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Summer into Fall, Desert Voices Update
As I am putting the finishing touches on this Desert Voices update, another large earthquake has struck Japan near Fukushima. The ruined Fukushima-Da'ichi nuclear reactor site was still releasing untold amounts of radioactivity into the global environment. What can we expect now?
And closer to home, in Colorado, the recent, historic floods have inundated the long-closed but still radioactive Rocky Flats site. Plutonium waste from US bomb-making was never fully removed from what is now a national wildlife refuge, and it inevitably is part of the mix of flood waters and other waste thrown together by the deluge.
To view the summer issue of Desert Voices which came out in late July, click here. As always, we're grateful for and dependent on your continued interest and financial suppport. We're nothing without you! As generously as you are able, please donate now.
For peace sake,
Jim Haber, Coordinator
Nevada Desert Experience
Jim@NevadaDesertExperience.org
"In a free society, few are guilty, but all are responsible."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Peace is not the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The time is so late, the danger so great, that I call upon all the forces that believe in peace to take a lesson from the labor movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, and stop staying indoors. Go into these streets until we get peace!"
-Bayard Rustin
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Celebrate International Peace Day and the End of Full-scale, U.S. Nuclear Weapons Tests
September 21 is the International Day of Peace, and Monday, Sept. 23 marks 21 years since President George HW Bush declared a moratorium on full-scale nuclear weapons testing. Inspired by these positive anniversaries, friends around the world are gathering, marching, praying.
In Las Vegas, NDE is co-hosting a film screening about Bayard Rustin, the unsung hero of nonviolent organizing who taught Martin Luther King, Jr. about Gandhian strategy and tactics. (See next item below.) Also in Vegas, the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada is holding a full day of yoga, meditation, art-making, drumming and dance.
Connecting us across the globe, the Afghan Peace Volunteers have another of their monthly Global Days of Listening when you can speak with people in coflict zones and learn about how they cope and continue working for peace, despite the odds. Top
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Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
Sept. 21, noon
Film Screening with discussion and light refreshments. FREE.
The Gay and Lesbian Center of Southern Nevada,
401 S. Maryland Pkwy.
It is inspiring to meet new allies in the struggle for peace (which, as Martin Luther King, Jr. remnided us, is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice). So this Peace Day, NDE is collaborating with GetEQUAL Nevada to screen a documentary about one of the most unsung but influential leaders of the civil rights movement, the labor movement, the peace movement and the gay rights movement. Bayard Rustin taught MLK about nonviolence, Gandhian strategy and people power movements.
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Sign Petition Against Upcoming ICBM Tests Scheduled for Sept. 22 and 26
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Last year the air force planned a test launch of a Minuteman III ICBM for the international day of peace (Sept. 21), and the world community cried out. The launch was cancelled although the actual reason wasn't apparent.
The current tests are an "insult to anniversaries." More importantly, September 26 is also the starting date of the UN High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament. A missile test is not a confidence building gesture!
Please take a moment to sign this petition. Here is the basic text:
September 21 is the International Day of Peace. Just hours after the International Day of Peace ends, the U.S. plans to launch a Minuteman III – the missile that delivers U.S. land-based nuclear weapons – from Vandenberg Air Force Base to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
September 26 is the UN High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament. On that day, the U.S. plans to test-launch another Minuteman III missile.
It is unacceptable for the United States to conduct these tests, particularly on dates of such significance. Instead of allowing the military to conduct provocative nuclear missile tests, I encourage you to attend the UN High Level Meeting on September 26 and engage in good-faith dialogue with other nations’ leaders about how to go about creating a world free of nuclear weapons. Continued testing of nuclear weapon delivery systems is certainly not the way forward.
Thank you to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for this petition.
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Megan and Transform Now 3 Sentencing Delayed Until Jan. 28, 2014!
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Keep writing the judge!
Due to missed deadlines as well as general backlog in pending cases in Tennessee, the sentencing of the Transrom Now Plowshares 3 has been postponed until January 28, 2014. It was originally slated for Sept. 23 and then was delayed one week to Sept. 30.
For details of how to write Megan, Greg and Michael, and for Judge Thapar's address and how to write him, see the last issue of Desert Voices.
