February, 2011
By John Evanoff

Now, my young descendant, I will recount a tale explaining how and why we exist today. Long ago, there arose beings who thought they had the privilege to do whatever they wished without being accountable for their actions. You must judge their story and deeds for yourself.

Time-spans ago, the land had unsurpassed energy, a wonderful life force spawning insects, animals and plants of every variety. Creatures moved with the flow of water and food and became one with the earth. Soon though, some of the creatures began to have ritual tribal beliefs which led to wars amongst other of their own kind. They built both real and imagined barriers between each other.

Then there were revolutions of machines and the evolution of energy into the warehousing of atoms. Suddenly, life began to have less meaning to the creatures. With a projectile the size of a small tree, the creatures could incinerate everything living in all directions and they had many, many projectiles. Their societies also needed more energy for the contents of their concrete caves, so in a moment of indecision, they impulsively allowed their governments which were massive political bodies of neglectful bureaucrats, to wield the atom into a haphazard array of tubes, rods, and water to generate energy beyond the limits of the environment. One mistake after another ended in dreadful consequences.

Even the shamans of these societies, who once healed with the earth’s own treasures, added to the madness with x-ray invasions and radiation treatments. The shaman’s greed led them to believe more of the insufficient evidence which proved nothing could accomplish the same task, even though later, others found solutions which no one observed.

Then, the governments suddenly took responsibility for getting rid of all the dangerous atom waste. Even a minuscule amount of this radiated material could disable, disfigure and mutate the earth and all of life forever. They called the humans in charge of the atom waste, “Does”.

The “Does” looked to a far away land, deserted, cracked and cratered from the tests of huge fiery explosions. They forgot the lessons of the cancers and destruction of life “downwind” from the experimental fire and decided to drill holes deep into a mountain. The mountain’s name came from the ancient legends of a strong, tall and beautiful white-blossoming flower named the Yucca. The “Does” carelessly recommended the White-Flower Yucca Mountain as less fragile, but it instantly suggested an irritating existence to some humans. The “Does” insistence on the cratered desert as the primary site for the atom waste relied on scientific speculation of untried, untested methods of disposal. Governments, compelled by special interests urged them to do something immediately. The future generations of other sacred-white-flowers of the desert seemed in peril.

The humans around the devastated land suddenly arose in one voice and for a short time these so-called “snow-capped mountain people” argued with the “Does” for sanity. They appealed, petitioned and prayed. “Who could be secure during transport of the death machines? Who could be sure the water would be safe? Who could know for certain the ground would not open, releasing death upon the land? How could governments and “Does” tell anyone they would be protected when they had deceived so many times before? The “Does” and government’s behavior could only lead to chaos.”

They should have solved the problems of the fiery atom waste on site, but in their short-sightedness, the governments overpowered the grieving “snow-capped mountain people” and the “Does” began to bring the tons of death and destruction to the giant hole in the White Flower Yucca Mountain. Engines of menace, the trains upon trains and trucks upon trucks, visited the hole until almost all the x-ray death was placed under the ground in sealed caverns.

The forecasting of earthquakes and volcanic activity had left little for scientists to exact true formulated solutions of time. So very little was known about these events and so the “Does” predicted them with statistics which to true science were mere speculation. These guesswork events were mostly theories based on gambling odds and substandard research.

Then the earth suddenly trembled and shook with a fury not known for a millennium. The snow-capped mountain people fled for their lives. Yellowish gas, reddish ash and hot, rocky lava filled the skies. The mutilated earth had cast out the dreadful death upon the creatures and their governments. Only our large family and few small plants survived.

The message of that eon must prevail, my young one. We have bred millions since then and we have evolved into a more rational thinking species than the creatures once living here. They were called humans and they are no more. The “snow-capped-mountain-people” once known as Nevadan’s are also gone.

Now the task goes to you my offspring. You are the chief cockroach. Leap and fly to the others to explain our existence. Trust in your brother and sister bugs. Accept that the only rights you have also belong to every one of your siblings and peers as well. Recognize your responsibilities to work together to live peacefully. Do not let greed obstruct wisdom. Let clear reason provide for patience in making good decisions and diligently design your efforts and studies towards development of alternative energy.

As the young cockroach went on to do his duty and pass the story on to others, the wind blew the dust away from the rusty sign below his feet. On the sign were these words: DOE -- S and then barely legible was the rest of the word “stay” and “away,” and below it in smaller print: “Department of Energy –Stay Away - Danger –.”