NEI Nuclear Notes

Ralph Nader and some Greenpeace activists showed up yesterday outside our offices to shout slogans and wave signs - well, not Nader himself, but his crew. As you may know, Washington is the go-to stop on Amtrak when you have a sign and a slogan, so the lunchtime crowd is very used to this happening pretty much every day. In our view, Nader and crew should have promoted his appearance a little better, perhaps on D.C.'s numerous college campuses. As is, the whole thing seemed a bit ad hoc. But it would be churlish of us not to include some photos. These were taken by NEI's staff photog, Anna Gomez. This was directly in front of NEI's building - the front door faces a corner - and is what was going on before Mr. Nader arrived. This looks like a pretty thin crowd, but deceptively so - about 35 or so people aside from NEI employees turned out and some lunchtimers stopped for a moment or two to listen. Here's Mr. Nader. The microphones poking at him are from vario...

We bow to no one in our respect for Ralph Nader and the work he has done to expose government and corporate corruption and to work always for his fellow citizens. By extension, he has done good work for many other people throughout the world by inspiring them to look closely at their own institutions and to find fault where fault is found. Mr. Nader has always been a gadfly, and a highly effective one, buzzing through the last several presidential elections, often with the Green Party, and persisting despite a certain wariness on the part of the press. Nader is completely free of any spin and external agenda aside from his own; his willingness to speak truth to the various powers that can overwhelm our lives is vital if the idea of America is to function at all - he cuts through the cant to get at the truth and then tries to make the truth more powerful than the myths that many prefer to subscribe to. We ruminate about Mr. Nader because he will be speaking about nuclear energy out...