Bomb tests? Not again in our back yard
Jay Evensen
You may have a tough time figuring us out here in Utah. Generally speaking, we are a patriotic bunch. We tend to vote for law and order, and it takes more than a couple of military setbacks or insurgent strikes to make us back away from our commitment to a war — even if people in the rest of the country are more easily swayed.
Most of us still support the president, despite his low approval ratings everywhere else. Folks here don't even seem to mind much that he wants to eavesdrop on telephone conversations without a warrant. They trust that whoever he has doing it will focus only on the bad guys, not on what people here happen to be saying to their friends.
Some may call this naivete. Many people here prefer to think of it as healthy optimism, or just faith in the virtue of the greatest nation on earth.
But Uncle, don't even think about setting off any more big bombs in Nevada.
Even if they aren't nuclear — go blow them up in someone else's back yard.
Even if you argue that testing is important to the nation's security in an age that is growing more dangerous by the day — go set 'em off in the Poconos. If they're so safe, let 'em rip under the Allegheny Mountains. We don't want 'em.
It took many years for you to fess up to this and begin making money available as reparations. But of course, no amount of cash could bring a life back or restore a family or erase the suffering.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., recently called it "a very unfortunate history that many families are still living with in this state." He said this while explaining why he, too — the Republican leader of a conservative pro-military state — doesn't want any more bombs going off in Nevada.
We may love you, but we have long memories. And, frankly, we suspect you love all those people in the big cities back east a little more than us.
In reality, we weren't the only ones harmed by those tests, but you still don't want to come to terms with that. A recent study estimated that, nationwide, 11,000 cancer cases above and beyond what normally could be expected were caused by exposure to fallout. Virtually everyone who has lived in the lower 48 states since 1951 has been exposed to radiation to one degree or another.
But the bulk of it was felt here.
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