Letters to the Editor Policy

It Isn’t Babysitting

It isn’t uncommon to hear the term “babysitter” used when referring to a person caring for a child in an early learning facility. While the term may be meant as a way of praise, it isn’t an accurate description.

As the Program Manager of Susquehanna County CARES (Childcare, Agencies, Resources and Educational Services,) I enjoy the opportunity to share what is happening in early learning facilities throughout Susquehanna County. The community engagement group’s mission is to enhance the quality of early care and education provided in Susquehanna County and to help fulfill Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children, because every child is Pennsylvania’s future.

The term babysitter implies someone who “sits” with a baby or young child when the parent or guardian is away. This falls short of what is happening in early learning environments throughout the area. There are approximately two-dozen licensed facilities caring for children in Susquehanna County. Many participate in Pennsylvania’s voluntary early learning initiative Keystone STARS that requires additional staff education, staff participation in ongoing professional workshops, use of a curriculum and a learning environment that enhances development.

Many of those providing care have special degrees in early childhood, are returning to the classroom for higher education, and/or continue to grow through professional development programs focusing on enhancing a child’s emotional and educational development.

The state has recognized these efforts and refers to those who provide child care as “early learning practitioners.” The work they do is shaping our future. Research shows children who receive a quality educational start before the age of five have a better chance of success later in life.

April 10-16 we celebrate “Week of the Young Child.” During this week, take a few moments to think about the early learning practitioners who helped shape your life. It is wonderful to know so many are dedicated to the important job of educating our young children in a way that sets their groundwork for success.

Thank you to all early learning practitioners.

Sincerely,

Stephnie Thornton

Program Manager, Susquehanna County CARES

Step Up And Fight!

When is it all going to end? All I hear and read about is Washington wants to shut the country down.

I am tired of them playing with America.

Who do they think they are kidding? I can see that they are protecting their jobs. Who do you know that wear suits and jewelry every day, pretending to be doing what we want? Pretending that they are so rich, powerful and intelligent, as to look down on us and punish us!

There are more than enough bills or laws on the books, yet each day that’s all we hear. Every industry needs a certain amount of debt to make it strong and hungry to do more and build their business.

It is over due. It is time to over look the suits and ties and demand they do exactly what we need - to shut up and do it. They need to be told. Shut America down - this should never have come to this. Before we know it, China will demand the money we owe them and then what? Anyone see the adds on TV?

I say put a boxing ring on the floor of the congress and see who has the courage to step up and fight, otherwise shut up!

Sincerely,

Peter A. Seman

Thompson, PA

We’ll Die Without It

America grew on fossil fuel. Unlike Europe and Asia, we were not centuries in the making. We grew on oil from the drilling in Titusville, PA in the 1850’s combined with the invention of mass production of autos by Henry Ford in 1909. Our country grew all spread out because it could and we liked it that way. Now our country is being strangled by the oil cartels and the price we pay for foreign oil. We are told that sending billions to our enemies to buy oil is better for us than to drill our own. We are told that it doesn’t make any difference because the world oil demand will make us all pay $4.00/gal anyway. I disagree. And here is why I do.

This is the answer. Since we must have cheaper oil to prosper, I suggest that we decouple our oil from the world market. We don’t owe the world our oil nor do we owe the oil cartels our business. America must drill and provide its people with oil from our own national sources, i.e., oil drilled on Federal (that’s us) land in the lower forty eight and Alaska as well as offshore. The oil and gas are there and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. That oil is not to be available for export and is to be refined and sold at well below world market price here in the U.S. After all, it is our oil, not the government’s, not the oil company’s, not the politician’s. If a foreign country wants to sell us oil, they do so at our price (negotiated for the benefit of our citizens). We have the oil and gas. It is up to us to keep it for our prosperity. It is our lifeblood and we’ll die without it. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise about that either.

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake, PA

Fukushima, The Unpredictable Calamity

Chernobyl, the worst nuclear accident in history, will soon take second place to the Fukushima meltdowns in Japan. It was twenty-six years ago that an explosion ripped through the Soviet nuclear plant blasting radioactive material high into the air where it circumnavigated the globe several times.

Chernobyl and Fukushima are roughly similar. There were explosions and fires at both locations. And both released massive amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium. But it is the dissimilarities that raise the greatest concerns. At the Japanese facility there are three breached reactors, not one as in Chernobyl. Fukushima has a total of 1,760 tons of nuclear fuel; the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tons.

And while it took nine months before the nuclear radiation in the Ukraine was smothered in concrete and steel, in Japan containment may take much longer, some reports say years.

Dousing the three reactors with seawater is a desperate effort to halt further meltdown of fuel rods containing uranium and plutonium. While meeting with some success it has created problems of its own.

Now seawater measuring 1,000 millisieverts per hour is emanating from water pooling in three reactors. Three millisieverts per year is the average. A later reading measured 100 times that. It is impossible for repairs to be made in these conditions.

In addition, pumping out this super-hot water to permit worker access is not a permanent solution since there is no available storage space for the hot seawater. Eventually excess radioactive water will be released into the open ocean.

Fukushima's deadly cargo began its trip around the world on March 11. It crossed the Pacific and left traces in Oregon, Washington, and California. Then it crossed the Midwest where it was detected in Nevada and Colorado. Its imprint has now been detected from Massachusetts to Florida, including Pennsylvania.

With one voice officials in all these states say there is no danger; the levels are only trace amounts; there is no need for concern, they say. But some scientists are concerned.

Prof. Christopher Busby, Ph.D and MD, faults the current model of measuring radioactivity using large-dose exposure of externally delivered materials. Busby claims that this model ignores chronic low-dose exposure of internally deposited radioactive matter.

Using the standard model, officials can correctly assert that trace amount of radioactive iodine and cesium floating across the U.S. are harmless. But Busby warns that the future probability of high levels of radioactive aerosols present a real threat of ingesting or inhaling radioactive dust.

There are three types of nuclear radiation. Gamma rays and the slightly less powerful X-rays. These rays are composed of photons, essentially they are like ordinary light but exceedingly more powerful. Exposure to these will be localized in Japan. It is the other two types of radiation, the alpha and beta, that can potentially contaminate areas of the U.S.

Beta radiation are high-speed elections that can easily penetrate the body and cause cellular damage. Lastly, the least powerful, alpha rays, which are heavy but low-speed packets of neutrons and protons. Alpha radiation is blocked by clothing but if particles emanating this radiation are ingested or inhaled, then, like beta particles, their lethality is magnified by a hundred times, said Busby.

Japanese experts have failed to stabilize the stricken reactors. The Fukushima nuclear complex continues to boil off radioactive particulates. And now plutonium has been found in soil and water surrounding the reactors. Plutonium is two million times more dangerous than enriched uranium.

Japan's prime minister said his nation is on “maximum alert.” All residents within a 12-mile radius, an area of 450 square miles, were advised to evacuate.

Moreover, there is, according to Busby, the possibility of an atomic-bomb type explosion at Fukushima. Fortunately, this event is as unlikely as it is extreme. A fission explosive would eventually poison much of the biosphere. It is the worst possible scenario.

What should be done at Fukushima? What could happen? How bad could it get in Japan and in the U.S.? Could 3/11, the month of the meltdowns, be the beginning of a foreboding end? No one really knows. Fukushima is a first. We can only wait to see how it unfolds and where it will lead.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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