The Beaufort Gazette from Beaufort, South Carolina • 4

O11N1UM The Beaufort Gazette OUNDED IN 18S7 Thursday November 20 1997 Editorial and Business Offices: 1556 Salem Road Burton SC 29902 Mailing Address: PO Box 399 Beaufort SC 29901 Tel: (803) 524 3183 JOHNLHEA1H PubBsher JAMB A CAO EOtor AW ROBB Dtector ROY DAWORD Ctcuiatian Manager STHME BALDWIN Production Manager dump Chem Nuclear dangles new carrot As the president of a New England citizens group puts it: have all the South becoming a pay toilet for the The New Englander is concerned about the further shipment of commercial nuclear power reactors to Chem South Carolina disposal site in Barnwell County Unfortunately her observation is not a new one nor is it a description that certain state leaders starting with Gov David Beasley seems to mind South Carolinians are concerned about the long term impact of the underground storage of low level radioactive waste at Barnwell Many of them have said so ever since Gov Beasley and the General Assembly pulled South Carolina from the Southeastern Compact The compact was an agree ment between eight Southern states which guaranteed the sharing of responsibility for waste storage from their states With South withdrawal from the compact the Barnwell site has been opened to waste from throughout the country The carrot offered to the General Assembly to endorse the expan sion was a tremendous hike in fees that would finance education needs The anticipated revenue never mate rialized Now Chem Nuclear is a potential $1 billion carrot in new education money if the General Assembly approves a 20 year operating permit While state leaders ponder Chem business proposition news arrives that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering changing its policy for the disposal of commercial reactors a policy shift that would allow complete reactors to be shipped to dis posal sites The current policy and practice requires that reactors be dismantled with the higher level radioactive components shipped separately Industry officials are urging the NRC to consider the new policy because it would save time and money They also argue shipping the complete reactor lessens the chance for accidental releases of radioactive sub stances Opixments of the policy change say parts of the reactors have radioactive levels as high as which is the maximum level allowed for low level radiation permit radiation levels mean it will take 500 years for the radioactivity to down" No one reading this paper will be around in 500 years when those wastes reach levels of naturally occurring radiation Descendants several generations from birth will be But if generation of leaders careful about how much radioactive material goes into the ground the health of those children maybe jeopardized I) I ysT(W KRK JI Tending Hilton Heads economic theory of toilets In a much overlooked monograph unpublished just before his death the noted economist John Maynard Keynes considered the demographic consequences of Thomas invention of 1871 the hypovalve for the indoor toilet Crapper as you will recall was official toileteer to Queen Victoria It was he who created the royal flush that changed the world Keynes knew that the word derives from the Greek word techne meaning toil In its finer manifesta tions it is seen in the word technique meaning skill or craft A half century ago in his Theory of Tbilets" Keynes shrewdly pointed out that indoor toilets are labor intensive just as chamber pots once were but unlike chamber pots which could be sent out like laundry toilets are that is they are immove able thus requiring the toiler to come to them Therein lies the deep seated prob lem of Hilton Heads home to more commodes than this section of the Lowcountry can tend Keynes gener ated the ingenious formula fT (where toilets and tenders) Put in layman's terms the more homes you cluster next to each other and behind walls where all the families are afflicted with four or more toilets the less chance of find ing willing toilet tenders within walk ing or riding distance Obviously any family with five toilets is going to have to spend a good part of its week tending its own toilets and will have little time to pitch in to help their neighbors who also have five toilets You need as neighbors people who have only one or two toilets and thus extra time to help out the less fortu nate If you haven't arranged for them to live nearby Keynes warned you are in for trou ble Now Hilton Heads just grew like Tbpsy throwing up walls and gates creating a treasure trove of porce lain apparently never giving a thought to the tending of all that treasure And they never became a town just a resort run haywire They were foolish The Swifts and Armours and Mortons of rich Lake orest on Chicago's North Shore had foresight They established Highwood a neigh boring real town for the men and women who would tend the gardens and toilets of their commodious man sions The people of Yucatan as they created their tourist mecca Cancun in 1977 had the fore sight to create also Cancun City a real neighboring town where the ten ders of the porcelain could live and grow families Even George Vanderbilt in 1895 created a new town down the hill from his estate near Asheville where tenders of his 43 commodes could live and raise families a town with churches bar ber shops grocery stores schools But the gilded ghetto of Hilton Heads had no such foresight It just assumed the Lord would provide Now at bottom it may be too late Sun City will be an additional drain on the meager