Editorial: Listen to what the people say

Thursday, March 28, 2002 | 8:28 a.m.

Politicians and government leaders frequently refer to the good sense of the general public, as in Secretary of State Colin Powell saying the American people are committed to Afghanistan. It's good to invoke the name of the people when you can be positively sure of their support and it's even better to carry out their reasonable wishes.

We cannot imagine a more compelling time than now to invoke the good sense of the Nevada people. A special session of the Nevada Legislature is necessary in order to appropriate enough money to carry the fight against Yucca Mountain to a national audience. Polls for the past decade have shown that Nevadans are overwhelmingly against the federal plan to bury high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. And a new poll, commissioned by the Las Vegas Sun and conducted by UNLV's Cannon Center for Survey Research, revealed that 68 percent of the respondents favored a special session.

Therefore, it's unfathomable why so many Nevada legislators are balking at the idea of a special session. A Sun survey shows that 13 of 21 state senators oppose a special session and 15 members of the Assembly are against it. Gov. Kenny Guinn is hesitant to call for a special session without solid legislative support. As the leader of his state Republican Party, maybe Guinn can persuade the nine recalcitrant senators and nine recalcitrant Assembly members who are Republican. Politics aside, the naysayers should allow the good sense of Nevadans to have more influence over their position on this issue, before they cause the state to miss what may be its best chance to tap into the good sense of all Americans.