First of all, all I have to say is wow… This book is a totally different than Parable of the Sower. Whereas Parable of the Sower was amusing and I enjoyed reading it, I was never really shocked or moved by it. To me it was just a story. However, knowing that Full Body Burden is a memoir and the events that take place actually happened make it a thousand times more real.
When I was reading the background about Rocky Flats I couldn’t believe that the events actually happened. There are so many things could have been done to prevent the fires. For one, the AEC could have changed the building structure like they were told to after the 1957 fire. That probably would have been the easiest and most obvious thing to do...especially when you are dealing with enough plutonium to basically knock out the whole country.
I was also astounded that the fires were basically covered up by the media and the government. Especially because it could be so harmful to their health as the community learned when Kristen Haag died. The fact that they were told that the plutonium that did escape was contained to the site and it was all in safe amounts was probably the most shocking thing I read in the whole chapter. This made me question whether or not the authorities knew that this wasn’t true or whether there were just not enough resources and studies available that they were clueless about it at the time. I believe that they knew full well what could potentially happen to the surrounding areas because of Rocky Flats but it was decided upon that no one that lived there should. Why else would they have been so secretive about it? The author’s mother thought that Rocky Flats made cleaning supplies… I know that if there was something close to my house that could potentially kill me I would want to know about it. I am surprised that no one in the community was more inquisitive. I understand that it was the cold war but people still have a right to know what is going on when it could affect them personally.
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