Downwinders Derail 'Divine Strake' - for now

I actually thought a big non-nuclear explosion out in Middle of Nowhere NV would be OK. Even better if they put Fixer in charge! Boy, was I an idiot. Common Wonders 8/10/06

"Everyone in Utah can tell you a story - or take you to a cemetery and show you where loved ones are buried ..."

Alyson Heyrend, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, was talking about the experience of being a "downwinder," and she could have been speaking for residents of Nevada, Idaho, Montana and other places as well, where large segments of the population were exposed to fallout from U.S. nuclear testing over the years; suffered dire health consequences and the premture deaths of loved ones despite glib assurances from the government that they were in no danger; who have finally cried, loudly enough to disrupt, at least temporily, the government's oblivious, WMD-smitten agenda, "No more!"

Not to mention the deaths of John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorhead, as well as an inordinately high number of other cast and crew members from the location shoot of The Conqueror.

But that was fifty years ago. What possible harm could conventional explosives do today?

Divine Strake would have ignited 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, sending up a 10,000-foot mushroom cloud, possibly stirring up radioactive dust at the Test Site and spewing an array of pollutants into the atmosphere: "two tons of cyanide compounds, 25 tons of particulates, a ton of hexachloroethane, a ton each of tetrachloroethylene and tetrachloromethane, a ton and a half of phosgene, nearly a ton of sulfur dioxide, more than 31 tons of carbon monoxide, seven tons of nitrogen oxides, nearly two tons of chloroform, and many other noxious compounds," according to environmental writer Valerie Brown, in an article published recently in the St. George (Utah) Spectrum.

I'm no chemist, but I recognize the names of stuff there that can fuck you up. Just f'rinstance, phosgene was a poison gas used in WWI, sulfur dioxide is the silent killer in oil refineries, chloroform is used by the bad guys in movies to knock out the heroine, and all them tetras, monos, and hexas can't be any good for you either.

Maybe, 61 years into the nuclear age, there's a new player in the game: those whose designated role was to be collateral damage. (my em)

There are those who say that was the Downwinders' role from the very start of atmospheric A-bomb testing way back when, described as "a low use segment of the population". They get no argument from me.

Mrs. G's niece and her husband and 16-year-old daughter just bought a vacation home in Washington UT, the idiots, exactly downwind from the Test Site. I don't want 'em breathing that shit. They're not 'collateral damage dummies' except to our insane WMD developers, nor is anybody else - or shouldn't be.

Did you know that India's first nuclear test explosion, in 1974, was code-named Smiling Buddha (mine)? A God complex exists at the level of national leadership that knows no religious or moral restraint. This is the arrogance the downwinders of Utah, Nevada and Idaho beat back this month, temporarily, perhaps, but on behalf of all humanity.

Good on 'em. The 'God complex' thing is all too prevalent today and needs to be beaten into the ground at every opportunity, along with the 'God complexed'.

For more info go to Downwinders.org.

Just as an afterthought, the linked article has a little surprise in it for you Hoosiers.