Helen Caldicott, Icon at Main San Francisco Public Library

After we had the fourth non-celebration of Javier's 80th birthday on Saturday (this time with Charles and Eileen), I heard Helen Caldicott speak at the public library.  

She's very articulate, and I could have accepted her abrasive, angry tone if she hadn't dropped names.  "I told Carl Sagan, I said, "Carl, do you think..."   Years later I talked to Robert McNamara.  "Robert..."   She let us know that she was at Harvard in a somewhat gratuitous way. 

Helen Caldicott was very famous back in the days when my son was chanting, "Two, four, six, eight.  We don't want to ra-di-ate" from his crib,  and the audience was made up of us old folks, which she noticed.  She asked the young people to stand up, and even though the Koret Auditorium was packed, about three people stood up!  (I thought of standing but didn't.)  Helen Caldicott said most young people were out playing Pokémon.

WALL, the War and Law League, sponsored her, and they also had a really old but full-voiced singer doing "Down by the Riverside," which has far too many verses. 

When someone from WALL said, "We'll have more music later.  Don't worry.  You won't be music-less," Helen Caldicott (or maybe I should say "Helen") intervened and said something like  "No, I'd like to ask for no more music.  Music comforts people, and people need to be upset."

The best part of the two-hour gathering was the handout WALL provided.  It gives the history of wars illegally started by U.S. presidents since 1950, when  Truman waged war on Korea without the authorization of Congress.

Also, I saw people from Diablo Valley Peace Center and thought of Mom--though there was someone there who was so "efficient" that Mom dropped out, preferring a friendlier approach.  I wonder what she would have thought of Helen Caldicott's presentation.

Some people walked out when she said America wasn't great and that "This country is totally out to lunch, every single way."    I liked her speaking against NATO, which she says, accurately, I think,  is America. 

But what's this about having to vote in Australia?  Is that a good idea?  If people don't vote, they pay a fee of $80.