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mentioned the effects of the
first hydrogen bomb test on
the land, the ocean and the
Marshallese people. Howev-
er, it made no mention of the
sailors and naval officers
who were involved in that
project at Eniwetok in the
Marshall Islands in 1952.
Many have died of can-
cers and rare forms of leu-
kemia attributed to radi-
ation. My husband was one
of them. He died of acute
myelogenous leukemia.
He was on one of the
destroyers that were about
30 miles from the island
where the detonation took
place. When the shock wave
hit the ship, those on board
were allowed to turn and
view the explosion. By then,
the cloud embanked the
horizon and was covering
the sky overhead.
Unfortunately, at the
time, it appears that too
little was known about the
lasting effects of radiation.
Monika Broome
Fullerton::I spent a year in the early
1980s living in the Marshall
Islands.
Employed by a govern-
ment contractor, I under-
went an orientation in
which I was given a booklet
published by United States
Department of Energy that
outlined risk factors related
to radiation exposure.
Gathering coconuts was
discouraged.
Shame on the UnitedStates for leaving this mess
not just for the Marshallese
but for all mankind.
Vernette Cooper
Signal Hill::Your special section was
a very sobering educational
supplement on our nuclear
testing in the Marshall
Islands, the cleanup and
possible future problems
from climate change. What
terrific research and report-
ing.
L.A. Times readers
might be interested in these
lines about the bomb “Ivy
Mike,” which was detonated
in 1952, from the book “True
Genius” by Joel Shurkin:
“Mike was to be tested on
Elugelab, an island north ofEniwetok. At 7:15 a.m., No-
vember 1, a radio signal was
sent from a ship and 92
detonators on Mike fired
simultaneously. Within
microseconds it produced a
fireball hotter than the
interior of the sun that grew
to three miles across. Or-
ange, purple, and red the
fireball rose more than
100,000 feet, hit the strato-
sphere, and spread out in
mushroom formation, a
huge, virulent canopy that
stretched more than 100
miles. Elugelab was vapor-
ized. The yield was 10.
megatons, 1,000 times more
powerful than the bomb
that destroyed Hiroshima.
The world was a different
place.”
Ben Nethercot
TopangaGuns first, then
school safety
Re “Campus shooting kills
two,” Nov. 15You quote one student
asking rhetorically as he
and other students were led
off campus after a shooting
Thursday at Saugus High
School, “What kind of world
is this?”
That’s easy to answer:
We live in a country where
the right to own lethal weap-
ons trumps the right of our
children to be safe in school.
Until we control the
madness of our gun fixation,
we are doomed.
Donald Broder
Studio City::With more than 20 years
of innocents being slaugh-
tered and our police having
to put their lives on the line
daily to protect every one of
us, Congress and the presi-
dent remain resolute in
their acceptance of the loss
of life from gun violence.
They pretend to be repre-
sentatives of the people, but
it’s an act they can’t pull off
for much longer.
How sad it is when our
kids ask for help and adults
give them the same tired
rhetoric they have for years,
and then whisk them on
their way, hoping they dis-
appear into a fog of lies that
has been created with finan-
cial help from the National
Rifle Assn.
Hey, kids, don’t be dimin-
ished by the incompetence
of your government. Use it
to strengthen your resolve
and move this country in the
direction you want. Many of
those who came before you
have thrown in the towel or
are clinging to their own
twisted interpretation of the
2nd Amendment.
It is your turn to pick up
the ball and run, for the
students of Saugus High
School and other victims of
mass shootings. Your future
is in front of you.
Bob Bascelli
Seaford, N.Y.::How many times is this
same scenario going to play
out before America gets
smart? Common-sense gun
laws are no panacea, but
they would help.
Anyone with a heart and
a mind knows that America
needs change. And if Donald
Trump is reelected presi-
dent, there will be no
change.
We need a president with
no ties to the NRA. A vote
for Trump is a vote for the
NRA.
JoAnn Lee Frank
Clearwater, Fla.A missed chance
for ‘Dreamers’
Re “Only Congress can fix
DACA,” editorial, Nov. 13Negotiating involves a
party accepting something
its does not want in ex-
change for something it
wants.
The Democrats wanted
to establish the Deferred
Action for Childhood Ar-
rivals program as a legally
sanctioned option for the
“Dreamers”; they did not
want any funds to go toward
a border wall. Republicans
wanted more funding for the
wall. One man’s roadblock is
another man’s negotiating
position.
Therefore, as unreason-
able as President Trump
can be, it was legitimate for
him to demand relatively
modest wall funding in
exchange for extended
protections for dreamers.
Perhaps you have forgot-
ten all that President
Reagan and House Speaker
Tip O’Neill accomplished by
agreeing to do things they
otherwise opposed.
Frankly, I place most
blame for the current situa-
tion on the Democrats; they
couldn’t say yes to a reason-
able compromise with the
Republicans.
Joel Drum
Van Nuys::It is important to distin-
guish between a good judi-
cial ruling and a good out-
come.
