Biddeford and Saco Rotary - Newsletter

We started without a flag so we couldn’t Pledge Allegiance. Everyone was a little disappointed about that. Earl Goodwin led the group in the four-way test. Phil Denison gave the invocation.

Phil gave the foundation minute and spoke about Polio Plus. He noted that Rotary International pledged to eradicate polio in 1985, and the job is 99 percent accomplished. Rotarians have given $650 million toward the cause. Many lives have been saved and millions are walking who would not be without Rotary’s efforts, he said.

President Julie awarded Roland Gagne with his seventh Paul Harris award, which is a pin with two rubies.

Hydie Knuckles, Mrs. Maine, announced that she leaves Saturday to go to Las Vegas to compete for the Mrs. United States title.

It was freezing in the room, as always.

Brian Dallaire was chosen to pick the orange ball to win the 50/50, but he chose the white ball.

When the Sergeants at arms asked for happy dollars, Karen announced that her daughter is at Girl Scout Camp, which brings peace to her household. Hydie said she was excited to be going to Vegas, and Julie paid a voluntary fine for the missing flag and the fiasco last week with music for the patriotic song.

Bill Kany paid a fine for being in the newspaper, and Hydie was not fined for telling a convoluted story about a dream she had about Bill. Karen was fined for trying to give Randy dirt on Jackson. Jackson fined Jim Audiffred for saying that Julia Roberts is not beautiful. He deserved a larger fine for ratting out his table mates. Jackson showed excellent old pictures of Alan Nelson and Don Lauzier, who really did look a little like Magnum, P.I. from the 80s.

Peggy Bean introduced the speaker, Dr. Doug Dransfield with the Maine Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. The group, he explained, was founded in 1961 to deal with the dangers to public health from the threat of nuclear weapons. A doctor from Lewiston was one of the founding members of the organization, he said.

The danger and destruction from a nuclear bomb, Dransfield said, is so great that PSR focuses on working to reduce the number of weapons in the world rather than trying to find ways to help people once a bomb in detonated. A nuclear blast, he said, creates immediate temperatures that are the same as on the sun. People close to the blast are often killed or rendered extremely ill, and the effects on the area and people are immediate and long-lasting, he said. Nuclear weapons have a huge capacity to maim and kill, he said, and a blast of 100 megatons would destroy all of humanity.

At the peak of the cold war, Russia and the United States had stores of weapons that they used as deterrents. Nowadays, however, deterrents do not work because many terrorists are willing to die to accomplish their mission, he said. “People are willing to die to perpetuate their cause,” he noted.

This is one reason that PSR works to help convince nations to reduce their nuclear stores and to ensure that materials essential to bomb making do not end up in the hands of terrorists.

Since 1986, the peak of the cold war, the U.S. and Russia have reduced their weapon supply considerably.

He noted that three treaties having to do with nuclear weapons have been created. They are:

The Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

and The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

The NPT, he said, is an agreement where nations that do not possess nuclear arms agree to not acquire them, and nations with nuclear powers agree to reduce their stores. The treaty is reviewed every five years.

The CNT was developed in 1996 to ban all nuclear testing. Some major nations, including the U.S., have yet to ratify the treaty, he said. Most nations have stopped testing, but North Korea, for example, has not. There are monitoring facilities around the world built by the UN, he said. Currently there are 251 fully operational, and more will be built. It is no longer possible to have a secret nuclear test, he said.

The START treaty, according to PSR literature, is a critical element in “managing nuclear weapons safely and securely in a dangerous world.” The treaty, he said, has been submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification. Dransfield urged Rotary members to get involved by writing to their congresswomen to encourage support of the treaty, which will limit the nuclear weapons of the U.S. and Russia.

Sen. Olympia Snowe can be reached at:

154 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Sen. Susan Collins can be reached at:

413 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

The meeting ended with the Pledge of Allegiance, as a flag had been located and installed in the room.

Thanks Heather M for taking the notes.

Neil’s Motors, Inc.

Quickprint Color Center

Saco Biddeford Savings Bank

Southern Maine Medical Center