11 November 2011

New Desert Voices Newsletter
Autumn 2011
2nd Notice and Further Updates

Today, we remember Armistice Day, the precursor to Veterans Day, which was designated to commemorate the ending of World War I, at the time dubbed the War to End All Wars.

Thank you for opening this message up. NDE's work is growing although our income is staying about the same. We need more "Friends of the Desert" to join our sustainers program, people who are willing to pledge on a monthly or quarterly basis. Thank you for considering this and being in touch.

If you want to receive our newsletters physically, or to cancel your subscription with us, please do be in touch also since we don't want to waste your time or the planet's resources. Thank you very much, and please read on...

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jim Haber, NDE Coordinator


Click here to view the current Newsletter (PDF)

  1. Mercy, Manna & Memories Made: Catholic Workers Gather & Pray, Halt NTS & Creech Traffic
  2.  Megan, Thank you, go thee well, and we’ll be seeing you...
  3. NTS EIS Public Comment Period Extended to Dec. 2
  4. Japan Activists Light the Way
  5. Short Report from the Occupation
  6. A Complex of Nuclear Complexes
  7. Kazakstan 1, United States 0
  8. Announcing: Sacred Peace Walk 2012
  9. Other Upcoming Events


Mercy, Manna & Memories Made: Catholic Workers Gather & Pray, Halt NTS & Creech Traffic
by Mary Lou Anderson

Over the weekend of October 7th - 9th we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Las Vegas Catholic Worker (CW) which hosted an international CW gathering, “From Empire to Servitude.” Partnering with the Keep Space for Peace Week, and in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, the 3-day event packed in almost 200 Catholic Workers and peace activists. The day of action saw more arrests than ever before at Creech Air Force Base and more than has been seen in at least six years at the NTS. [Ed. Note: We will continue to use NTS even though the name of the Nevada Test Site is now the Nevada National Security Site so that people not aware of the name change will still know what we’re talking about. -JH]

Many inspiring workshops and performances culminated in a true day of passionate action on Sunday, October 9th.  Four of us who’d been to Afghanistan on peace delegations led a discussion on Friday, and we presented the participants with a memorable ‘Blue Scarf’ in alliance with our friends and allies, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV).

Ed Loring and Murphy Davis from Atlanta gave an energy and emotion-filled workshop on the “Catholic Worker Journey with Cancer, the Poor and the Executed.” Ed’s vivaciousness and passion coupled with Murphy’s zest for grabbing the best life has to offer her, in the face of cancer, created a roundtable experience full of reminders about of the fragility of life and the importance of love, commitment and compassion.

Frank Cordaro presented an amazingly charged workshop, “Community Sucks – Can’t Live With Them or Without Them.”  The room was packed as 30 Catholic Workers shared tremendous,  sometimes humorous and sad tales of the inner-workings of their Communities. My personal experience was quite profound. The amount of love and commitment to the poor in that small, personal meeting room could probably heal the world. Dorothy Day had to be shining down on us that lovely afternoon.

Action-planning for Sunday happened at a strategy session led by Jim Haber.  The demonstrators collaborated on tactics and appeals as we presented each with a ‘Blue Scarf’ to wear symbolizing friendship and solidarity with the AYPV. What a sight and pleasure it was to spend time with this wonderful group of committed peace activists, knowing that Sunday’s vigils and demonstrations would prove to be over 100 strong - a rarity for us in Nevada!
 
Sunday, October 9th was a day full of charged-up peace demonstrations. The CW liturgy outside the NTS was led by Fr. Louis Vitale, currently out of jail, and Johnnie Bobb welcomed us on behalf of the Western Shoshone. The beauty and solitude of the morning was an amazing backdrop for the walk and vigil to the line.  It was wonderful having over 100 people there, instead of the usual handful. We locals need visitors to emphasize that it’s not just us. The Shoshone drummers intensified as over 51 peace-makers took the step over the NTS line with love and solidarity against nuclear testing and weaponry.

After a brief stop at the Sekhmet Temple for a little spiritual replenishment, we made it to Creech AFB for another compelling demonstration where chanting abounded and 18 activists were arrested for jaywalking and illegally being in the road. Once the action threatened to shut down both entrances to the base, police moved in. Interestingly, a TV crew left before the arrests took place, so instead of the story being about how the demonstrators “wanted to be arrested,” the story focused on the issues: drones kill civilians and all life is sacred, soldiers and civilians.

Many thanks to Julia and Gary, along with John and Katie, hosting from the Las Vegas CW – the meals were blessed, healthy and satisfying and the Friday evening happy hour was a delight, coupled with over an hour of personal poetry and musical performances by extremely talented CW friends from around the country.

God bless our peace-makers; God bless the Catholic Worker movement; God bless humanity...a fabulous weekend of total immersion into our precious lives of peace activism and community. Yes, we are all truly blessed, and for that I give daily thanks.

[For more images of the CW gathering and the actions at the NTS/NNSS and Creech AFB, as well as press releases, media coverage, reflections by Creech18 arrestees and supporters and updates as their cases move forward, check out the NDE webpage: <http://nevadadesertexperience.org/issues/2011/creech.htm>. Defendants will need help with legal and travel expenses, so consider making a donation today.-JH]
Megan, Thank you, go thee well, and we’ll be seeing you...

For seven years, Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ, came to be known as the steady and passionate face of Nevada Desert Experience. Megan came to NDE and Bartlett Ave. at the request of her Order, the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and now she has moved to Rye, New York at their request. She is needed there to assist others in her order. In September Megan and her dear friend (and NDE supporter) Pat McSweeney drove cross country, visiting friends and family and attending political and spiritual events. Megan will always connect people and issues, and her superiors have said she can continue with her peace-making efforts. She promises to return sometimes. She still has her NDE e-mail account and her cell phone is the same too.
Peace on, Sister!
Megan with NDE friend and tech savior Mario Intino
(Top)
NTS EIS Public Comment Period Extended to Dec. 2

The time to submit written comments on the draft SWEIS has been extended 5 weeks until December 2. Thanks to the many individuals and organizations who followed up on our request to the Department of Energy for an extension of the Nevada Test Site Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) comment period.  Thank you very much for your interest in this important matter. We rarely have the opportunity to help define the future priorities of issues like nuclear and conventional weapons development and testing, alternative energy research and facility construction, and the cleanup policies of over 6 decades of deadly contamination on health and habitat. It’s great that we now have an extended period to fine-tune our comments. But don’t procrastinate- do it soon!

A sample letter that can be sent as is and a four page summation of concerns compiled with allies is available from the NDE website <http://nevadadesertexperience.org/issues/2011/sweis_comments.htm>. Thank you to HOME: Healing Ourselves & Mother Earth <http://h-o-m-e.org> for their leadership in both researching the SWEIS and promoting comments.
(Top)
Japan Activists Light the Way

Mary Lou Anderson and Jim Haber represented NDE at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial events hosted there by Gensuikyo, the Japan Council Against A & H Bombs. A fuller report by Mary Lou about the lessons learned in Japan is on the NDE website, as is the statement presented by NDE at the Gensuikyo conference. To see images from the international gatherings, click here.

The awakening of anti-nuclear activism in Japan began in 1954 when the Bravo H-bomb test in the Bikini Atoll showered fallout on the Lucky Dragon fishing boat.  The Fukushima Daichi meltdown that started this past March has awakened many Japanese to the problems of nuclear power as well as nuclear weapons. At press time, Gensuikyo has presented over 1 million signatures for an international convention against nuclear weapons to the UN.
Mary Lou and Jim holding banner in Nagasaki for AFSC's Joe GersonBanner by NDE's Iris Wolfe held by Jim and Japanese peace-walker, Jmiu Kanagawa who was given the banner
Short Report from the Occupation
by Jackie Cabasso

I spent Thursday and Friday at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC  at the Stop the Machine occupation, and I’m feeling very encouraged!  For the first time in decades, people with many different issues and from many different constituencies are coming together with a common demand for system change, with a strong emphasis on nonviolence.  

