On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic
bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and on August
9, 1945, the United States dropped another atomic
bomb on the city of Nagasaki. 200,000 people were killed, most in a matter of
seconds; for some it took much longer. Over the next 67 years, others have died
and suffered health effects from testing other nuclear weapons and from the mining,
refining, deployment, and waste from the nuclear weapon "bomplex."
We come together again, to remember
all who have been injured in those first attacks
and subsequent incidents.
This year's ADW focuses also on drone warfare and
the rise of robotics. The die-in followed a presentation
and book signing by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of
CODEPINK Women for Peace. The title of her book is Drone
Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.
August
5, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Book Reading and Signing with Medea
Benjamin
Drone
Warfare: Killing by Remote Control
Emergency
Arts, 520 Fremont Street (NW
Corner of 6th and Fremont)
Come hear Medea Benjamin,co-Founder of the organization
CODEPINK: Women for Peace, read from her new
book, Drone
Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.
This is an excellent conversation starter and well-rounded
introduction to the subject. Benjamin is great at
connecting the dots, raising ethical questions and
speaking passionately. The Beat Cafe will be open,
and the event will be in the Common Gallery on the
first floor.
Parking available: Valet
at El Cortez on 6th and Ogden
Free Parking Garage
entrance on 7th between Ogden and Fremont
Metered
street parking on 6th or 7th street, bring some quarters!
Parking along Jackie Gaughn Parkway metered credit
card or coins!
August 5, 4:00 p.m.
Drone Warfare Die-In on Fremont Street at Las Vegas
Blvd.
KTNV News Coverage
August 6 - 9
Protests Against the Largest Drone Trade
Show in the World
Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Meets
at Mandalay Bay Convention Center
8000 People from 40 Countries
If you want to help be a fly in the ointment of this
new killing machine's smooth running, check in with
NDE as plans develop further with other allies.
August 6, 6:30 pm
Border
Grill at Mandalay
Bay hotel/casino/convention center, Benjamin
(see above) is inviting participants in the robotics
tradeshow organized by the Association of Unmanned
Vehicle Systems International to have the necessary
conversations so that all of society can weigh in
on the growth of this industry and its implications
for society and freedom and security.
August 7
Drone Warfare Die-In at Mandalay Bay AUVSI
photographed by Mary Lou
Video 1 (0:33)
Video
2 (4:14 above)
Video
3 (0:31)
August 8, 6:00 pm
Breaking Bread in the Name of Peace
Sekhmet Temple, Cactus Springs
Dinner and discussion in synch with the 67th anniversary
of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
Spend the night in the guest house or your tent if
you want to be near the Nevada Test Site for the
Sunrise Ceremony in the morning.
August 9, 5:00 to
8:00 a.m.: Nagasaki
Day Vigil of Resistance and Sunrise
Ceremony at
Nevada National Security Site (Mercury
exit on US-95) Join Johnnie Bobb, friars
Louis Vitale and Jerry Zawada, and friends for
sunrise in memory of all victims of nuclearism.
Take offramp for Mercury; make U-turn before you
cross the line to the NNSS; demonstrator parking
are is off the road on the right almost all
the way back to the freeway overpass. It takes
about 65 minutes to drive to the NNSS from Las
Vegas.
August 9, 11:00
a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Educational
Picket at the National Atomic Testing
Museum
Greet visitors to
this museum that is devoted to remembering
the Cold War in all its nuclear glory...and
not much of the horror. We will informally
supplement the discourse and remind people
of the ongoing fallout of the nuclear
arms race since 1945 as we memorialize
the victims in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
National
Atomic Testing Museum, 755
E. Flamingo Road.
August 14
Anti-Militarism Picket at a Town Hall Meeting with Sen. John McCain
of Arizona, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina
College of Southern Nevada’s North Las Vegas campus
NDE decries militarism
as GOP senators sound alarm on defense cuts: Sun | RJ | CBS | Huff
Post | WA
Post
Peace Partner Happenings
July 22 - August 6: Pacific Northwest Interfaith Peace
Walk: For a Nuclear Free Future-In Respect for All
Life. Portland to Seattle. Contact Br. Senji Kanaeda 206-780-6739
<senji@nipponzan.net>.
