Editor,
After reading last week’s excellent article on SHARC training on the GBO’s 140’ telescope, I took note of the photos showing the shabby exterior of the telescope and the first paragraph, “As a general rule, the only time you’ll see someone hanging from one of the telescopes at Green Bank Observatory is in the summer when there are painters in buckets suspended from the Green Bank Telescope – the world’s largest fully steerable telescope.”
I don’t believe there have been painters in buckets suspended from the telescope for some time, and I am very disheartened by it. I grew up on the observatory and lived on the site from 1962 to 1976 when I hit the road to find my destiny. The 140’ was the first thing I saw every day for most of my young life. To now see the poor condition in which this telescope presents to the public each day is very sad.
My late father, Wallace “Wally” Oref, who served as Public Information Officer and began the public tour program at the observatory, would roll over in his grave to see this telescope in its current condition. Something must be done. Even though the older telescopes are historical in their technology, they are still magnificent and there should be pride in the maintenance of their historical significance – especially “the world’s largest fully steerable telescope.”
Thank you,
MJ (Mary Jane) Oref
White Sulphur Springs
Dear Madam:
One of the recent letters to the editor in your newspaper expressed concern about the lack of serious attention being paid to the coming climate apocalypse by the current administration. Indeed, it seems that the president and his minions think it a hoax. I don’t see how such a bunch of unserious people could have ever been elected, but it seems they were, and we’re stuck with them, at least temporarily. Voter fraud had a hand in their election, I’m sure.
We depend on our government to look after our health and well-being, and, in my lifetime of nearly eighty years, I think they have done an outstanding job. They always have our best interests at heart. In the nineteen-seventies they first alerted us to the coming ice age caused by using fossil fuel as an energy source; in the nineteen-eighties they patched up the hole in the ozone by banning Right-Guard deodorant; and in the nineties those tireless government researchers discovered that the coming ice age had morphed somehow into global warming. Burning fossil fuel sure causes some sneaky phenomenons, and it is a good thing SOME people take these effects seriously.
Also, we have all just lived through an apocalyptic pandemic, well, most of us lived through it anyway. Who knows what the casualty count would have been had we not had people with our best interests at heart doing all that viral research. We would have never known about social distancing or wearing two masks or not going to church or having Thanksgiving with our families. Our government must have saved millions with their mandates.
So, I don’t think it wise to scoff at our government and all the researchers in our scientific community. They have been right about everything. As such, I would be in favor of some severe fines and jail time for these domestic nay-saying terrorists that DON’T have our best interests at heart. We need to quit our scoffing and do what our government and experts tell us. It’s not all that much trouble to put on sunscreen when we go out in case the hole in the ozone reappears, or to keep a parka handy in case global warming morphs back into an ice age, or to stay six feet apart and wear a surgical mask. Your beekeeper’s helmet and veil will fit right over that mask, and you will be protected when the African killer bees (look ‘em up) finally make their way to Texas and start spreading up the continent.
Also, I hope to persuade Al Gore to leave off his important work counting polar bears and run for president in 2028. If we can get her naturalized in time, maybe that little goblin from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, can be his running mate. Gore/Thunberg 2028!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
John Jackson
Huntersville
