Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Lead the way, governor

Tuesday, April 9, 2002 | 8:47 a.m.

THERE IS other news today. Of course.

But, for Nevadans, can there be any more important news than that which our governor, Kenny Guinn, is making in Washington, D.C., where he is delivering the first-ever veto of a U.S. president's decision.

That decision, as we all know, was to go back on his word to Nevada's voters during the last election when he said any decision on Yucca Mountain would be based on science and not politics. Had this state not fallen for the ruse there would have been a different president and, likely, no Yucca Mountain. But that is for the pundits and historians to grapple with -- what we have to fight now is the rest of the country's plan to bury us under 77,000 tons of radioactive waste.

Hence, Mr. Guinn goes to Washington and with him go the hopes, dreams and aspirations of every Nevadan. We, unlike the bought-and-paid-for lobbyists and loud mouths who spout the nuclear power industry's party line, have to live with the callous disregard that appears so easy to come by for those who see dollar signs at the road's end in the Silver State.

You see, this whole Yucca Mountain thing is about letting the power companies build more nuclear power plants around the country. They can't do that without an answer to the nuke waste problem -- any answer, good or bad, will do -- so Nevadans get to pay the heavy price so that the rich power producers can get richer.

I was going to say here that I can understand the private industrialists wanting to get wealthier at the expense of hard-working little people -- that's what they all want to do -- but to make the president of the United States complicit in their scheme was just not right. But I decided not to say that because this president has not been shy in his quest to make his wealthy friends wealthier at the expense of others. I also am not going to say anything negative about President George W. Bush because he is leading us in a just and necessary war and, heaven knows, I don't want all of "those people" to think that I am unpatriotic.

So I will hold my tongue and just stick to the rest of the facts.

It is an amazing thing to open my mail these days -- electronic and carrier delivered -- to read some of the missives being sent my way that give explicit directions about where I should go and just how I should get there because I have dared to speak out against the people in the nuclear power industry who know what is good for us out here in Nevada.

To think that our governor and the tens of thousands of other Nevadans who will now answer his call for help in our great fight will be subjected to the same "good wishes" is heartening because I learned a long time ago, the louder the bad guys squeal the more right and proper is our cause. And this cause is not only right, it is just and it is as American as any fight can get.

What Gov. Guinn does in Washington will set the tone for the months of hard and patriotic work to come. Anyone who cares about this country and its Constitution will soon understand that the fight in which we are now engaged is the good fight. It is rooted in the concept that all people in this country are created equal and that no people in this country shall be set upon by an overbearing and unjust majority.

If ever there were a fight for which our Founding Fathers would be itching, this is the one. They were tired of royal edicts, lost liberty and oppression from the high and mighty. This one has all that, and more. There are also very long odds attached to our fight, which is another reason the spunky guys who started this whole thing would be suiting up for the game.

So we have right and justice on our side, we have history on our side, we have the very basis of a constitutional democracy on our side. We also have our governor, two senators and a whole lot of other Americans who know Bush's plan is wrong and wrong-headed, on our side.

And, lest anyone think that there are just a few of us chickens out here afraid of a falling sky, pay attention. We have Republicans, Democrats and independents; we have young and old, newcomers and oldtimers; we have parents and children, those who never grew up and those who have seen too much; and we have many who don't understand why all this is happening.

But, mostly, what we have is a state full of people who will soon come together behind our governor and our congressional leaders to do what we have to for our families and our futures. That, my friends, is the American way and that is democracy at its best.

File your resolution of disapproval, Gov. Guinn. Tell the president he has done all Nevadans wrong. And let your voice be heard across this country. Then, come home and lead us the way we know you can and you know you must.

We are Battle Born, governor. It is up to you to make sure we are battle ready.