Editor;
Regarding the article, “BOE discusses Quiet Zone limitations affecting Green Bank School.”
It is mentioned that GBEMS is “affected” because of not having WiFi. It also included a remark that stated, “That GBEMS is probably the only school in the United States that does not have WiFi.’ This is misinformation (a lie) as more and more counties, states and countries are banning WiFi usage in their schools because of the serious mental and physical health issues that arise, especially, but not limited to, children when WiFi and devices are being employed.
Obviously, this attack on the Green Bank Observatory is solely based in ignorance. May I suggest these decision makers at least take, and pass, a college level course in radio astronomy that these decisions would be made from knowledge and education and not a general assumption by people who are not knowledgeable about the subject?
Is it not the GBEMS students that have spoken to the International Space Station? GBEMS was one of few schools selected to do this and it was because we have the Green Bank Observatory.
Which school sent up a high altitude balloon to ≈35,000 ft with the kid’s experiments on it? Do the other schools in the county have this kind of experience in their schools?? When the children in Pocahontas County schools are tasked to learn about archeology, do they not come to Fort Warwick in Green Bank?
It seems in most of these decision maker’s eyes, anything north of Huntersville is a vast wasteland. Au contraire, mon frère! Green Bank is a community unique not only to the county, but to the state, the country and to the world. Green Bank has a diversity not matched in this state. Astronomers, mathematicians, engineers, etc., all settling nicely with the farmers, loggers, teachers and the like.
Green Bank’s population is growing despite the county and state’s declining populations due to our new neighbors, the “Electro-sensitives”—that is, those who are more susceptible to electromagnetic radiation than others, known in scientific circles as, “EMR syndrome.” We greet them in the same way that we greeted the “back-to-landers” in the late 1960s and early 1970s—now a phenomenon of state history. Mon Power technicians tell us there are approximately 300 electro-sensitives in the Green Bank area today and the EMR community states there are 100, as the rest of the county sadly declines in population.
I’m constantly perplexed by it. Why do these people who make decisions desire Green Bank to follow their example? Have you ever thought about the fact that we don’t want to be a Hillsboro or a Mill Creek or a Craigsville or a Marlinton and cope with those societal ills?
Recently in a move to rid the Green Box sites of their “stage,” the Solid Waste Authority wisely decided to let Green Bank keep theirs. We did not have the issue of people sleeping in or trashing them in Green Bank. As I mentioned, we are a unique community that has not fallen into the trap of degeneration as our society has. Neighbors here help each other as it was 50-60-70 years ago in America and I’m sorry if the rest of the county/country misses it.
So please, leave Green Bank alone. Internet connection can be implemented via cable and it does not need to be Wi-Fi. Common sense to those who have it.
Stop attacking the Observatory out of ignorance. Good science is being done there. It is not their fault that you don’t understand it.
You’re the Board of Education…be the mentor that people see and teach how mankind has a constant thirst for knowledge and a tendency to seek it. Be educated.
Sincerely,
Life-long Pocahontas County resident,
Kent Leach