by Jerry B. Miller
Hi Kevin:
Good to see you at The Derby today. I did go to your UTube Site and
started reading your Nevada test reviews. I already knew most of this
stuff having grown up in it in Southern Utah through the 1950s-60s. I
was born in 1949.
I also had the great opportunity to sit beside Stewart Udall in a raft
floating through Cataract Canyon while reviewing the draft EIS for the
proposed salt bed National Nuclear Waste Repository near the
confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Stewart Udall was around
72 years old and one of the attorney's championing the downwinder law
suit at the time. We spent 3 days talking about all the lies he had
found and I had seen about radiation and health. The stories of the
pro nucs and the health scientist have never been close to the same.
After all these years you would think the public would refuse to
continue to listen to the lies. The stupidity of it all is enough to
make a God fearing man curse.
In little Castle Dale I watched my wonderful 6th grade classmate -Rene
Jensen- struggle and try to continue going to school with us- all the
while dying of leukemia.
I still frequently see her face in the final weeks and days that she
heroically came to 6th grade. She was a beautiful blond girl who road
horses with us in Jr. Riding Club. She was gracious, smart, and
beautiful on a horse.
I remember the shock we children all went through after she came back
to school after an extended absence of illness. Her face was swollen,
most of her hair falling out- looking almost ancient. She just wanted
to be with us- to study and learn like a normal sixth grader. We were
the ones learning, learning how brave one little girl could be. She
has been my definition of bravery throughout my life- doing it anyway
even though she was scared to death. I know it hurt her to see the
look in our eyes and faces when we saw her again after each
progressive absence. She tried and came anyway- sometimes only being
able to stay for a few hours. She came to teach us! She didn't
understand what she was teaching us. More than fifty years later after
winning State and National awards as a water quality scientist,
following trace elements through food chains, and salinity across the
Colorado River Basin; I am still trying to figure it all out. I know
the spirits of these people still follow and guide us today.
I know how government scientists are told to shut up when studying
potentially harmful things- like blue-green algae blooms in local
water supply reservoirs. The worst was having science publications
come back to Government Scientists with words that had been edited by
Bush “Oil Patch Attorney’s”. Government regulators/scietnists being
told they couldn’t say anything bad in a draft EIS about any kind of
oil/oil shale/gas development. The result- a total lack of multiple
safety backups on oil rigs in the Gulf- where you have never heard of
any U.S. Government person conducting an inspection prior to “the
spill” during the Bush period. Working as a government scientist
during the Bush Administration was the worst and lead me to retire at
the first opportunity.
We walk a parallel path in a different way. I am sorry that my stero
typing of you stood in the way of our becoming friends sooner. But
dang it; I am determined to stop swearing so I can be around my
Grandchildren and not be a bad example.
I have been having numerous conversations with my children about
strontium, iodine, plutonium and the melting fuel rods that oh by the
way produced enough hydrogen gas to blow apart structures that
withstood a 9.0 earthquake and a 43 foot T-wave. What melt down
indeed? I have been telling them since the day the thing happened not
to believe anything on the news- just watch the video of the fuel rods
being blown into the atmosphere and watch the satellite images of the
clouds traveling from there to North America in 4-5 days or less.
Make sure your children's diets have adequate iodine, calcium, and
even strontium to dilute the radioactive forms now entering our food
chains again. Radio active strontium incorporated into a growing
child's bones and teeth is in no way comparible to "just one x-ray".
My daddy always told me "you can lie to some of the people some of the
time, but you can't lie to all of the people all of the time". Time
to stop believing the lies people- we really can't be that stupid!
My wife says more people will listen to us if we stop swearing. She is
a wise lady-
teaches 3rd graders. The most important and most under rated and under
paid job in America.
Poem written by a third grade student in late 1960s, I have never
forgotten it since the first time I saw it written in pencil.
Behind this door my brother Tom was called to go to Vietnam.
When he left I almost cried;
He was gone 6 months- and then he died!
Bobby Wefferling
We will carry on; many spirits follow hoping for some justice to their
loved ones. By the way- does anyone actually know a person who really
qualified and received a benefit as a down winder? I don’t. My family
has lived in the Nevada “ring of fire” nuclear fall out zone for
generations. People die of leukemia, cancer every where. Come on can
anyone actually tell us someone really qualified and received some
compensation other than a campaining Senator with a common ancestor
name- SHAME on you!
Your horse and anti-nuc friend