The entire affair, including the duped journalistic babes of the Washington Post, is not without humor; a particularly amusing thought is the possibility that the Caldicotts' and Kendalls' repeated hoaxes will dull people's "scareability," and that public acceptance of nuclear power, so resistant to the efforts of honest scientists, will finally be achieved by the hysterics of a handful of freakish fanatics.

But there is little mirth in the central fraud of this entire affair. It is in deadly earnest that honest people should point an accusing finger at Markey and Kendall for helping to kill, maim, and disease their fellow citizens. They do this by playing games with probabilities of 10 to the minus 8^th and smaller, while distracting attention from the more than 37,000 premature deaths caused annually by fossil fuels in the US, and from the up to 250,000 deaths that can be caused by failure of a hydro dam (with far more significant probability); yet the very object of their witch hunt, nuclear power, is what can save these lives by its far superior safety.

It is easy to forgive the honorable Markey. His supreme goal in life is to be reelected by the numerous; and what quicker way to his supreme goal than to dupe the numerous with crude hoaxes?

"History has judged Cotton Mather harshly for his role in the Salem witch trials precisely because he was an intelligent and educated man," writes Samuel McCracken. "The same rigor ought to apply to Helen Caldicott."(1)

Exactly; but there is one important difference. As a witch hunter, Cotton Mather (1663-1728) was no better than the Kendalls or Caldicotts. Yet let it also be remembered that Mather was the foremost champion of inoculation against the smallpox, braving fear, ignorance, and considerable health risks to ensure survival in the American colonies.(2)

In contrast, what redeeming merits will there be in Kendalls Union of Concerned "Scientists" and Caldicott's Physicians "for" Social Responsibility when history will count the dead, crippled and diseased of our time?