The Test Site is rapidly becoming the federal cornerstone for future nuclear activity, from the proposal to store all commercial and military spent nuclear fuel and dismantled weapon triggers, to preparations underway for six nuclear weapons tests that threaten to derail the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty negotiations. Even more urgent are the current daily shipments of low-level nuclear waste to the Test Site on major freeways from all over the U.S., with no public oversight or permit process due to the site's military status.
One Earth to Share
HGW's program continues to combine four elements: community and skills building, education on relevant issues, spiritual activities to strengthen ourselves and heal the Earth, and taking action to stop the destruction now threatening the entire web of life. In our goal to end the nuclear age, we approach the 'nuclear chain' as a whole, from uranium mining through weapons and reactor production to waste storage. In strategizing to dismantle the nuclear age, we examine not just the usual dance of power between the nuclear greats, but also their relationship with the peoples of the Earth still retaining at least some of their original landbase, natural resources and spiritual conscience. It is this concept of 'nuclear colonialism' that we wish to add to the mainstream anti-nuclear agenda.
Nuclear colonialism is seen in the outrageously disproportionate number of indigenous victims of radiation. It is the direct result of racist policies followed by all nuclear powers. Native and Mormon communities downwind from the Test Site were referred to as a "low-use segment of society" in a government document of 1951. A more recent example was the testing of nuclear weapons by France on the homeland of the Maori people in its colony, French Tahiti.
As Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone spiritual leader and our main advisor, says often. "We all need to work together. This radiation doesn't care what color you are, or who drinks the water or who breathes the air. We have to unite as one people and put a stop to this or there won't be a life left for any of us."
HGW recently held a three-day retreat, attended by 23 organizers, with written submissions from a number of others. We have a strong program mapped out for the coming year in which we invite you to participate. A broad range of people have taken on several tasks: networking with organizations at the source points of the nuclear waste, making transportation routes and safety issues much more visible to the public, and stopping the insanity in a variety of ways.
Join Us At The Test Site
HGW continues to hold the Spring Gathering at Easter and the more spiritually focused 'Call to the Desert' in October. (The 1997 Spring Gathering will be March 27-30, with continuing actions for affinity groups March 31-April 5.) This October 11-14, we continue the tradition of offering direct testimony about current Columbus-style land grabs, such as the Timbisha Shoshone and Big Site activity, the Comprehensive Test Band Treaty and other related issues.
We invite you to join us in October and to bring your friends. Call to the Desert will provide meals, potable water, and toilet facilities. You can either join the encampment across from the Mercury Test Site gate on Highway 95, or stay in the motel in nearby Indian Springs. These gatherings offer a wonderful opportunity to get to know inspiring people, learn about extremely important issues threatening all life as we know it, and express yourself in a variety of ways. I really hope to see you there.
(Reprinted from: Healing Global Wounds, PO Box, 13, Boulder Creek, CA 95006, Fall 1996 issue.)
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1996
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited