On May 3rd, 2005, Grist Magazine published an interview with Helen Caldicott, conducted by Gregory Dicum. What follows is an excerpt, reprinted for educational purposes, under fair use guidelines.
GD: In the film Helen's War, there's a sense that you've come out of retirement to go back into the fray. This has been your mission since 1971, and yet here we are, almost 35 years later --
HC: I know, and it's worse. I often feel like I've wasted my life doing this work for no good reason, because I love medicine. I gave it up to do this work. People have been saying that I might have helped prevent a nuclear war in the 1980s, but who knows?
I was compelled to do it. I couldn't stop myself. But am I glad I did it? If we had gotten rid of the bombs I'd be very glad, and die fulfilled. I think, though, we've got a chance now to get the revolution going again -- to build it again and complete the work. All doctors have to be optimists.
GD: Looking back, what stands out as your greatest success?
HC: Of my whole life? The biggest thing I ever did was give birth to my three babies. That's why we're here, to reproduce -- biologically speaking. Next to that, I guess it was the end of the Cold War, but in truth, when that occurred, my husband had just left me. So I was deeply depressed and I hardly knew the Berlin Wall came down, which was sort of ironic.
GD: You've done an incredible thing; you've completely dedicated your life to what you believe in. Not everyone can do that.
HC: Why not? Not everyone wants to do it, but everyone can do it. It's a decision you make. I've seen so many people die unfulfilled. And those who've dedicated their lives to great causes of service to the environment and to the human race have died totally fulfilled.
I think people have to examine why they were conceived, why they were born. It's our responsibility in this particular generation, when life on earth -- probably the only life in the universe -- is so threatened.
Everyone can be extraordinarily effective, they just have to not be self-indulgent or narcissistic or greedy, and work for other people and other things. In that action lie the germs of true happiness. You'll never be happy trying to make yourself happy. It doesn't work.
GD: So if someone reads this interview, and they get to the end of it, and now they have the knowledge --
HC: Then they have to act. Read The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex -- there's enough information in that so you could debate Rumsfeld at any time and beat him on television. And at the back of that book there's a huge list of anti-nuclear groups all around the country and the world, and you can look up all the people making the weapons and where they live and how you can contact them. The CEOs of Lockheed Martin and Boeing and the like. It's got a huge list of things you can do and places you can go and actions you can take. Knowledge is ammunition, but you have to work out what you're going to do with your life to save the planet.
Jonathan Penton is the Editor-in-chief of Unlikely 2.0. Check out his bio page.