From Samuel R WHITBY
@. . . . . . Thank you for continuing to send the
CMO.
Thank you also for sharing with me the communications in regard to
T. Osawa and Bill Sheehan.
I am aware of Osawa's ALPO contributions, and I have been aware to
some extent of his situation in recent years, without before your communication
having learned that he had passed away. People in his situation, as you have
probably surmised, have, as we say, a special place in my heart.
I do not know Bill Sheehan personally, but I own two of his books,
which I have enjoyed very much. His occasional articles in magazines have also
been interesting and fun to read. One must have an understanding of the
psychology of perception in order to do science well. In other words, one must
know how subjective we can be before he can begin to be objective. Sheehan's
writings about Schiaparelli,
Thank you also for forwarding the
images of Ed Grafton. He, without a doubt, is one of the best imagers today,
right up there with Parker, Cidadão, Peach, and others.
Before September 11, I had
already been going through what one might call a phase of self-examination.
This coming spring I will qualify for early retirement, and I have been trying
hard to decide what best to do with the rest of my life. Sept. 11 added emphasis
to what was already a slow and laborious process. Suffice it to say that I
sometimes have a hard time making up my mind.
You have read about my mixed
marriage of Protestant and Catholic. I have been taking some instruction to
begin the process of becoming Roman Catholic. Again, I have a hard time making
up my mind, being very slow sometimes. We shall see later what I finally have
done.
We have followed the coverage of
the war on terrorism with much interest. The destruction of the Taliban is
rather like the killing of a poisonous snake: one is glad it has happened but
does not find in it much cause for merriment, especially since the snake has
already bitten. Rather than longing for victory, I long for peace and
friendship. If peace and friendship are rejected, victory will suffice for
now.
I wrote that we were confident.
On Sept. 12 the soldiers, sailors, and airmen were already gearing up to
destroy our enemies. Since then, they have been " chomping on the
bit" - straining, impatient to go to work. They are going to do their job
and do it very well. Peace would have been better, but we will be glad when bin
Laden is dealt with - no, I will say it, dead.
You wrote about the eerie quality of the photographs of disaster
in
The local TV news reported that for the first time ever the
American National Anthem had been played at
Sincerely,
(
@ . . . . . .Thank you for sharing the attached
message with me. I enjoy anything to do with the history of astronomy, and
I regret to inform
you that a cousin informed me that her computer had contracted a virus, which I
searched for and found on our C drive. The virus is called sulfnbke.exe, and
it, according to her account, is spread from address book to address book, and
it activates after 14 days and wipes out hard drive data. Although you probably
can deal with such problems, I will forward her message and instructions to
you. I certainly hope that our communications have not caused any problems.
Sincerely,
(
Sam WHITBY (Hopewell, VA, USA)