Disaster in Japan

It’s a small world, so give

Regarding your editorial (March 25) on giving and Japan’s time of need: I was happy to see a newspaper with a relatively localized readership address the suffering of a people thousands of miles away.

I absolutely agree that we need to help them with our checks (to the Red Cross, etc.). The world really is a small village. It brings to mind some factors I learned along the way:

-For every year of schooling a boy in a poor country gets, there is a 20 percent less likelihood that he will engage in violent activity (72 million primary school-aged children are not in school at all).

-Of the world’s 20 poorest countries, 16 have suffered a major civil war in the last 20 years.

-People of voting age with a primary education are one and a half  times more likely to support democracy than people with no education.

From Japan’s recent devastation to the volatility in the Middle East and Northern Africa, we really can help make a difference. I am a volunteer involved in a local chapter of RESULTS (results.org) and I have seen how relatively small sums and political activism can leverage so much good.

Donna Munro

Silverdale

Nuclear power endangers us all

As we mourn our very unfortunate Japanese brothers and sisters who have not only gone through violent earthquakes, huge tsunami waves, loss of many loved ones and now the fall out from the failed nuclear power plants, we also cringe, hoping and praying that the radioactive air coming across the Pacific won’t reach us.

However, is it true that the nuclear waste from California is being shipped to Hanford?

If so, is it really safe to dispose of it in barrels underneath the ground?

With all our brilliant scientists, just how much time and money will it take before our earth is free from this cancer-producing agent?

Can’t we work a little harder to solve this problem for all the little children of the world?

Florence Meyer

Bremerton