Word: reasonableness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...learning about the ransacking of Cheng's home, her confinement to a tiny cell for 6 1/2 years and the murder of her daughter, Blake Hardy wrote, "I think that was horrible what they did to you, and for no reason at all! I feel that you are a very brave and courageous lady." Warren Driessen was blunt: "Sometimes I bet you would like to punch all those people." The children were struck by Cheng's assertion "I would rather die than tell a lie" and her refusal to confess to trumped-up charges...
Despite the overwhelming evidence of coastal pollution, cleaning up the damage, except in a few scattered communities, has a fairly low political priority. One reason: most people assume that the vast oceans, which cover more than 70% of the world's surface, have an inexhaustible capacity to neutralize contaminants, by either absorbing them or letting them settle harmlessly to the sediment miles below the surface. "People think 'Out of sight, out of mind,' " says Richard Curry, an oceanographer at Florida's Biscayne National Park. The popular assumption that oceans will in effect heal themselves may carry some truth, but scientists...
When such blights occur in coastal areas, the result can be devastating. Last November a red tide off the coast of the Carolinas killed several thousand mullet and all but wiped out the scallop population. Reason: the responsible species, Ptychodiscus brevis, contains a poison that causes fish to bleed to death. Brown tides, unknown to Long Island waters before 1985, have occurred every summer since; they pose a constant threat to valuable shellfish beds...
...Calgary has gone out of its way to retain street life (roving musicians and soapbox speechmaking are encouraged), yet even there, says James McKellar, a former Calgary planning commissioner, the skywalk system "kills and sterilizes ground-level activity." For a city to lure pedestrians off the streets, whatever the reason, may be suicidal in the long run. "The retail shop on the street is the key to a multi-use downtown," explains Jaquelin Robertson, former New York City planning commissioner. "It is the life and character of the city. No one goes to Europe," he adds, "to walk along skywalks...
...widely noted that Reagan's revolution never took place. The Government is bigger than ever, doing most of the same things. In fact, the failure of his revolution is the reason for his electoral success: it was a revolution people didn't really want. And Bush, lacking Reagan's charm, is backpedaling furiously, promising new programs, renewed Government activism...