Feedback for Sept. 26, 2019

Residents speak up about the noise and other detriments of having F-35s at Truax. Also: kudos to John Barker.

September 26, 2019

5:00 AM

Speak up! Can’t hear you!

Re: “Stealth mode” (9/5/2019): The Department of Defense’s 2018 Nuclear Posture Review designated the F-35 as a part of its strategic nuclear bomber force, and is considered a first strike weapon. It can carry two nuclear warheads, between a third and 50 kilotons. Fifty kilotons is four times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

While Truax may not house nuclear weapons, pilots here will be trained to fly the jets that can deliver them. The military is not required to tell us if they decide to have nuclear weapons on the base.

Doesn’t that concern you?

— Vicki Berenson, via isthmus.com

I am a nurse serving a neighborhood adjacent to the airport and am deeply concerned about the public health implications in bringing F-35s to Truax Field.

We know from the EIS that the frequency and intensity of noise pollution would significantly increase. What is not being talked about, however, are the serious health risks associated with persistent noise pollution, including: poor quality sleep, negative impacts on mood/mental health, decreased school performance, increases in stress hormones/blood pressure, and heart disease.

The EIS acknowledges there will be “significant disproportionate impacts to low-income and minority populations, as well as children.” But what the report does not consider is how poverty compounds these risks. Families living around the airport do not have the power to simply move and oftentimes rely on open windows for cooling. Additionally, the lowest income areas do not qualify for mitigation efforts.

As a nurse and concerned citizen, I call upon our senators, Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson, and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, to oppose the F-35 program coming to Truax. This is not anti-military; this is pro-health. And there are alternate sites with significantly less public health impacts.

— Kim Neuschel, BS RN, via email

A legendary man

Re: “Serenade for a critic” (9/12/19): From my time as a clueless UW sophomore in his lecture hall to reading his very last review, I can’t think of a more distinguished voice for the love of music. The historical context and expertise he offers, along with some pointed humor and occasional ridicule, are true rarities. Congratulations, Professor [John] Barker.

— Andrew B. via isthmus.com

Comments (1)

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F35's

I’m opposed to F-35’s. Air power is the preeminent method with which powerful countries run roughshod over weaker ones. It epitomizes, along with the crippling effects of economic warfare, the ultimate inhumanity of the failure of reason, fairness and good law to guide nations’ foreign policies.
Our export of these jets feeds an arms race that is far more than unnecessary, it represents our most extreme departure from a path that assures mankind’s and possibly the planet’s future, onto one that can only end in a fiery Hell.
That said, I understand Senator Baldwin’s support for basing the jets in Madison. She bears the burden of leadership in a country defined and fed through militarism and she can’t change that. All she can do is what she can to raise her constituencies up and hopefully, eventually the country. There is the threat of losing a couple thousand jobs and there is a smell of hypocrisy about just planting them in someone else’s back yard.
However, Madison appears to be, in majority, opposed to the jets. Sensitive to that, Congressman Mark Pocan respectfully requested of the USAF that the jet’s real-time attributes be demonstrated for the community at Truax field. For his trouble, Rep. Pocan, our representative, was told, in so many words, no. The rationale amounted to ‘you probably won’t like what you hear’ and ‘we prefer that you just get used to it’.
As I said, I appreciate Sen. Baldwin’s position but I would also appreciate it were she to rise in support of her colleague, our congressman, and see to it, not only that our community’s concerns are addressed and we are respected but that, if the jets do end up in Madison, they aren’t escorted by the enmity sure to be raised with being rode roughshod over.

John m Costello more than 5 years ago