Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Oct. 23, 2002

Recycling is absolutely necessary

"God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars." That inspiring thought came from Martin Luther King. It seems especially fitting as October unfolds her annual display.

Recycling isn't one the more inspiring activities in our lives but very necessary. During World War II it wasn't called recycling. At that time citizens were helping the war effort and just about everything had another use. We saved cooking fat, rubber bands, tires and the list went on and on. The bottoms and tops of tin cans were removed and the cans squashed flat. When the war ended, so did that early recycling.

In the following years, more and more disposable products hit the market and as garbage dumps filled to overflowing, recycling came back in fashion. Recently Jan Boston Sellers' column told about the friendly atmosphere at our local recycling center. I too took my recyclable items there for a long time. My visits stopped after some nails recycled themselves into my tire, flattening it.

About that time a center opened on Peavine Road and there the area is kept clean of debris. They don't offer a full range of recycling, but papers, plastic and aluminum cans are accepted. To be fair, things may have changed at the center in town. After one flat tire I didn't take a chance to try there again.

Last month in this column I included a small item about the Doomsday Clock's hands being moved forward because of the unrest in the world. Since then I learned more about that clock from a story that appeared in Chicago magazine. It is located in the conference room at the headquarters of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in Hyde Park, Chicago.

The membership of this group includes Nobel laureates, Pew Fellows and authors of scientific matters. This distinguished group impresses ordinary human beings as being very somber and serious, but in that conference room, along with the Doomsday Clock, is a pingpong table for members to use when they want to relax and have fun.

The image of the Doomsday Clock was copyrighted when it was introduced in 1947. A partial world map covers the face and four bold black circles begin at 15 minutes to midnight, then 10, five and midnight. In February the hands were moved to seven minutes to midnight. In the opinion of the Bulletin's board of directors, this indicates how near we are to a nuclear holocaust.

This bunch of brilliant scientists didn't need the excuse of the Fourth of July to shoot off firecrackers. No, they fired verbal explosions when on July 1 American Prospect magazine appeared on the newsstand. On its cover was an exact image of the clock. It was almost exact but not the setting of the hands. Instead of seven minutes to midnight, the liberal political publication had reset them to four minutes to midnight.

It took attorneys for the Bulletin just one month to convince American Prospect to run a correction.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.