In a huge un-permitted march on Friday, from Freedom Plaza, to the Stop the Tar Sands Pipeline rally, to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, my favorite chant was: “The people have spoken, the government is broken.” We were on our way to an “alternative dedication” and press conference at the memorial site, on the 10th anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. Organized by United for Peace and Justice, with Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Afghanis for Peace, War Resisters League and others, the press conference featured moving and powerful presentations from two young Afghan women and an active-duty Marine who is seeking conscientious objector status, calling for all US troops to leave Afghanistan to make space for an indigenous nonviolent peoples movement to develop.

There were three posters: Wars are Poor Chisels for Peaceful Tomorrows, Jobs not Wars, and Abolish Nuclear Weapons Now! with the quote, “The ultimate weapons of today mean only the destruction of mankind.” While the mainstream media is spinning the story claiming that the occupation movement has no clear message and no solution, this is not the case.  The demands are quite clear: Create jobs and Save social services and the environment.  The solutions being put forward are similarly clear: Tax the wealthy and corporations; End the wars and cut the Pentagon. The general unifying call is. “We are the 99%!” (note: this percent needs to be analyzed and refined in the coming period -- it could be more like 80-90%).

[Ed. Note: NDE members have been marching and organizing with <#OccupyLasVegas>. We’re interested to hear how you have taken up this broad call, or if not, why not? Send some news to NDE. To contact Jackie Cabasso, see Western States Legal Foundation. -JH]
A Complex of Nuclear Complexes
Compiled from Our Movement Allies
We are very sad to report that Jacqueline Hudson, OP (1934-2011) passed away on August 3, 2011.  Jackie was a prisoner of conscience and was incarcerated for her actions a number of times throughout her life.  As reported in the last Desert Voices, during her recent imprisonment for acting against the Y-12 Uranium Processing Facility, her health deteriorated and she was released from prison in Ocilla, Georgia several weeks before she died. Meanwhile, the rest of the federal trespassers from the July 5, 2009 Y-12 action were given sentences of 1 to 8 months, somewhat long given their minimal breech of security. [Image below is of Jackie (left) talking with Disarm Now Plowshare friend, Lynn Greenwald during the Pacific Life Community gathering in March, 2011.]
Jackie Hudson (left) talking with friend Lynn Greenwald during the Pacific Life Community gathering in March.


Demonstrators at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) have won the right to gather in the designated protest area even if they were previously issued “ban and bar” notices by the base. The federal appeals court ruling was a long time coming and may have implications for other sites that have public easements.

Also at Vandenberg, the Minuteman III launch on July 27 was the first such intercontintental ballistic missile (ICBM) test to fail in at least 40 years according to NDE friend, MacGregor Eddy, tracker of all things Vandenberg. A subsequent test, offensively scheduled for the International Day of Peace (Sept. 21) was postponed indefinitely. NDE, along with other groups, began a petition drive telling Pres. Obama to cancel the test. Hundreds of signatures were gathered in less than a week, and this effort will be revived whenever another ICBM test is announced.

At an August 17 hearing on the Kansas City Council anti-nuke plant measure, local residents were irate.  “You cannot divorce yourselves from the hideously immoral purpose of these weapons,” one declared, comparing the city’s subsidy for the weapons plant to financing Nazi gas chambers “for the sake of ‘jobs.’”  Referring to the Council’s charter, which provided for the appearance of propositions on the ballot when they secured the requisite number of signatures, the chair of PeaceWorks asked:  “Are we a government of laws or of . . . corporations and special interests?”

Since then, the situation has evolved rapidly.  On August 25, the City Council voted 12 to 1 to bar the proposition from the ballot.  The next day, the petitioners went to court to block Council interference.  Honeywell, CPZ, and their friends dispatched a large legal team to Kansas City to fight against the citizens’ initiative, securing a court decision that might delay redress for years.  In response, Peace Planters seems likely to speed up the process by crafting a new petition—one that would cut off city funding for the plant.

On Capitol Hill a group of lawmakers called on the congressional “super committee” to cut $20 billion per year from efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. “America needs a new nuclear weapon as much as Lady Gaga needs another new outfit,” Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said at a news conference.

Markey, along with 64 other House Democrats, sent a letter on Oct. 11 urging the 12-member, bipartisan committee to look at a major atomic arsenal rollback, saying that the country should reduce nuclear weapons spending from $70 billion per year to $50 billion per year for the next 10 years.

In a bid to draw Republican votes for the New START nuclear arms control deal with Russia, the Obama administration agreed to a 10-year, $85 billion plan to modernize U.S. nuclear research and production facilities and to maintain an aging stockpile. The Senate ratified the treaty last December. It entered into force in February.
(Top)
Kazakhstan 1, United States 0

In celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the successful people’s movement that forced the Soviet Union to close the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, the Atomic Testing Museum (despite its pro-US testing vibe) co-hosted a delightful symposium entitled “Two Decades Without Nuclear Testing.” NDE Coordinator, Jim Haber was a panelist, presenting an update on the state of nuclear weapons development in Nevada and the US. His Excellency Mr. Erlan Idrissov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States presented him with a medal (right) made in honor of Nevada-Semipalatinsk success. On the precise anniversary, Aug. 29, NDE’s Megan Rice (left) and others greeted NTS traffic. Sadly, three trucks ladened with nuclear waste drove by during the morning vigil.
Sacred Peace Walk 2012
Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site
April 1 to 6, 2012

65 miles with major walking days Sun, Mon, Tues, & Thurs.
Part-time “Pilgrims” welcome, and  there is vehicular support. This is a walking meditation,  a desert healing, a political act of solidarity. It’s also an opportunity for civil  resistance to the development, testing, and use of new weapons systems at Creech AFB and at the NNSS, formerly the Nevada Test Site.
Sponsor a low-income walker, register to join us. Pledge forms are on the NDE website.

Schedule includes (still in formation):
3/31 Orientation; 4/1 Palm Sunday Service & Walk through Las Vegas; Sojourn at theTemple to Goddess Spirituality; 4/4 Vigils at Creech;  Western Shoshone Sunrise Ceremonies;  4/6 Good Friday Civil Resistance at the NNSS. Devotional chanting and other spiritual and political offerings per  desire and energy of walkers. Walk with us as we transform fears into compassion and apathy into action!
And some old-timers are working on a Peace Camp Reunion to continue through the weekend and through April 10. More on that as plans develop!

Other Upcoming Events

Martin Luther King Was Right:
Whether Birmingham or Jerusalem, Separate is Not Equal!

On Tuesday November 15, Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli public transportation headed from inside the West Bank to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s.

Fifty years after the U.S. Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right for liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience.

The Freedom Riders seek to highlight Israel’s attempts to illegally sever occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and the apartheid system that Israel has imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Click here for more support resources for use in the United States.

November 19,  1:00 pm at UNLV and 4:30 pm at the Culinary Union Building
Two Presentations by the Tucson Group, No More Deaths
"Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime: Saving Lives in the Arizona Desert"
Organized by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Culinary Union 226, the UNLV MEChA student group and the Social Justice Council of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Las Vegas. For more information, call 702-878-0443 or visit online, <uuclv.org/socialact.html>.

November 22 and December 15, 7:00 am

Leaflet and Outreach at Atomic Testing Museum before People Embark on Tours of the Test Site
A new idea we want to try out: Given the apolitical nature of the tours as conducted by the Nevada Site Office of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, we want to try greeting people in the parking lot of the Atomic Testing Museum before they leave on the buses for the Nevada National Security Site.
January 16, 2012
Join Our "Peace Platoon" Contingent in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Birthday Parade
We bring a message of peace, amplifying the late peacemaker's own words of peace and honest self-reflection. Contact the NDE office if you want to help create our "float" or just to walk with us. We will also organize other events around this time to further reawaken people to his messages and "de-iconify" him.
(Top)

NevadaDesertExperience.org
Nevada Desert Experience  1420 W. Bartlett Avenue  Las Vegas, NV 89106 
(702) 646-4814
info@nevadadesertexperience.org