August. 3 - 6: Vision Without Fission:
Un-Occupy the Nuclear Weapons Complex. Everywhere,
especially Santa Fe & Los Alamos, New Mexico <NukeFreeNow.org>.
August 12 - September 12: Caravan for Peace with
Justice & Dignity <mexico@globalexchange.org>.
Special congrats to Hakim, Afghan Peace Volunteers
mentor and friend of NDE’s for receiving
his US visa to join this march and also receive an award
from FOR.
NDE Coordinator's Op-Ed for August Reflection
Submitted August 3, 2012 to Las Vegas Review
Journal by
Jim Haber, NDE Coordinator
August 6 to 9 is a time to reflect on the impact of
nuclear weapons on our lives because in 1945, the only
two atomic bombs ever used in wartime were dropped
by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Every year contemporary events color the
view. Here are a few juxtapositions to contemplate
in 2012.
Since the United States continues to possess and
upgrade its nuclear warheads, bombs and delivery
systems, activism at the Nevada Test Site (NTS, now
named the Nevada National Security Site) and other
facilities in the nuclear weapons complex is vitally
necessary. Despite receiving the Nobel Peace Prize
and seeming to pledge to work to abolish nuclear
weapons, President Obama has proposed the 2013 nuclear
weapons budget be 66% higher than it was in 2000
even though there are fewer nukes in the arsenal.
Those plans include quadrupling the size of plants
at Los Alamos, Kansas City and Oak Ridge that produce
the parts (radioactive and otherwise) for refurbishing
and upgrading the US nuclear arsenal.
Last Saturday, in a nod to the upcoming, devastating,
atomic anniversaries, Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ of Nevada
Desert Experience (which has organized interfaith
resistance to nuclear weapons and war since 1984)
breached security at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee. Sr. Megan, who along with two men dubbed
themselves the "Transform Now! Plowshares," cut through
several fences, poured blood on the building that
houses the most highly-enriched, bomb-grade uranium
in the world, and held banners saying "Swords into
Plowshares. Spears into Pruning Hooks" and other
slogans. Much alarm has been raised about the lack
of alarm raised during their intrusion, but really,
the alarm should be going off about the insecurity
for the whole world created by nuclear weapons themselves.
Transform Now--and all the other Plowshares actions--shows
that nuclear weapons are inherently unsafe, not just
that they aren't guarded well.
Deadly covert actions and the ringing of Iran with
overt US military assets is a far more existential
threat to the world than any alleged Iranian nuclear
weapons program. Iran is entitled to enrich uranium,
and despite all the political pressure and rhetoric,
there is shockingly scant evidence that they're working
on nuclear weapons, even less to justify the sanctions
and threats from Israel and the United States to
strike Iranian sites. If the tables were turned,
we would never tolerate so many foreign bases just
off our shores like we're demanding Iran accept of
ours. I'm scared of US and Israeli attack plans
on Iran and decry the string of assassinations of
Iranian scientists, widely attributed to Israeli
operatives. What chutzpah it would be, if Israel
were to attack Iran for an alleged nuclear program,
while it refuses to admit to the fact that it possesses
a sizable nuclear force already! This could be the
gravest, most explosive, on-going hypocrisy in the
world today because it undermines any nascent proto-trust
which is the kernel out of which any successful negotiations
could grow.
In what I consider a major affront to the memories
of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from August
6 to 9 in Las Vegas, the Association of Unmanned
Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is holding
the world's largest trade show and promotional convention
for all things robotic. Deadly mistakes with militarized
Predator and Reaper drones are widespread the more
they are utilized. More dead family-members create
more potential enemies. Fighters seem to rise and
multiply from the dead whenever we attack a Taliban
funeral party. And as drones are made smaller and
more numerous, more innocent people will be hurt
and killed. The meaning of the constitutional protection
of due process and the importance of upholding rather
than undermining international humanitarian law seem
lost on our government and the arms manufacturers.
