Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost


The U.S. Nuclear Black Hole/Memory Hole - Nevada

The ice is easy for me. It's how cool I feel about the upcoming U.S. election. I'm going to continue to defer to Richard and the SpinDentist here at the ASZ for that. It's better that way. Trust me. To paraphrase Dr. Bruce Banner, AKA the Incredible Hulk: Don't make me talk political. You wouldn't like me if I talked political.

The fire is the ongoing human civilization folly of a nuclear, radioactive kind. This time via TomDispatch, a piece by Rebecca Solnit on Nuclear Nevada. Solnit has written on the "hole in public consciousness" beginning in 1989 with her book, Savage Dreams. About her most recent book, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, Tom says: "a tiny paperback that certainly changed the way I look at our world and could do the same for you."

Excerpt from the article:
"Nevada's invisibility may be as alarming as the apocalyptic dimensions of its plight. The state is a truly peculiar place, a hole in public consciousness. Where else could you set off a thousand nuclear bombs unhindered -- from 1951 to 1991 at the Nevada Test Site -- while even most antinuclear activists were arguing about nuclear war as a terrible possibility rather than an ongoing regional catastrophe? Once nuclear testing went underground in 1963, and American babies stopped having fallout-induced radioactive milk teeth, Nevada fell off the map even as the nuke-a-month program continued unimpeded for almost three more decades."
My only foray into Matters Political today, (because attention to Nevada and nuclear weapons and energy is far more than political to me), is that I'd add this subject to Richard's list of things to be addressed by Kerry and Edwards before I'll trust 'em over throwin' them. I also refuse to use the acronyms, JFK and JRE ... Did I mention that you wouldn't like me if I went "political"? Yeah. I thought I did. ;-)