EDITORIAL
Public should pick
greater of two evils
With temperatures in the nation's capital hovering
around the freezing point, it seems that President Clin
ton will bo needing some winter clothes
Perhaps he should consider the scandal-proof vest he
wore during the 1992 campaign.
With a couple of new scandals circulating in Wash
ington (not to mention on late night TV circuit), the pres
ident may find himself once again in need of the same
mystical protection that preserved the respectability of
his candidacy just two years ago.
Although the old allegations of pot-smoking have not
been resurrected, two of the other accusations that sur
faced in the '92 campaign have been brought back for
an encore: philandering and improper financial dealings.
The first of these charges, philandering, springs from
a recent incident in which Clinton was seen in a car with
a woman other than his wife (gasp!) — weak evidence for
a weaker claim which may not deserve to be public knowl
edge at all. oven if it's true. Naturally, this is the scan
dal which has captivated the media, and in all likelihood,
the public as well
(.(Hung lost in trie snume is a more imponani scanuai.
It concerns Clinton's relationship with the failed Madi
son Savings and Loan, which was run by close associ
ate James McDougai in Clinton’s home state of Arkansas.
Investigators are trying to determine whether some the
funds from the S&l. were diverted either to Whitewater
Development Corp.. in which Clinton invested, or Clin
ton's 10B4 gubernatorial campaign.
As is so often the case with stories that are vital to the
public interest. Clinton's involvement with Madison S&L
lacks a certain degree of sensationalism and has therefore
failed to interest as many people as it ought to. Whether
Clinton may possibly havo txien with a woman who might
not have boon his wife has been both news and enter
tainment, to the satisfaction of conservative pundits and
stand-up comics everywhere.
The difference in reactions to theso scandals illustrates
a continuing problem in this country. If the story’s more
appropriate for Ted Koppel than for David Lettemian, no
one pays attention.
Whose fault is that... the media’s or the public's? Well,
that question is yet another variation on the chicken-or
tho-egg debate, media-style. Do the media cater to the low
est common denominator Just for sales and ratings, or do
they merely respond to a public that will no longer accept
anything else?
But that's another issue. The matter at hand calls for
a dofinite course of action: Americans should interest
themselves in all the investigations of their president, but
should try to exercise a little judgment in prioritizing
those investigations. Cheating on Hillary might be inter
esting nows — if it were true — but receiving money ille
gally from the Madison S&L would demonstrate a dis
regard for the law that would cast serious doubt on
Clinton's fitness for office.
Of course, it's quite possible that both the allegations
are untrue, or they may be so exaggerated as to bo irrel
evant. In any case, the public should keep a watchful but
discriminating eye.
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A
OPINION
Com flakes and
milk
Robbif. Rffvf.s
ake another look at your
breakfast cereal this morn
_L. in#. You might be part of
another government experiment.
Various departments in the
federal government have recent
ly admitted to having conducted
numerous studies over the past
40 years to determine the effects
of radiation on humans.
The fact that people were
used by the government for
allegedly medical research isn’t
unusual. The odd part about
these tests was that many of the
participants didn't know that
they had volunteered Some of
the tests involved uninformed
people who had not consented
And some of these tests were
rather bizarre
A group of developmentally
disabled students in a Massa
chusetts state institution was fed
cereal with radioactive milk for
several years in the 1940s and
1950s The children were fed
this without either (heir consent
or that of their parents.
Over 100 inmates from peni
tentiaries in the Northwest were
paid $5 a month during the
1960s and 1970s to have their
testes shot with X-rays. This was
brought on by an accident at the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation
(another productive use of radi
ation in America), after which
scientists decided that they
needed more information about
the harmful effects of radioactiv
ity on humans.
(As a side note, all of the
inmates that participated in the
program had to get vasectomies
upon leaving, to guard against
genetic mutations and the like.
Just in case you were wonder
ing. )
These almost sound like sto
ries from the National Enquirer
or something that one might see
on afternoon TV talk shows
("Today on Oprah, parents who
claim that their children were
fed radioactive cereal for break
fast ”). but they actually come
from a source that is often a lit
tle less believable — the United
States government.
If these tests seem outrageous
enough, just wait There's more
Other revelations that have
come out recently include sto
nes about people (including
probably nan-consenting new
born babies) who were paid to
be injected with quantities of
plutonium and radioactive
iodine, and veterans being
exposed to forms of radiation in
Veterans Administration hospi
tals.
The number of "participants."
or. in many cases, victims, of
these tests has exceeded 800
people, and the list grows with
each new revelation on the
evening news.
And, to top it all off. an expert
involved in the testing com
mented that the experimentation
on humans with radiation had
"a little of the Huchenwald
touch." referring to a Nazi con
centration camp where experi
ments were conducted.
One could say that. In fact, it
has a lot of the Buchenwald
touch. One would think that the
horrors of. among other things,
the "medical" experiments on
|H»ople in the Nazi concentration
camps would still f)e fresh in the
minds of those in the govern
ment just a few years after the
war ended. Evidently, the gov
ernment didn't quite remember.
To its credit, the government
has taken action to inform
Americans about the experi
ments — a bold step for the
Clinton administration, consid
ering the fact that the last few
presidents have chosen to ignore
the information that they had at
Both the Department of Ener
gy and the Veterans Administra
tion hove established toll-free
telephone hotlines that con
cerned citizens can call. The
phone lines have apparently
been busy lately, with hundreds
of people (.ailing in to see what
might have happened to them.
Secretary of Energy Hazel
O'Leary has even stated that the
government should apologize to
the people that were involved in
the experiments and to maybe
give them a little monetary com
pensation for the testing.
However, no amount of com
pensation from the government
can justify why hundreds of
non-consenting (and in many
casus, probably unwilling) peo
ple were subjected to secret tests
by the government.
True, with the advent of the
Cold War and the proliferation
of nuclear weapons, the m ientif
The government
has taken action to
inform us about the
experiments — a
bold step for the
Clinton
administration.
it: community wanted to know
more about the mysterious sci
ence of radiation. But the fact
that a group of scientists (ant)
the government which, of
course, was paying for all of
these tests) wanted to know,
doesn't give them license to find
out by using anyone and every
one as a proverbial guinea pig
The damage from the experi
ments, both physically (for the
victims) and mentally (for any
one that wonders why the gov
ernment would do this to its
own citizens), has already been
caused.
Life goes on for the hundreds
that were subjected to these
experiments, as they are left to
wonder if they will suffer from
cancer or another ailment relat
ed to these tests, at some point
in their lifetime. Some have
probably already died from can
cer brought on by tests that they
never even knew about.
And even if they hadn't been
used in the tests. Americans will
continue to wonder what their
government has done, and con
tinues to do to them, for whatev
er reason that it finds justifiable.
If nothing else, Americans
might wonder why their tax dol
lars are being spent to make
glow-in-the-dark radioactive
milk for children or to zap
prison inmates in the balls — all
in the name of science.
The irony with the radiation
testing is that the government, in
many cases covertly and with
out consent of many of the peo
ple involved, harmed hundreds
(and possibly thousands) of peo
ple in an effort to save people
from two ultimately lethal situa
tions: nuclear accidents and
nuclear war.
What can be done now? Per
haps the outrage of Americans
will convince the government
that these types of activities are
intolerable and must 1ms stopped
Corn flakes, anyone?
Robbie Reeves is a columnist
for the Emerald.