They act as though wars exist to prove their destructive
creativity and boost their bottom lines instead of
lamenting war as the most extreme form of human failure.
The fear of being watched constantly is becoming
less paranoia and all too real as weapons once pointing
away will surely be turned on their original masters.
The push for more robots that are independent of
live, human control ("autonomous systems") is also
very real and troubling. I wonder how much people
working on these machines think about Schwarzenneger's fictional
Terminator, as reality seems to mimic cinema. In
May, 2011 the Los Angeles Times reported on meetings
between Pentagon officials and weapons manufacturers
for the development of a nuclear bomber that could
be flown remotely and would have increasing amounts
of autonomy. It seems like such a bad idea, giving
anything the power to launch nuclear war since no
thing and no one is error-free.
The idea that technology can provide a cleaner and
safer battlefield is seductive but has been proven
a lie. From the catapult and crossbow, through the
use of poison gas and airplanes in World War I, the
atom bomb, helicopters and napalm in Vietnam to the “smart
bombs” of the Gulf War, war has only grown
deadlier. Technological advances may reduce the danger
of casualties among military personnel in the short
run, but with each advance the number of civilian
deaths multiplies and every war of the past century
has numbered more children than soldiers among its
victims.
May the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remind
us not turn to technology to save us from ourselves.
Only we can do that.
Download PDF
Remembering Nagasaki - Six Peace Protesters Arrested
at Nevada Test Site (Nevada National Security Site)
on final day of annual August Desert Witness
Culminating a week of peace events as part of Nevada
Desert Experience's August Desert Witness,
six protesters were arrested at the Nevada Test Site
(Nevada National Security Site) on Thursday morning,
August 9th, in memory of the victims of the atomic
bombing of Nagasaki, 67 years ago.
Dennis DuVall (of Prescott, AZ), Jim Haber (of Las
Vegas, NV), Robert Majors (of Las Vegas, NV), John
Owen (of Los Angeles, CA), Janice Sevre-Duszynska
(of Lexington, KY), and Louis Vitale (of Oakland,
CA) walked with a community of 15 other activists,
including Johnnie Bobb and Deanna Bobb of the Western
Shoshone nation, through the blazing, early morning
sun in the Nevada desert, from the sunrise ceremony's
fire circle to the Nevada Test Site line. Johnnie
Bobb led the small group in prayer and rememberance
of the victims of Nagasaki and all peoples affected
by the horror of the bombings and testing over the
past 60 years. Haber and Majors are part of the Las
Vegas Catholic Worker community and Owen is a long-time
volunteer with the Los Angeles CW. Common practice
prevailed for line-crossings at the NTS, and all
arrestees were briefly detained in open-air pens,
cited for trespassing and released.
The Nagasaki Day line-crossing concluded a week of
demonstrations and educational events that included
several news-worthy die-ins that focused on "killer
drones" and a presentation by CODEPINK co-founder
Medea Benjamin who is on tour promoting her book
Drone
Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. Other events
included a prayerful evening at the Sekhmet Temple
in memory of all victims of the nuclear weapons arms
race which followed on the heals of WW II. This year's
ADW was noteworthy for several reasons. It continued
to deepen the working relationship between the Catholic
Worker community, Nevada Desert Experience, the local
Occupy movement and CODEPINK Women
for Peace. In the process, greater connections were
also made with various performance spaces and local,
national and international media. The ADW group
concluded the week by attending prayers at one of
the local Sikh Temples in memory of the victims killed
at the Gurdawara in Milwaukee during the week.
The next major events of Nevada Desert Experience
include the Ediger
Memorial Celebration of Active Nonviolence on
September 23 and the 2013 Sacred Peace Walk from
March 22 to March 29.
And we'll be out on Monday, August 11, since John
McCain and Lindsey Graham will be in North Las Vegas
promoting the need for more (yes, more) military
spending.
Other
upcoming events and prayer-actions
