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- Media Alert -
April 7, 2009

NOTICE

Peace Walk to NTS and Creech AFB Leaves Las Vegas Today

Contact:
Jim Haber, Nevada Desert Experience Coordinator, cell: 415-828-2506, jim(@)nevadadesertexperience.org (remove parens)

The annual Sacred Peace Walk from Las Vegas to the Nevada Test Site (NTS), sponsored by Nevada Desert Experience (NDE), embarked after a short service at the Martin Luther King Jr. statue at the corner of Martin Luther King Blvd. and Carey Blvd. The Right Reverend Dan Edwards, Episcopal Bishop of Nevada blessed the walkers as did participant Fr. Steve Kelly, a Jesuit with a long history of activism for social justice. Another walker, Andrea Murillo talked of how important it is to walk and Willie Fragosa used sage as a cleansing.

They are walking mostly on the west or south side of Highway 95 moving north, although 12 of Tuesday's 14 miles will still have a city feel to it crossing the highway on Ann Road continuing up Centenial Center to Oso Blanco to camp at the Kyle Canyon/US95 junction the first night.

The walkers will arrive at the Mercury entrance to the NTS on Sunday in time for a sunrise ceremony led by Western Shoshone National Council Member Johnnie Bobb and an Easter Mass led by Fr Louis Vitale. The walk includes vehicular support. Ceremonies from different faith traditions will be celebrated along the route. Some of the group may stay to vigil at the Test Site on Monday April 13. A complete schedule of the walk and associated activities is available at: http://nevadadesertexperience.org/programs/2009/peacewalk.htm.

The Sacred Peace Walk embodies the mission – to stop nuclear weapons testing through a campaign of prayer, education, dialogue, and nonviolent direct action. In addition to the usual focus of ending sub-critical tests and preventing the return of full scale nuclear testing at the NTS, this year the walk is bringing attention to the mission of the unmanned aerial systems, headquartered at Creech Air Force Base which are killing large numbers of civilians, enraging rather than pacifying people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Beginning April 1, NDE and several allies began a vigil at Creech. Upgrading the nuclear stockpile and developing new weapons like the Predator MQ-1 and Reaper MQ-9 violate the U.S. Constitution, international law, and moral law.

As with previous NDE actions, participants will adhere to a strict code of nonviolence. That means they will be respectful in their interactions with police, Creech personnel, NTS security and workers or anyone else, including any counter-demonstrators, and they will never engage in any assaultive behaviors, even if provoked. On April 10, Good Friday, walkers and supporters are converging on the entrance of Creech for a re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross, the “No More War Victims Way of the Cross.” In years past, this observance has taken place outside the NTS.

The intention is to show nonviolent opposition to weapons of war, to open channels of communication, and to get a message into the larger public discourse. The walkers understand that most of the base personnel and their families, who are dependent on the base, don't share their analysis. Nonetheless, the hope is that this act of faith will open some hearts and awaken minds to the message that war can't be waged if one is truly working for peace.

More background and information can be found at http://NevadaDesertExperience.org

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