A person can be in favor
of the DACA program but
also criticize it for being the
result of executive branch
overreach. A person can
also criticize the current
administration for execu-
tive branch overreach.
As citizens, we should
realize that we can’t have it
both ways, so to “fervently
hope [the Supreme Court]
comes down on the side of
the Dreamers” is an invita-
tion for the court to further
legitimize executive branch
overreach. A case can be
made that the Supreme
Court hears too many cases,
and has gotten high on its
own supply.
Whatever you think of
the late Justice Antonin
Scalia, his prescription to
“pass a law” increasingly
seems like advice for the
ages.
Ed Salisbury
Santa MonicaCarolyn ColeLos Angeles TimesMORE THAN 40 years ago, U.S. officials buried nuclear waste under a concrete dome on Runit Island.
After the nukes
Re “American fallout: the Marshall Islands,” special report, Nov. 10
I
would like to commend the Los Angeles Times for its special report about the damage
caused by decades of nuclear testing in the tropical Pacific Ocean atolls that make up the
Marshall Islands. I would have been none the wiser had this not been covered. It is precisely
this type of investigative reporting that renews my faith in journalism.
Today, as devastating as it is to know that the people of the Marshall Islands have a toxicwaste dump as a home, we must remember that 70 years ago, our mindset was different as we
raced toward a sixth mass extinction, this one totally man-made.
That said, I sincerely hope the U.S. government takes a long, hard look at its 21st century re-
sponsibilities to make up for the ravages of the Atomic Age, and to restore the faith of the people
it hoodwinked for the so-called greater good.
Andrew Lukac, Kapolei, Hawaii
Lisa Harmon of Yakima,
Wash., says Bloomberg
pushes her left:
When Bill Gates starts
doing the math on a wealth
tax and Bloomberg suddenly
jumps into the race, you
know something’s amiss.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s
place in the polls has billion-
aires worried. I doubt
Bloomberg’s entry into the
race is about “concern” over
the field of candidates. It’s
more likely about the pres-
ervation of class and wealth.
This Bloomberg news
now makes me move toward
voting for Warren (my reluc-
tant choice), away from Joe
Biden (my required choice)
and still further from Pete
Buttigieg (my actual
choice).Marilyn Perenchio of North
Hills is impressed by
Bloomberg:I once saw Bloomberg in
a panel discussion. Asked
about being fired from his
first job, he recalled that he
said to himself, “It is what it
is; now what are you going to
do about it?”
This attitude exemplifies
a quality I want in a presi-
dent: There’s no lamenting
what could have been, but
only looking ahead to what
can be done to solve the
problem.
Bloomberg is a foe of
global warming. If you can’t
breathe the air, drink the
water or grow food on your
land, what good is anything
else? He promotes gun
control, putting people’s
lives ahead of profits for gun
manufacturers.
This guy is a no-non-
sense, look-at-the-problem-
and-fix-it kind of guy who
cares about the country.
And with his money, he’s
beholden to no one.
I’d vote for him.R.J. Godin of Berkeley
doesn’t want a recent ex-
Republican in the Demo-
cratic race:
Does the Democratic
Party allow anyone to cam-
paign for its presidential
nomination?
Bloomberg was a Repub-
lican during most of his
three terms as New York
mayor, and he registered as
a Democrat last year. Why
would the party allow him to
campaign for the top of its
ticket?Robert Matano of Cayucos,
Calif., anticipates an all-
billionaire debate:
It would be very interest-
ing to see Bloomberg as the
Democratic nominee, Presi-
dent Trump as the Republi-
can and, say, Tom Steyer as
the Green Party nominee. I
can just see the debate
conversation:
“I know what is best for
billionaires,” says Trump.
“No, you don’t,” says Steyer.
“You are both wrong,” says
Bloomberg.MAILBAG
No Bloomberg bounce
W
hen Michael R. Bloombergentered
the Democratic presidential primary
last week, I expected to receive the crush
of letters that typically follows the
launch of a high-profile campaign. But Iwaited. And waited.
Turns out I may have to keep waiting, because since theformer New York City mayor (and ex-Republican) filed pa-
pers on Nov. 8 to insert his name on the Alabama primary
ballot, fewer than a dozen readers sent us letters discussing
Bloomberg’s candidacy. Two of the submissions were bull-
ish on Bloomberg; the rest were not.
—Paul Thornton, letters editorEric RisbergAssociated Press
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, the former mayor of New
York, filed to appear on the Alabama primary ballot.Numbers
and letters
A quick breakdown of the
mail we received from
readers this week530
Printable letters to the
editor were received
between last Friday and
this Friday.129
Letters were written
about impeaching
President Trump, the
week’s most-discussed
topic.31
Readers discussed the
Supreme Court’s DACA
case.30
Letters mentioned
the shooting at Saugus
High School in Santa
Clarita.HOW TO WRITE TO US
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submission guidelines, see
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FOUNDED DECEMBER 4, 1881 Sue Horton OP-ED ANDSUNDAYOPINIONEDITOR