I don't think the public's questions or concerns about the LHC startup are
at all inappropriate or stupid. I think they're perfectly legitimate
questions -- perhaps with obvious answers to a physics PhD, but not at all
to your common man. If only the public paid this much attention to other
scientific matters -- of the chemicals in our products and food, of the
pesticides put on our crops, of the potential consequences of biotechnology,
of the possible ramifications of nanotechnology, or in whom all that rocket
fuel exhaust ends up. Our society would be better off for it.
The public is paying for the LHC. They have a right to ask questions, even
"dumb" questions. If physicists can't take a little bit of their time and
explain the situation -- and perhaps spread some physics education at the
same time -- then I don't see how they're worth spending billions of
research dollars on.