Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Not in our back yard

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 9:29 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

Is there nothing more important than money?

Jon Ralston's column in Sunday's Las Vegas Sun made it clear that House Majority Leader Dick Armey thinks not. He also implied that many Nevadans might agree with the GOP tough guy from Texas.

I think that's hogwash. I have been listening to the naysayers in this state for almost 20 years as they continue to wring their hands over the potential of getting the high-level nuclear waste dump in this state and none of the financial benefits that may come along with that deadly cargo.

They should wring their hands -- as should we all -- at the prospect of the Republican-controlled Congress getting its way shortly by sending to a new president a bill that will force that radioactive poison down our throats in as little as three years from now. That is a prospect worth not only some hand-wringing but some soul-searching because, if the GOP leadership gets its way, many of us will have to reconsider whether and if Las Vegas remains the garden spot it has always been for raising our families and planning our futures.

Armey came to Las Vegas a while back, as did his colleagues, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and Speaker Dennis Hastert, in an effort to raise money and support for Republican congressional candidate, state Sen. Jon Porter. Porter's position on the dump aside -- he's always been opposed -- the fact that he has wrapped himself around such ardent supporters of the effort to force Nevada to accept that which the rest of the country doesn't want does not bode well for him. Unless, of course, you accept Ralston's implication from the Armey meeting that the time for negotiating is now before we get only the waste and none of the things we want.

There was a time when that argument might have had some credibility. That was early on in the process when we were so overwhelmed by the pro-dumpsters and the state of Nevada was so underwhelmed by the facts and talent necessary to make our case. Those who would give up for a few dollars and no fight got the attention of some of the political and community leadership.

That time, however, is long gone. We now know that Nevada -- contrary to the hopes and dreams of the nuke industry and the folks in Congress who are all too willing to do their bidding for a few dollars more -- may well be the worst place in the country to put nuclear waste that is supposed to remain stable for 10,000 years. Besides the earthquakes, the possibility of the water table moving up, down and out of Yucca Mountain and the incredibly naive prospect of shipping thousands of trucks and trains across the country without an accident that we all know will happen, the people who live, work and play in this state are a lot smarter.

And the one thing we have learned is that with time and education, good and honest lawmakers will agree that burying the radioactive poison in Nevada's back yard is a bad idea.

The nuke dump is not the only issue in which the concept of big payoffs has been raised. Over the past few decades, our country has moved from an attitude of helping thy neighbor to one of helping thyself, first. This has resulted in any number of decisions at the national, state and local levels, as well as in the corporate boardrooms, that have been antithetical to the American way of life and the pursuit of the American dream. OK, so much for the naivete. But it is still true that most Americans, when they think about it, want good things to happen for themselves and their neighbors, so efforts like those in Congress to make Nevada a wasteland will not set well once the facts are known.

The good news for Nevadans and the bad news for the Armeys and their allies is that there are more important things in this world than money. While we may have been sidetracked for a few years thinking that money was everything -- at least the only thing that some politicians paid attention to -- the fact remains that, given the choice, most decent people will choose what is good over what is just financially rewarding.

I know that movies are mostly fiction with a good dose of dreaming and that it is still true that art imitates life. When I read Ralston's column concluding that Armey's efforts to turn the business community against the people who live here, work here and call Las Vegas home, may be a precursor to more efforts to sell our futures out from under us, I thought of a recent movie that is headed for Academy Award status next year.

One of Julia Roberts' many efforts to make common sense out of what is sometimes unintelligible legal mumbo jumbo was her retort to a rather smug corporate defense attorney whose client had big pockets and too much power over some little people who were dying left and right for no good reason. When the lawyer suggested that a $20 million settlement for the victims of corporate greed and abuse was "more money than those people ever dreamed of," Roberts, playing Erin Brockovich, climbed down her throat.

She said that the mothers and fathers in the little town in question never dreamed of $20 million or any amount of money. They just hoped and dreamed that their children would grow up healthy and happy and be able to have families of their own someday. If you see the movie you'll understand why that may have been the biggest dream of all. Ordinary people, while they would like to have money, don't make that their top priority. It is about their families.

And that is why people such as Armey, DeLay and their GOP colleagues, who wish upon us the deadliest poison man can create, just don't get it. It is not and never has been about money. We don't need the nuke industry's dollars.

What we need is the ability to raise our families in the cities and towns of Nevada that we love and where we can provide for them the opportunities that come from hard work and creativity. What we need is the ability to sleep at night knowing that we live in a country that respects the wishes of millions of its citizens not to be put upon by our neighbors who may be bigger and politically stronger but are no better than we are. And what we need is the realization in Congress that there is a better and more prudent way to deal with this national problem in a national way. And that means spending the dollars necessary to find a solution that does not risk the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of Nevadans.

All of that is more important than money. So, Mr. Armey and friends, don't come to this state and tell us otherwise.

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