From the mouths of babes ...

We are ninth grade students at Emmett Junior High School. We did a project that concerned the 1950s and 1960s Nevada bomb testings. The fallout from the bombings caused numerous deaths and health conditions that could have been prevented. The government decided to compensate 21 counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona, although Idaho and Montana were the hardest hit. The Downwinders Organization was formed to obtain fair compensation for Idaho.

We recently learned that the government is planning another test on June 2, 2006. Divine Strake, the new bomb, is not a nuclear bomb but it will create a huge disturbance of the contaminated soil in the surrounding area and put it into our atmosphere. When wind patterns are “ideal” they will detonate the bomb carrying the radioactive dust towards Idaho and Montana. This would produce another fallout cloud and another generation of Downwinders. We and the people of our community would be negatively affected by this test because it would cause the same cancers, autoimmune disorders and thyroid problems as the tests in the ‘50s and ’60s.

We want to increase the awareness of the unknowing public about this devastating event. We need your support with this terrible ordeal.

We want to live in a place where we don’t have to worry about radioactive waste absorbing into our bodies and harming us for the rest of our lives!

Thank you,

Jillian Butticci, Bailey Butcher, Annie Pawlick and RaeLyn Wood