Seeing Things

William E. McKibben's article on the anti-nuke rally at Seabrook misses the central point of the gathering--education. McKibben states everyone there had already decided that they were anti-nuke, and they were just hearing things they already knew. Still, when I talked with people there, I ran into some who were participating in the anti-nuke movement for the first time, and had come simply to find out what it was all about. I was one of them.

Learning was not limited to the newcomers, though. Veterans of the movement could not avoid learning something new even if they tried. An abundance of workshops were offered with topics ranging from the basic to advanced.

Speakers did not only tell "scare stories." Many focused on less publicized issues in the movement, such as the role of unions and how and why it's important to get more non-white and older people involved.

McKibben describes only the rally on Saturday saying how it seemed small-scale. He is correct. Still, that is the way it was intended to be. When I called the Boston Clamshell office the Wednesday before the rally, a member told me that Saturday's rally was not planned to be large and that Sunday's rally was going to be the Hollywood production. I feel Sunday's event lived up to this billing. The field was crowded with enthusiastic people when I left. Jonathan D. Rabinovitz '82