CON-pensation
By J. Truman, Director of DownwindersThe compensation issue always has been, and remains today both the most critical and the most sickening of all those involved with the nation's Cold War victims. This selecting out a small slice of the victims and proposing them for some form of compensation, while excluding all others, is the time honored practice of the DOE and the rest of the Feds.
It is their way of driving a wedge between the various victims. It remains their time honored method to contain their problem -- they after all did it to all of us -- simply because it works. And in my opinion the main reason it works rests with those advocates and activists who constantly insist on accepting that practice because that is how the system works, and we must win something no matter how small it is.
I've seen it too many times over the past two decades, of which the 1990 RECA Con-pensation act -- the mother of all compensation acts -- remains the best example. The debate always starts out with the call for justice for all -- for equal treatment for all -- but soon splits into two camps, those who feel something is better than nothing -- meaning whatever crumbs the Feds are willing to hold out as their current carrot on the string -- and those who refuse to separate the victims into separate camps. Many of those leading the issue at a national level bitch and moan but always have fallen back on accepting whatever narrow compromise the Feds have offered simply because they have to win something, have to be involved in working something on the hill, or lose face among funders and supporters.
Hence the victims at the grass roots are expected to get into step.
That was how it was with the RECA act, and why there remains such bitterness and anger over it. First it was to include all downwind fallout victims, all Atomic Vets, all NTS workers. Then it "had to be cut" or "we can't get it through Congress!" So out went equal representation for all downwinders no matter where they lived. Out went all the NTS workers. Out went wording that would have included all uranium miners and made justice equal between anglo and native American miners. Out went the Atomic Vets. Until all that was left was JUST US!
And while we victims bitched and moaned, those pushing the RECA bill on The Hill insisted this was how it had to be, one step at a time -- even if it sucked -- and we -- the victims -- had to accept and realize that. But that once we'd won this little step forward, we'd all work together to add everybody else, and do so real quick! The victims opposed it as JUST US and felt the promises of one step followed immediately by another even bigger step was pure bullshit! But we were not allowed to control and manage our own issue, and we all know it.
"WE ARE CLASSLESS, WE ARE ALL COLD WAR VICTIMS. And that is something the Feds cannot ever take away from us. And there are a damned lot more of us than there is of them, and the answer to what should we do is found right there. ACT LIKE IT!" Now here it is 20 years later and the original JUST US step forward remains. And now the nation's victims are being fed the same old line. "Well we'll do the workers now, and then in little progressive steps we'll get justice for everybody else!" What has changed?
And if the victims themselves scream for JUSTICE FOR ALL, NOT MORE JUST US, they become the bad boys and girls for not working properly within the system. And DOE and the DOJ and the White House set there and feel secure because the divide and exclude approach has worked so well in the past.
And if it takes another 20 years after this one tiny itty bitty first step forward for total justice to lead to the next step, just how damned many Cold War victims will there be still up, walking, kicking, and breathing to ever see that next step? Think about it carefully. Just how many years of itty bitty little steps do the victims have left to wait?
The real problem is that there isn't any difference between the victims. We are all victims. And on the level of our victimization at the hands of the nation's Cold War warriors, we were all equal in being screwed, being lied to, being exposed, being sickened, and being killed. The end result -- the wrecking of our health and our lives and those of our families is the same. We were knowingly victimized, and done to by the same system that is now trying to split us, to divide us into separate classes, and trying aggressively to limit the amount of aid given us.
And there in lies -- or should -- both our strength and our answer to the question of what do we do? First we realize that we are all in the same boat. All in the same situation no matter where we live and no matter how we were exposed. We are not fallout downwinders victims, facility worker victims, offsite residential victims, and so on. WE ARE COLD WAR VICTIMS each and every one. And as that we cannot any longer be divided into separate classes of victims each with a different Fed set status regarding privilege as to which class is more or less deserving of justice than any other. WE ARE CLASSLESS, WE ARE ALL COLD WAR VICTIMS. And that is something the Feds cannot ever take away from us. And there are a damned lot more of us than there is of them, and the answer to what should we do is found right there. ACT LIKE IT!
Together we have the sheer numbers to win. IF and ONLY IF we hang together and demand JUSTICE for ALL THE COLD WAR VICTIMS and refuse to be lead down the same weed and thorn infested garden path as someone else recently described it, and agree to compromise. Agree to allow the DOE, the DOJ, the White House, the NEC, the CDC, and the rest of the SOBs sort us over, and select us out much as the Nazis did those getting off the trains.
We don't have to if we hang together and act like what we ALL ARE -- THE COLD WAR'S VICTIMS, each and every one of us. Whenever the Feds stand up there and offer to throw out a crumb to a select few of us, it is not a itty bitty step forward toward justice, it is nothing more than just another of their crimes against humanity -- just as unforgivable, and inhuman, and sick, as any of the others they are now being called on the carpet for inflicting on us -- yes on us THE COLD WAR VICTIMS, all of us. And the first step toward taking proper action is to call the bastards on it. Not whine and moan and plead how wrong it is, but then agree just as quickly to go along with the Feds because "that is just how the system works". We the people are the system are we not?
What should we do? First we smile at each other and then we stand up and we call them on it. We are not cattle or sheep they can sort out in separate pens to await our fate. We are THEIR VICTIMS and we are not going to take it anymore. We have the numbers to stand up and stick the collective middle finger square in their face and say "NO". To say "WE WILL NOT PLAY".
And to then ACT UP and keep acting up, keep making noise in each of our respective communities and at each and every meeting and hearing they TRY and hold until our voice is heard. And they can't ignore us if we are collectively acting the part they gave us -- COLD WAR VICTIMS -- THEIR VICTIMS!
Once they have gotten that message, then we can decide what it is WE WANT, and that decision is our's to make, not theirs. We are the victims. We bury the dead they don't!
But until we decide to do that. To stand them down and make them listen. Make them give us control of our own issue, they will just continue to sort us out and herd us into separate pens, with one group selected for this year's crumb, and the rest of us ordered to support it as just the way the system works.
It's our decision to make!
As always;
J. Truman
Downwinders
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Page updated April 9, 2000
