Divine Strake is canceled. The Pentagon, under fire by thousands of Utahns, capitulated on Thursday, calling off the planned detonation of 700 tons of conventional explosives at the Nevada Test Site. It just goes to show that every once in awhile the government will listen when the people take the time to speak.
    The test, designed to gauge the effects of nuclear bombs on underground bunkers, would have raised a cloud of dust thousands of feet into the air. If past tests are any indication, much of the dust would have settled on Utah. And much of the dust would have contained traces of radioactive elements, the remnants of hundreds of nuclear bombs set off during years of Cold War-era tests in the Nevada desert.
    The Pentagon assured us that Divine Strake would be safe. But we'd heard that before. It's no secret that thousands have suffered and many have died from radioactive fallout despite past assurances.
    So we fought back. We lined up side-by-side and marched into public hearings and went toe-to-toe with the federal government. We armed ourselves with pens and paper, computers and keyboards, telephones and microphones. We were brash, bold, brave, determined; our arguments heartfelt, sincere, sound and convincing. And we were victorious.
    Congratulations, folks. You should feel empowered. We the people won one for a change. But don't you dare stop here. Take a lesson from this.
    If we can stop a weapons test, we can do much, much more. We can end the war, we can keep nuclear waste from piling up here, we can get that stupid sodomy law off the books. Well, maybe not that last one, but you get the point.
    Americans, Utahns included, have become lazy. We sit on our duffs and count on others to carry our flags. Worse, we feel powerless. We believe that the government won't listen so we don't bother raising our voices.
    "I just felt such an overwhelming relief," said Michelle Thomas, who lives downwind of the test site in St. George. Thomas has cancer and an immune deficiency that she attributes to radiation exposure, and she came to believe that the government didn't care. Now she's astounded. "You just think, 'Oh my gosh. We matter.'"
    Thomas is wrong on that last count. We didn't matter until we spoke up. Had we kept quiet, the big bang would have gone off as planned.
    Congratulations, folks. You should feel empowered. We the people won one for a change.
* (Posted for educational and research purposes only, in accordance 
     with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107) *