Bradford 1 Krista Bradford English 1101 H Gaskins 10 February 2012 Justice in Death Someone who is willing to risk their job, money, and even life for obtaining justice is a very rare find. I believe that Karen Silkwood s story is a prime example of a person who risked it all to obtain justice. In the end, Karen Silkwood ended up losing all she had, including her life. One frequently asked question by many people who hear of her story is whether or not risking her job, life, and everything she had was really worth working to obtain justice. In Karen Silkwood s case, obtaining justice required her to become a whistle blower, which is someone who tells on someone else for not doing the right thing. Her job as a whistle blower was to bring out all of the wrong going on in her workplace. Karen Silkwood blew the whistle, and because she did that, she lost her friends, job, and life. Was risking everything Karen had really worth it? Karen Silkwood worked as a chemical technician at a plutonium fuels production plant called Kerr-McGee, and she loved her job. After working at the plant for a while, Karen Silkwood joined a union called the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union. Karen was an activist and was really concerned about the safety in the plant ( The Karen Silkwood Story 1). Karen Silkwood s curiosity in the plant s safety is what pushed Karen towards becoming involved in deeper investigations about the company s illegal acts and unsafe exposure to the dangerous chemicals that were used at the plant. As soon as Karen Silkwood started to investigate deeper into the plant s activities, Karen starts to receive a gradual increase of consequences that eventually led up to her death.
Bradford 2 Karen Silkwood first worked in the plant in the metallography laboratory, and her job was to grind pellets that would be used in fuel rods that the Kerr-McGee plant used. One day, Karen was at work and decided to monitor herself. When she did, the alarm went off, and Karen had been exposed. The gloves in Karen s glove box had been replaced, and the gloves had no leaks in them. Also, the plutonium was found on the outside of the gloves ( The Karen Silkwood Story 1-2). This first contamination occurred when Karen was first starting to get into the investigation of the plant. I believe that because Karen was starting to investigate, people were becoming nervous and angry and were trying to find ways to stop her from continuing her investigation. I believe this contamination kind of resembled her first warning to stop investigating, but I do not think she got the hint to stop because she kept on digging deeper and deeper into the plants illegal secrets. I think that Karen is doing the right thing by investigating because she wants to ensure the safety of the plant and of the workers in the plant. I believe that Karen at first does not recognize the risks she is taking by digging into these illegal activities. I believe that at this point Karen should have continued to investigate the problems just as she did. The very next day, Karen was once again contaminated, and the contamination occurred before she worked in the glove box. The radiation was detected on her hands. She once again had to go through the cleaning. Her locker and car were checked for alpha activity, but there were no traces of plutonium in either her car or locker ( The Karen Silkwood Story 2). I believe that at this point, Karen was really confused as to why these contaminations were happening, and I believe that she started to make a connection that things were happening to her for no reason. Even this early on, I think that Karen made the right decision in continuing her investigation because her contaminations were happening a lot more frequently, and there were
Bradford 3 also friends of Karen who were experiencing frequent radiations. At this point, Karen suspected suspicious activity and had to make the decision to continue on or just stop her investigation. Her decision was not an easy one to make because she knew that since the contaminations were happening to her a lot more frequently she would probably have to go through a lot more of the painful cleanups that were required when someone was contaminated. In these cleanups the first layer of skin was painfully scrubbed off. During one of Karen s baths, she screamed and cried in pain, and she expressed how bad her skin was burning (Silkwood). These painful baths are an example of the physical trauma Karen went through as she was contaminated more and more often. Going through all the pain did not budge Karen a bit. I believe that the more she was pushed by people to stop being a whistle blower, the more she wanted to uncover about the plant. As Karen investigated deeper and deeper into the plant s activities, her consequences got worse, but Karen kept the safety and health of all of the workers in the plant in mind which kept her in the investigation. I believe Karen did the hard thing, but I believe she did the right thing. She gave her life so she could eventually save many more by uncovering the illegal activities of the plant. Because of Karen s courageous acts in the Union and at the plant, she lost her life and everything she ever had. Before she died, Karen also lost everything in her apartment due to a raid by the Kerr-McGee plant ( The Silkwood Story 3). Karen also lost many friends by blowing the whistle on the company because many of the workers did not want to lose their jobs. They did not want Karen to tell on the plant. Towards the end of her life, Karen was experiencing a lot of emotional and physical trauma because of everything the plant had put her through. People hated her investigation so much that many wanted her dead, and dead is exactly how she ended up. In a single car accident, Karen lost her life. I believe without a doubt that
Bradford 4 Karen did the right thing because her death led to the exposure of all the illegal activities going on in the plant and all of the exposure people were receiving. Everyone found out about the dangerous amounts of exposure they were receiving which eventually ended up saving numerous lives. Also, the plant was officially shut down ( The Karen Silkwood Story 5). Karen made a hard decision to blow the whistle about the illegal activities, but I believe she did the right thing. She fought for justice to save people s lives.
Bradford 5 Works Cited The Karen Silkwood Story. Los Alamos Science23 (1995): 252-55. Rpt. in Nuclear Reaction: Why Do Americans Fear Nuclear Power. Frontline. Public Broadcasting Services Online. 2011. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. Silkwood. Dir. Mike Nichols. 1983. 20 th Century Fox. 2006. DVD.