Editor,
From the letter "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." I was introduced to the mind of UNM staff member John Bauer. He became obsessed with rationalizing instructor Bob Anderson's affiliation with this University.
Oddly enough, the jargon John used attempting to describe a man he has never met arose a question in my mind: How can you become a professor without knowing how to perform research?
Therefore, I ask you, John Bauer, what do you profess to teach?
A curious question for a University student to tackle.
The first thought I had was, "why bother looking up his name in the phone book or anywhere else when I can irrationally postulate what class he could possibly teach." I decided that you are most likely to teach a section on "why ignorance is bliss" in an obscure department. Why would you bother yourself with more than a millisecond of research on a topic that could affect your life when ignorance is bliss?
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Do you know anything about "disabled" nuclear weapons?
Or do you know how much plutonium it takes, under the right conditions, to wipe out a population of half a million people? Maybe you did not realize that a nuclear storage area is located in a city many of us live in, Albuquerque. If these nuclear bombs are "dismantled," they can still be agitated with an explosion.
This could cause a detonation and a fountain of radioactive particles, not the mushroom cloud explosion that is associated with a nuclear warhead's detonation.
So what if radioactive particles fly everywhere? A plume of radioactive particles will contaminate the surrounding areas, not just Albuquerque. This is why the state of New Mexico needs a large-scale evacuation plan. Albuquerque, New Mexico, is irrelevant. People who live in the surrounding areas need a plan to escape before the nuclear contamination spreads to them. This possible danger is quite similar to a nuclear meltdown. Even Three Mile Island had an evacuation plan, so why don't we?
I finally stumbled on the obvious - human stupidity.
John Bauer and people who succumb to the idea that we should "never underestimate the power of human stupidity" are the people that need to think before declaring stupidity. John, please do some research before you spew ignorance.
Roseanna Jean McGinn
UNM freshman and student in Bob Anderson's Modern Legacy Class
