterioration, and birth defects. Their research chronicles, among other things, the exposure of thousands of Americans to harmful levels of radiation in their workplace; radioactive emissions from nuclear waste dumps, bomb factories and processing plants; and the misuse of medical x-rays exposing patients to unsafe levels of radiation. Military experiments with radiation are also uncovered. Nearly 300,000 U.S. military personnel were deliberately exposed to radiation during the nuclear testing program (1945-1962). Equally alarming, U.S. Marine clean-up teams were ordered into Nagasaki less than 60 days after the bomb fell. The government has adamantly refused to admit that the illnesses of vets involved in these maneuvers are in any way radiation related, despite volumes of personal testimony indicating otherwise. As disturbing as it is to read about the needless and preventable human suffering caused by radiation exposure, the duplicity of government, utilities and the nuclear industry is even more appalling. A blind commitment to nuclear weapons and nuclear energy has prevented victims of radiation poisoning from getting access to speedy treatment and legal recourse, ensured continued risk to countless more lives, and denied millions of Americans the right to make informed decisions on national nuclear policy. The first comprehensive investigation of its kind, Ki7/ing Our Own's appendices alone are worth the price of the book. Not easy reading, but its message can't help but catapult readers into action armed with the facts. Be sure your library has several copies. — Laura Stuchinsky ver the years, he ___ reflected more and more on the relationship between violence and the hunger he was observing. . V/-' Mark Anderson A PARABLE OF PEACE Living on the World Equity Budget by John Ferrell If, then, you have not proved trustworthy with the wealth of this world, who will trust you with the wealth that is real? And if you have proved untrustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No servant can be the slave of two masters. . . You cannot serve God and Money.—Luke 16:11-13 (The New English Bible) "Everything we own you see in this room," Charles Gray tells his guests. "That is, except for the bike and bike trailer on the porch. Those are our most valuable possessions, 1 guess." Gray chuckles and looks around at the sparse furnishings with obvious satisfaction. He compares the "luxury" of the life he now shares with Dorothy Granada in this rundown, cooperative house in Eugene, Oregon with the relative austerity of the life he led a few years ago when he was alone in Portland, sleeping in his office and spending less than $30 a month. Today, Charles, a former sociologist who, together with his former wife, once gave away half a million dollars, and Dorothy, a Chicana who grew up poor in East Los Angeles and made it into middle class society as a well-paid nursing administrator, are living contentedly on a monthly budget of $110 each.
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