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If you happen to have read the fine print at the very end of last issue's column, you probably noticed that the New Directions Roundtable Newsletter is now being put out by Art Mourad (WB2POB). After four years of voluntary hard work, the original Newsletter editorial team of Randy Brink (WDØHNF) and "Bo" Bogardus (W6HSE) is taking a well-deserved rest.

Randy and Bo started the publication back in 1975. Initially, it focused on West Coast NDR happenings, but soon began to play a national ( and international) role as well. One of the Newsletter's important functions has been to list current on-the-air activities. For a while, I tried to include such schedule information in this column, but the necessary publication delays and space limitations made such listings impractical. On the other hand, the Newsletter —with its short turnaround time—has proved to be a perfect vehicle for detailed, quickly out-of-date information.

Both Randy and Bo deserve our sincere thanks, for their dedicated efforts during these past years!

MEET MOURAD

I'd like to thank Art Mourad, too ... for taking the torch from the hands of the original editorial team and enabling the NDR Newsletter to continue. Art—a truly fascinating guy—was born in the Bronx and now resides in northern New Jersey. In 1975, he received a degree in accounting ... but certain events that occurred during the two years following his graduation made juggling figures come to seem rather irrelevant to Art.

For one thing, he was greatly moved by the demonstration at the Seabrook, New Hampshire nuclear reactor in 1976, when 1,114 people put their personal freedom on the line and were arrested. Following that eye-opener, Art read Unacceptable Risk: The Nuclear Power Controversy by McKinley C. Olson (Bantam, 1976, $2.25) and We Almost Lost Detroit by John G. Fuller (Ballantine, 1976, $1.95).

"It really shocked me," says the new newsletter editor, "to find out that the government would let companies make millions of dollars at the risk of disintegrating a portion of our country and killing large numbers of people."

Since then, Art has directed his life toward actively doing something about the nuclear insanity that surrounds us. In 1977, he joined Safe Energy Alternatives (SEA), an alliance of antinuclear groups, and—this past August—was part of the demonstration against New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant.