I Desert Voices U.S. ~estsNuclear Weapon on Sept. 30, 1999 by Marc Page The prayers began on the 17th of to join us in resisting the upcoming On September 30,1999, the same September at the D.O.E. building on subcritical test. Corbin Hamey, spiri- day as the Japanese nuclear accident Losee Road in North Las Vegas. Ten tual leader and elder of the Western at theTokai Plant, the U.S. Depart- activists from almost as many orga- Shoshone Nation joined me in our ment of Energy (D.O.E.) committed nizations gathered to "Drum Down cordial conversation with Derek a similar non-accidental sin against Babylon" outside of the D.O.E. Scammell of the D.O.E. Corbin told all of life. This was humanity's latest building. We asked the employees (see TEST, continued next page) subcritical nuclear assault against the Earth, committed by the U.S. Y2K: Danger of Nuclear Weapons Launch D.O.E. on the last day of their fiscal What should we say about Y2K3 year. This plutonium detonation recognize the year 2000 date change Much international attention is be- could affect command, control, (code named "Oboe 1") at the Ne- ing focused on what will happen vada Test Site (N.T.S.) was the 7th communications and intelligence when the calendar turns from 1999 U.S. subcritical nuclear test since systems of nuclear forces. to 2000. There is widespread con- Clinton signed the Comprehensive Particularly alarming is the fact that cern that the failure of computers to (see Y2 K, continued next page) Test Ban Treaty. NDE helped the r Global Wounds organize severd prayer-actions in resistance to this hidden violence. Millennium 2000 1 Walking the Ways of Peace 1

BOARD & STAFF OF Standing (left to right): Louie Vitale, Tom Gumbleton, Anne Symens-Bucher, Wendy Kaufmyn, Michael Niece, Ian Zabarte, Chris Montesano (all Board of Directors). Seated: (left to right): Erik Thompson (Board), Marc Page (Las Vegas Coordinator), Paula Olivares (Board), Cindy Pile (Director), Allan Sawyer (Board). Board members not pictured: Marty Coleman, Nancy (SEE POSTER, INSIDE) I Lynch, Claudia Peterson. Staff not pictured: Amielle Zemach. (UK,continued from front page) by both American and Russian teams that added their name to this important letter. the United States and Russia have about will watch missile launches and Y2K prob- The potential for disaster also exists be- 5,000 strategic nuclear weapons on "hair lems by monitoring satellite data, ground cause nuclear reactors might malfunction in trigger" alert. This means that these weap- sensors, and data flowing from the nearby a variety of ways. There are 433 nuclear ons can be fired within 15 minutes and reach North American Aerospace Defense Com- power reactors in the world, 103 are in the their target city within 30 minutes. Given mand. United States. External power failures could this situation, it is entirely possible for a The potential for global nuclear disaster cause meltdown of reactor cores or used fuel commander who believes that his or her still exits, however. The only solution with rods since nuclear reactors require power country is under nuclear attack to initiate regard to nuclear forces is to take them off from the grid to pass coolant through the retaliation when the supposed 'attack' is alert. An international campaign, spear- core. In order to avoid the possibility of a nothing more than computer generated false headed by Friends of the Earth Sydney, is meltdown, groups such as the World Atomic data. asking individuals and organizations to fax Safety Holiday campaign (WASH) are ask- Both Russia and the US. have already this message to President Boris Yeltsin (7- ing people to contact President Clinton and come close to launching nuclear weapons 095-205-4330) and President Bill Clinton Greta Joy Dicus at the U.S. Nuclear Regula- because.of niisuderstanding or poor data. (1-202-456-2461). Friends of the Earth is ask- tory Commission, 11 555 Rockville Pike, One such instance occurrecl on January 25, ing organizations and 'prominent' people, Rockville, MD 20852 (ph: 301-41 5-1 759). 1995 when a U.S. weather rocket launchec! as well, to sign on to a letter to Clinton and Tell them to shut down all nuclear reactors from Norway was initially interpreted by the Yeltsin. The text is on the Web at http:ll from December 1, 1999 until after the New Russian military ds a possible attack on the homepages.tig.com.au1- foesyd/nuclear/ Year. Russian Federation. President Yeltsin and his bbletter.litml. To sign on simply e-mail the As a people of faith who reverence all life advisors were given minutes to decide name of your organization to and seek peace for our world, we shoulcl whether to launch a retaliatory attack on the [email protected]. Over 380 groups, have a lot to say about Y2K. United States. Thankfully, they decided including the Nevada Desert Experience have against doing so. Because the potential for a global catas- (TEST, continued from front page) for crossing the line. trophe is even greater due to the Y2K bug, the D.O.E.officials that we need to respect Later that day, about 30 minutes after there has been a groundswell of voices urg- the water and other life under the N.T.S.. I Oboe 1 was detonated, over 30 activists ing governments of nuclear weapons states brought a heart-felt letter to the D.O.E. to gathered at the Foley Federal Building in to take their nuclear weapons ofinhairtrig- request that they ccincel the Oboe test. I downtown Las Vegas to continue to "Drum ger" alert. In 1996, the Canberra Commis- asked if Derek could spread my message Down the Babylon Daze". They made the - sion onthe Elimination of Nuclear Weap- within hi;sbuilding. He ~nsteadtook my let- connection between nuclear weapons and ons recommended that all nuclear forces be ter to the D.O.E.'s Nevada Operations Man- waste. Each year, the 30th of September is taken off alert, preferably by physicdl sepa- ager, Kathy Carlson. During our short con- Nevada Is NotA Wasteland Day, proclaimed ration of the warheads from delivery ve- versation the 10 drummers arrived with ban- by the Governor to be held until the Yucca hicles. Last year, the United Nations Gen- ners at the building's entrance. Then Corbin Mountain nuclear waste dump is stopped. eral ,%sembly overwhelmingly passed a res@ led us all in a short prayer in his native The protestors pointed out the hypocrisy lution aclvocating this same position. The tongue. of Nevadans conducting nuclear testing American Medical Association and General Positioning themselves in sight of theem- while rejecting nuclear waste, because the Lee Butler, former commander of all U.S. ployees leaving work for the day, the pro- testing produces some of the waste. These strategic nuclear forces, have directed this testors continued to drum and vigil with ban- events received extensive local media cov- plea to our own government ners and posters to stop the Oboe test. Free erage, reminding Las Vegans of the evils in De-alerting would give those who over- Radio Vegas broadcasted our propaganda on their backyard. see nuclear weapons hours or days rather a 15 watt FM radio transmitter. Corbin spoke Note: Members of Nevada Desert Experience, than minutes or seconds to decide how to on the radio's microphone so that the em- Tri-Valley CARE'S, and Peace Action pru- respond to any signal they might receive. It ployees and others would hear our message tested and leafleted outside Bechtel's Inter- costs nothing and'can be done by a simple of and respect for all life on national headquarters in downtown San Fran- executive order. Such a precedent took place the planet. I read my open letter to the em- cisco the day (September 30) of the subcriti- in 1991 when President George Bush re- ployees of the D.O.E. over the radio airwaves cal test "Oboe I ". moved hundreds of U.S. nuclear weapons after Corbin had finished. Passing motor- from "hair trigger" alert and in response ists & exiting employees heard the drum- Correcticn: In our last issue we incorrectly Mikhail Gorbachev did the same with hun- ming and saw the radio signs, so curious said Pete Seeger's birthday party was celebrat- dreds of Soviet Weapons. drivers used their car radios to tune in to our ing 70 years, it was his 80th birthday party. The United Kingdom has already taken broadcast of peace, goodwill, and requests this step by altering its 'notice to fire' from to stop the nuclear violence. minutes to days. Russia and the United On the morning of the day of the Oboe 1 States have taken a few positive steps by de- shot, 11 people gathered at the Mercury Gate targeting one another and establishing the of the for a Sunrise Cer- Center for Y2K Strategic Stability in Colo- emony led by Corbin Harney. Our prayerful rado Springs, Colorado. From late Decem- group continued to vigil as the workers en- ber to early January, this center will be staffed tered the gates and four of us were arrested The Experience Continues: N DE's Future ~hns by Cindy Pile of my house and my history with NDE, nessed the lower points, as well, when I spent several weeks in Europe this my decision to serve in this new ca- only a handful of faithful followers con- summer-attending the Hague Appeal pacity feels right. I first visited the desert tinued the vigil for peace. for Peace, visiting several Catholic in Lent of 1987 with several fellow the- Perhaps NDE has currently been ex- Worker communities and the only ology students. Something about the periencing a somewhat delayed reac- woman to come forward as a priest or- desert grabbed me-its starkness, its si- tion to the end of the Cold War. When dained in the "underground" church in lence, its beauty, its utter devastation. El Salvador's civil war drew to a close, the former Czechoslovakia. While there Jesus grabbed me as he showed me that sanctuary groups in the U.S. had to I received news that NDE was under- he was being crucified in this des- slow down and re-evaluate their work going yet another shuffling of staff. ecrated place and that he was rising in light of this new situation. Many anti- When 1 returned to the States I accepted through groups like the one of which I nuclear groups reacted similarly when the position of Director and Marc Page was a part as we prayed and acted in the Cold War ended. Some groups came on board as Local Coordinator. resistance to such evil. Thus began my folded, others switched priorities, still Gary Cavalier agreed to continue with love affair with the desert and the Ne- others pledged to continue to work for us as our accountant and Paul Colbert vada Desert Experience. Since then 1 a nuclear-free world. joined us as housing/hospitality coor- have participated in and helped to or- The Nevada Desert Experience was dinator for Millennium 2000. ganize numerous gatherings at the Test one of the latter groups. The experience I am writing this column from my Site worked as a field education intern continues. Yet, it was only at a board apartment in Oakland, , and education director and served on meeting last month that board and staff NDE's Northern California office, the board. I have seen NDE at its high finally reflected extensively on the cur- which is across the yard from Anne points as the part of the anti-nuclear rent status of testing laboratories, at the Symens-Bucher's house. Anne was one movement which NDE represents-the Test Site and with supercomputers, and of the original founders of the Nevada faith-based community-turned out en what NDE's response should be. Desert Experience. Given the location masse for prayerful protest. I have wit- (see NDE PLANS, next page) "-Archbishop Dom Helder Camara (1!IQ9-1999) "This is the place of the greatest act of violence in the world, it should be the place of the greatest acts of nonviolenceff. -Dom Helder Camara speaking at the Nevada Test Site

Archbishop Dom Helder Camara went to the Nevada Test Site in 1987 & 1991 with Nevada Desert Experience.

-0s Angeles Catholic Woriker, Pax Christi USA and the Shundahai Network - January 2,2000 All persons of conscience, mark your calendars! School, Las Vegas Please consider joining us. Test Site Organize your congregation, peace center, uni- versity or religious order to come to the desert to ring in a new millennium of Peace and Justice!

Y2K INFO: After researching the Y2K problem, NDE has decided, in accordance with the Red Cross Guidelines, to make moderate preparations for potential prob- lems. We will stock up on food, water, and flashlights and will have a generator available. We urge you to prepare by bringing extra water, cash and warm clothes, and if you are driving, fill up your car when you arrive in Las Vegas.

SCHEDULING NOTE: SPECIAL YOUTH EVENTS THROUGHOUT WEEK- END. FOR MORE INFO, CALL FR. RIVER SlMS AT: (415) 922-7553

Please clip and return to: I Nevada Desert Experience, P. 0. Box 46645, Las Vegas, NV 891 14 1 Name: I I I 1 Address: i

I I I State: Zip: 1

Email: I I I Organizational AffiI liation: I I O Enclosed is my registration fee of $75. ($38 for children accompanied by I I adults) 1 I O I can't attend, read my name as people cross the line. A donation is enclosed. I ( O I would like to become a Friend of the Desert. I will donate $ I I monthly quarterly annually I I 0 I will&ly need sleeping bag space (;tt Bishop Gorman High School.) I I O I will need alternative housing: a bed away from Bishop Gorman High School i MINLSTRY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE INCARNATE I O I will arrive by train or plane in Las Vegas on and leave 4TION (NM), CHAPLAINCY TO THE HOMELESS (CA) I bv on iOUTREACHofF~RSTsT~JOHN'SuN'TEDMETHOD'sT O I will drive a car to Las Vegas (with extra room for FRANCISCAN MISSIONSERVICE OF NORTHAMERICA, people). I WAL CENTER (AZ), FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF L~LE O I am organizing others to come: carload, vanload, busload, etc. (circle one) I INTERNATIONAL, HIGH DESERT CATHOLIC WORKER I # of people: I LLOWSHIP, MALU AlNA CENTER FOR NONVIOLENT NS ABOLITION MINISTRY of ALL SAINTS EP~SCOPAL1. I O Enclosed is a medical emergency permission signed by my guardian, (I am I MISSION of DIOCESEOF SALT LAKE CITY,PAX CHRISTI I I under 18 vears old.) I (CA)l OF O Send me more brochures so I can help publicize.. THERN CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF SCIENTISTS, ST. I CH (SAN RAFAEL, CA),TEMENOS CATHOLIC WORKER I O I can help with set up and clean up at the event.. )UP (CA). WALLACE E CHRISTENSEN. OF I ! O Please send a T-shirt, here is $12 for each shirt. (M-)( L -)( XL -) ! (PLANS, from previous page) Wednesday, March 8th, we will move Finally, NDE commits itself to galva- We came out with a strong strategic to the San Francisco Bay Area when nizing the necessary resources to imple- plan. Most importantly, we pledged to Bishop Tom Gumbleton preaches at ment our new plan. We will be return- re-vitalize the faith-based anti-nuclear local masses and NDE supporters re- ing to you, our supporters, for assis- movement. We need to draw on those pent of the sinfulness of building the tance in this area. Our hope is to ex- of you who have been to the Test Site National Ignition Facility (NIF) at pand greatly our Friends of the Desert who have written Congress, who are Livermore Labs. The NIF seeks to de- program by obtaining monthly, quar- ' members of church-based social justice sign miniaturized nuclear weapons terly or yearly financial pledges from our groups, peace centers or fellowships, which will not require plutonium trig- mailing list of 4,000 individuals. We religious orders or Pax Christi groups, gers, thus making them much easier to are grateful for your ongoing commit- to join with us in a new capacity by build and use. ment to working for nuclear abolition becoming NDE Affiliate Croups As we all work toward total aboli- and look for your help in the future. The (NAGS).Our goal is to organize 100 tion of nuclear weapons, we plan to new millennium is upon us. As the re- such regional groups over the next three expand our witness at the Test Site. cently deceased but still "presente!" years. These groups will make NDE part NDE will continue to hold the annual Dom Helder Camara once exhorted us: of their agenda by working to end Holy Week Walk. Through the de- "Together let us bring the greatest acts . NDE will pro- velopment of the new NDE Affiliate of nonviolence to bear on the Nevada vide educational packets, a video, Groups we hope to bring people to the Test Site, on all test sites and our whole speakers, action and legislative materi- desert for every weekend in Lent, 2002. world!". als. If you are interested in helping to re- build the base of support which is nec- CALENDAR OF EVENTS: essary to stop the testing, contact me at Dec. 30,1999 -Jan. 2,2000: Millennium 2000- See poster inside this (510) 261-6120 [email protected] or issue for more info. our Las Vegas office. I would very much March 8, 2000, Ash Wednesday with Bishop Tom Gumbleton at like to visit your community and offer a Lawrence Livermore National Labs. Bishop Cumbleton will also preach +wen&$iorz~l;a.h~~ - - 2€?6ZRZGiFrancisco Bay Area parishes. secondly, since the testing has moved to other places, NDE commits itself to April 16-22,2000: Holy Week Walk, Las Vegas to Mercury. Call Marc bringing people not only to the Nevada Page of NDE at (702)646-4814. Test Site, but to Lawrence Livermore May 7-13,2000: Shoshone Walk & Run For the Damaged Land, Warm Labs in Liverniore, Californid, as well. Springs to Mercury. Call Johnnie Bobb of the Western Shoshone Na- As all of you know, from December 30- tion, Yomba Tribe (775) 964-2210. January 2 NDE is hosting Millennium May 12-15,2000: Mothers' Day at the Nevada Test Site, Contact Heal- 2000: Walking the Ways of Peace! in ing Global Wounds, or the Shundahai Network (702) 647-3095. Las Vegas and at the Test Site. On Ash

QUESTIONS of what I saw and heard on the road I from Hiroshima by Nakajima Hiroshi will I disturb the dead If I shriek who will hear me will I if I don 't ' be a merchant of our disaster break the silence in which diatr I pile up, who will I if I fail hear me to work all the horror ' if I speak in normal into a play words in the normal order of voices in which the living and the dead live again who will hear me. who will forgive me if I make poems TABERNACLE OF THE DESERT: Building A House of Prayer for All Peoples by Arnielle Zemach the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles, Jew- we as a species have done to this earth, I am new to Nevada Desert Experi- ish families all over the world build a we must feel both horrified and ence (NDE), recently hired for six Sukkah, or tabernacle, in their back- shamed. The task is to neither wallow months to do "development," a catch- yards. The floor is covered with carpets in it nor to numb out, but to meet that all term for raising money, awareness, or soft things, and the ceiling with feeling with a change of behavior and money, support, and money. But I can- branches of palm, if available, or other then with taking action. not do this well without a solid idea to- branches, and hung with fruits, veg- I believe that names are powerful. For wards which to strive. etables, pictures of Jerusalem, children's each person that crosses the line onto As I read through the stack of mate- art. We eat there, sleep there, invite our the Test Site, we could carry a thousand rial, both promotional and poetic, the friends. And every night we invite our names, dedications, ancestors, grand- single strongest image I found is one of ancestors to commemorate our years in children. Prayers, blessings and poems reclaiming the land. As a species, we the desert and to celebrate our freedom could be added. Churches and syna- have intricately developed and tested now. gogues could sponsor whole congrega- devices of unimaginable horror and des- It struck me: what if we had a canopy tions; religious orders could sponsor all ecrated our own home in doing so. With and wrote the names on it?What if we of their members; a grandchild could the help of God and personal commit- could construct a tabernacle that could sponsor an entire family tree. ment, NDE and Friends of the Desert be a House of Prayer for All Peoples?It I see this as a potential unifying im- 1 (supporters who make regular financial could be a circular, perhaps spiral shape age for Friends of the Desert that could contributions to NDE) will reclaim and that would simply expand as names, greatly expand participation for the 1 re-consecrate what is, in fact, holy prayers and poems were added. It people who cannot physically join us I ground. would be on poles, just a top with no but who want some tangible spiritual 1 When we "test" bombs in a suppos- sides so that all could enter. It would connection to the process of achieving -arn.rt.r

Largest Civil Disobedience ever at Los Alamos National Labs by Marc Page they ought to get back in their box, (LOS AIAMOS, NM) - Peace Ac- or they would be taken into custody tion held a conference in Al buquer- by the LANL security forces. Martin que on the weekend of Hiroshima Sheen was first to step out of the box & Days, August 6th-9th. and pray the Our Father. After Mar- The gathering of 400 people from tin came NDE volunteer David Buer, around the U.S. culminated in the ofm, then 66 others, including largest act of nonviolent civil disobe- N DEfs Las Vegas Coordinator Marc dience in the history of Los Alamos Page. The nuclear resisters were National Labs (LANL). Several then identified, searched, hand- people came from other nations, in- cuffed, and bussed back to the rally cluding two Japanese Hibakusha. site (the park from which they had Hundreds of employees stood on the just marched). Security forces then roof and outdoors and inside the win- released the detainees as quickly as dows at LANL for over an hour to possible. watch the protestors as they arrived and stepped out of the "protest zone" box which LANL provided for the Right: David Buer, ofm, of Las Ve- Peace Action folks. Upon stepping gas, Nevada being arrested out- out of the protest zone, the anti- side Los Alamos National Labs in nuclear activists were warned that New Mexico.