Megan's spirits are very good as she continues to network and help other inmates. Occasionally she calls asking for contact info for someone because another inmate's family is in some need, somewhere. Megan is always trying to be of service! She sounds strong, and she thinks she may be making headway in getting the jail administration to adjust the air conditioning so it won't be so bone-chillingly cold.
Although Megan, Greg and Michael were moved briefly back to jail in Knoxville, their addresses are unchanged. If your letter is returned in the mail, our friends at the Nuclear Resister suggest you wait a week and resend it.
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Keep Telling Gov Sandoval, "NO!" to U233/CEUSP Waste Burial in Nevada.
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DOE and State Officials meeting quietly to resolve disagreements and alleviate public fears.
Let Governor Sandoval know that as high level meetings progress between the Department of Energy and his staff, people everywhere are paying attention so that the safety of people here and along the transportation route is being protected. You may also want to suggest that he express concern about the current waste classification system which puts the CEUSP waste in the same category as less dangerous waste.
To send him an e-mail, you have to go to his website <gov.nv.gov/Contact/Governor>. Let him know that you are paying attention and that you want him to inform you of developments regarding the CEUSP waste.
Governor Biran Sandoval
State Capitol Building
101 N. Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89701
Phone: (775) 684-5670 or Fax: (775) 684-5683
or Phone: (702) 486-2500 to his Las Vegas office.
At the Sept. 18 meeting of the Nevada Site Specific Advisory Board (NSSAB), NDE asked the community oversight body to raise the waste classification system as an issue with the DOE. Members of the NSSAB don't want to look at questions of the immorality and illegality of nuclear weapons, but since they represent communities near nuclear facilities, safety concerns are part of their mandate. Scott Wade, representing the DOE, responded that a revision of the Radioactive Waste Management Manual (DOE M 435.1) is underway although he doesn't know the full scope of what they're considering. Many of the community liaisons expressed concerns about how nuclear waste is classified, and the NSSAB is considering ways to participate in that review process.
In related matters, Wade told the meeting that the official record of decision for the Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statment of the Nevada sites continues to be delayed. Similarly, the Greater than Class-C EIS is still not quite ready for release. Both should be out sometime around the end of the year, but maybe not.
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Midgene and Dennis outside the Nellis Air Force Base main gate on Nagasaki day.
For more on NDE's work against nuclear weapon "life extension programs" and for more weapon dismantlement, check our website.
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The tunnel/culvert under US-95 that separates the historic peace camp site from the Nevada Test Site is home to lots of art. Now it has a piece that is actually visible from the Mercury entrance to the NTS.
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Calling All Nevadans!
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[If you live in Nevada and you receive Desert Voices, you'll probably receive the following letter in the mail, asking for your views on our work and focus and mission. Anyone can chime in though. Check out our website for more on what we're up to. For our mission, check the left hand column. -Jim]
September 17, 2013
Dear Nevadans of Nevada Desert Experience:
As a friend of NDE, I am inviting you to respond to this letter to help gauge interest, support and involvement from Nevadans for our work. Your response can help us assess our base within the state so we have a better sense of the interests of those we're representing, what help people are willing to offer, and your opinions on specific issues. We value your opinion and thank you for responding. NDE needs to hear from Nevadans!
The NDE website features the issues we have been addressing of late and has links to our Desert Voices newsletters if you missed any. Here are some suggested topics, but feel free to respond with whatever you like:
Have you kept up with what Nevada Desert Experience has done over the last year? Do you have questions or comments on what we've been doing?
What would encourage your participation with NDE? Are there issues we need to address more (or less)? Anything you would like to offer?
Is it important to you that Nevada have a group dedicated to peace in general and against nuclear weapons in particular? Please tell us about any groups you think we should be networking with more.
Any suggestions for reaching and appealing to more Nevadans? What kind of events might attract you? A meeting or a potluck? A prayer gathering?
NDE needs your financial support too. Donations are accepted online or via mail.
To conserve resources, if you haven't been in touch in the last few years and want to continue receiving Desert Voices, please call, e-mail or write us.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I'm really looking forward to hearing your ideas and building a better NDE.
For Peace Sake,
Jim Haber, Coordinator
Nevada Desert Experience
jim@nevadadesertexperience.org
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