supply of Hilton John Roberts toilet tenders Now the resi dents of Hilton Heads will need subsi dies and welfare from the rest of us tax payer dollars to get them the help they never planned for People should learn to take care of them selves or build a town Beaufort on the other hand has evolved sensibly Ever since Emancipation and soon after invention made its way across the Atlantic the town devel oped as a demographic model achieving the ideal balance in toilet density There are about as many 1 and 2 toilet houses as there are 3 and up units We have good neighbors and friends who live close by who are willing to help those afflicted with too many toilets But we need to keep an eye on the future Just how many more five toi let houses can northern Beaufort County absorb before we become an appalling miniature imitation of Hilton Heads? Once upon a time we relied on the fairy tale trickle down theory of toilet economics but that innocent time was wiped out a decade ago We need a master plan built on Keynesian thought Excessively toileted houses Keynes noted tend to require walls and gates and private guards to pro tect the porcelain treasure Witness the current walling in of Ribaut Road One of the newest walls there protects six toilets This careless pro liferation of over toileted houses threatens the carefully evolved ethos of beautiful Beaufort which can accommodate only so many of the afflicted John Roberts is a Gazette copy editor and retired school teacher Letters to the Editor Studies show students need basic elements I or are not some thing which we boomers or elders 1 recall hearing either at home or at school 'Regardless of where it was readily adheredto in most cases I do not think that toomany recipients of that award suffered any great psychotraumatic manifestations (low esteem) as a result Unwarranted permissiveness and accep tance of continued undesirable behavior can be attributed to a general lack of edu cational implantation or basic implementa tion of cognitive skills Ta communicate in everyday words let me attempt to the shoe on the right for those employed by us taxpayers to educate I support the Mat 7 testing I say hurrah for the Beaufort County results however we weren't last I also support the certification of teachers and administrators as well as the required additional update courses in education The concept of it till you make it" should not be tolerated (social promotion) Drop the facade and deal with the reality Studies and results of testing are indicat ing that our students are in need ol the basic elements of survival in the in the format of inductive and deductive comp Laptop computers are novel and while books are cheaper too! rederick Cousin Beaufort Extremities exhilarating I was surprised when I heard that the Port Royal Playhouse was to produce William Mastrosiraone's Extremities a play about an attempted rape and its conse quences Rape is not surely a topic for any theatrical artistic endeavor Yet I was intrigued that so many people were Letters policy The Gazette welcomes letters from its readers Only original letters signed with the name address and daytime telephone number will be con sidered Pen names are discouraged All letters will be edited The Gazette regrets it cannot account for letters not published Mall to: Letters to the editor The Gazette PO Box 399 Beaufort SC 29901 ax: 524 8728 Email: gazettehargraycom apparently looking forward to seeing this play and I went reluctantly fully intending to leave when the action got too realistic What a wonderful surprise This is an exhilarating satisfying tables tuming production The acting is excellent the set is good the dialogue is believable and even lyrical in places The play had me laughing (yes laughing) crying and feeling for the first time in eight and a half years not a rape victim anymore but somehow vindicated and even cleansed The character of Marjorie (played with great strength by Jennifer Polk) gets to gain the upper hand over her would be assailant in a manner that made me want to cheer Unrealistic you will say How many women can overpower a rapist? I won't give the plot away but Marjorie manages to do what many women have tried (I hope plen ty have even succeeded but we'll probably never know) and she then has the task of fending off her two (female) roommates' suspicions doubts and get this sym pathy for the man she justly refers to as the "animal" (played with chilling realism by Jon Sharp) Not many people even want to talk about rape It's so much easier to change the sub ject isn't it? It's so much easier to sub scribe to the myth that women are some how partly responsible It's so much easier not to report rape when it does happen keeping it a "guilty secret" rather than an event for public record And attempted rape: with no physical evidence a woman might as well forget her assailant being brought to trial never mind punished Marjorie could well have given in when faced with her roommates' pleas on the man's behalf She have been wrong to do so: he was fully intending to rape and murder all three of them Her courage is a lesson to us all: this play certainly made me realize that I have been guilty of perpet uating some rape myths myself This was an uplifting experience that I am happy to recommend Everyone should go see this play: the Beaufort Repertory Company were brave to consider this production Sheila Tomb Beaufort US 21 road project one to emulate This is a very belated letter to congratu late the SCDOT and the REA Co of Ridgeland for an outstanding