Having decided to write a letter to the editor on the proposed nuclear reactor in support of Jen Jackson’s informative March 29 guest commentary, I offer an author’s disclaimer: This has been a subject dear to my heart since I was in kindergarten; our country was fighting the commies in Korea, and, no kidding, we little people were wearing dog tags to school so our remains could be identified in case of an enemy attack involving nuclear weapons.

I somewhat brashly and hopefully humorously bring up a thousand-year old song called Dayenu that gets sung at the upcoming Jewish feast of Passover. Dayenu is Hebrew for “It would have sufficed.” The song gives gratitude to the Lord for delivering Our People intact through various spine-chilling incidents. Well, if you learned anything from the Exodus story about divine intervention, you get the idea....

Well, Dayenu to the nukes. If the company building the nuclear reactor had merely planned to build a potentially lethal nuclear facility right here on the Green River, that would have been enough.

If that same company had merely wished to risk poisoning the water, but didn’t apply for state approvals to actually utilize something like 48 million gallons a day of this precious resource, well, then, gee, that might have been enough. But they did...

If that same company had taken over 48 million gallons a day of Green River water for their own purposes, but actually had the money in hand to build and operate the nuclear plant, well, that would have been enough too. But it turns out they didn’t have the money, thereby, to all intents and purposes, they’re on the public dole.

From the get-go: Fukushima and Chernobyl speak to the potentially devastating health risks. If history instructs, the industry is heavily government-supported, devalues surrounding real estate to the detriment of the community, and rarely provides the jobs promised. Nor will this marvelously clean energy – that is, if nothing ever, ever fails or explodes – necessarily be used by us; it will be transferred elsewhere (traditionally to the highest bidder).

Layer on the disturbing lapses of truth-telling coming to light about this company and you’ve got to wonder why we aren’t, as a community, fighting harder against this.