job done on the resurfacing of US 21 from Gardens Comer to the Whale Branch bridga The milling operation (the removal of the old asphalt) was an education in itself the efficiency of the workers the organized machinery and the trucks involved proved a study of excellent engineering There was never a traffic tie up no bumps to disalign tires very little traffic slow down no work ers standing idle all of which added up to the speedy conclusion of the project It is a wonderful road now and a joy to ride on day or night Can we hope for a continua tion of the road replacement from Whale Branch to Grays Hill in the not too distant future? Elizabeth Campbell Sheldon Thanks for help As the Knights of Columbus committee chairman for Operation Hope the Tootsie Roll Drive for Retarded Citizens I thank all of those caring citizens who donated to a worthy cause Of those funds collected 85 percent are used for those mentally challenged in Beaufort County The other 15 percent returns to the State Council of Knights of Columbus for distribution to meet the needs of the mentally challenged More than $3000 was collected during the drive on the weekend prior to Columbus Day A special thanks to Kmart Wal Mart Piggly Wiggly Port Royal and ood Lion for allowing us to canvass in front of their store Other special thanks to Janie and OC Welch Steve Howe of Curtis Mathes St Anthony Parrish at MCAS Parris Island Religious Center and St Church for additional donations plus other numerous contributions from caring people On behalf of the mentally challenged we thank you again If anyone would like to add to our fund drive you may send dona tions payable to Knights of Columbus Council 5026 PO Box 241 Beaufort SC 29902 for Operation Hope Your help will be greatly appreciated BUI Thran Beaufort Anthrax shmanthrax WASHINGTON I was peaceably' eating my penne at lunch the other day when my friend another reporter told me he thought Washington was in imminent danger of being gassed germed or anthraxed If the guillotine focused the revolu tionary mind you can imagine what anthrax does to the yuppie mind In an era when people care more about stocks than politics the notion that Washington might disappear has made it rel evant again Suddenly there are fears about Iraqi crop dusters spray ing death on the Mall about the capital being another Nagasaki Defense Secretary William Cohen scared everyone by going on and holding up a five pound Domino sugar bag to show the small amount of anthrax a cow disease marked by malignant ulcers it would take to send half of Washington into writhing death throes When he held up a vial noting how deadly a single drop of VX nerve gas could be Cokie Roberts begged him to put it away It was a flashback to the days of bomb shelters and learning to crawl under your desk if the big one hit Having covered President George efforts to demonize the Iraqis I understood the motive behind alarmist performance art We are talking about a world class monster who strangles people with his bare hands gasses entire villages assassinates members of his family and uses babies as shields Wondering if the Clinton crowd has the spine for its first big crisis is giv ing me a bad case of the jits The suspicion lingers about these alumni of make love not war that they are not entirely comfortable with things military (Like Assistant Army Secretary Sara Lister calling the Marines Beyond that President Clinton has sown doubt about his foxhole creden tials with his habit of deserting aides and friends in trouble and his inabili ty to bend Democrats to his will Even with sometimes scat tered style and Colin inhibi tion about the use of force the Bush Baker Cheney Powell Schwarzkopf team still gave the impression of com mand Perhaps because it's the Democratic domestic or perhaps because this White House has so openly explored its feelings with facil itators and spiritualists the Clinton Albright Cohen Berger team has a less fearsome style Craving someone who eats nails I almost miss Harold Ickes I want Madeleine Albright the most virile of the lot to stop wearing picture hats around the Mideast Saddam Hussein is not threatening Ascot I fret that toothy Tony Blair is no Iron Izidy I fret about the president running around in chi chi cobalt blue shirts hanging out with Hanks Geffeh and Katzenberg grubbing for money and possibly post presidential employment in Tinseltown while labs are working overtime I get no rush of confidence watching Bill Cohen or bellicose moments I would prefer a hard boiled type with a $5 flattop to a soulful Shelley in tapered blue shirts with effete white collars and styled hair I w'orry that Cohen who has written two volumes of love poems and politi cal poems on such topics as the Watergate hearings foul breath of scandal hangs heavy from the high ceilings of and a Princeton conference that recalled the Holocaust (he rhymed with is busy scoping out this' crisis for its possibilities in verse Inspired by Cohen poems the epic work would no doubt read something like this: Dusk comes a loon breaks into flight Shower shave blue shirt What color tie? Hurry senses there is a list Have you seen my shoes? There together now Prepared for battle and debate Wait! Ancient furies beat decaying wings In a phantasmagoric moment I have fallen from command into a coma of doubt a man tom and tortured within What avenue out can I take? Death comes melting like ice cubes in a bourbon hourglass Saddam you black top buzzard Maureen Dowd I a Naw York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.