NDE's 63-mile, annual pilgrimage to the Nevada
National Security Site (the NNSS,
formerly called the Nevada
Test Site) begins on 1 April (Palm Sunday)
with an orientation in Las Vegas and preparation for
our six-day walk starting on 31 March (Saturday).
The main Walk ends on Friday 6 April (which happens
to be "Good Friday).
We have a support vehicle available for those
who need extra support, and for emergencies as well.
Some Walkers on the Sacred Peace Walk (SPW) only come
for a few days--all are welcome to do as much or as
little of the SPW as the Spirit calls.
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A
Few Words on our Commitment to Nonviolent Social
Change
Nevada Desert Experience
is committed to a nonviolent campaign of change.
Our work seeks to connect issues and humanize
the many victims of nuclear weapons and war-making.
A peaceful paradigm will only come into its
fullness when we make love our first motion.
Click here to read
more about Nevada Desert Experience's commitment
to nonviolence.
Activists and peace-makers
come from various traditions of interchange
with the opposition or enemy.
Not everyone who wants to stop
war, nuclear weapons, or who opposes drone strikes
shares our commitment to the type of determined
but respectful communication that is
a hallmark of NDE actions. To the extent that
one may view an action as belonging to someone,
NDE asks that people coming to actions we organize
or co-sponsor review our
nonviolent covenant and consider how you
can share the space with us in a non-contradictory
way. We must not undermine each other's dedication
and drive, and we must all speak from our hearts.
We must also all remember that what one does,
reflects on us all, whether intended or not.
Together, may we all reflect the world we strive
to create. |
A few answers to
some FAQs:
We have a port-a-potty/outhouse that we tow along
with the support crew. Every hour or two at the most,
the walkers and support vehicle, with port-a-potty
in tow meet up. People can walk and ride at your discretion.
Snacks will be available, and you can carry some with
you, along with some water and what-have-you. Your
larger bags and camping gear will be transported for
you, so you don't need a real backpack like for use
in the back-country.
Most walkers who arrive on Monday in time for the
orientation will stay at the Catholic Worker House
on comfy mats. The Passover Seder will also be there.
People who arrive earlier than that may be housed
elsewere, but NDE will help shuttle you to where you
need to go. For people who arrive during the walk,
we have local friends who are willing to help get
people from transit hubs and bring them to meet up
with the walk.
The Indian Springs Motel is available; if you wish
to rent your own room.
People with cars will be guided about where best
to park cars and be shuttled to meet and rejoin the
walk. Some people offer their cars for use as additional
shuttle vehicles as needed.
Driving Directions to Peace Camp:
Take Hwy 95 North out of Las Vegas. 65 miles
out of town you will see the Mercury exit (past Indian
Springs and Cactus Springs). Take the Mercury exit,
then make a U-turn when it's safe, so you can then
drive under the freeway, to the south. (If you fail
to make the U-Turn as you drive NorthEast, you will
come to the legal boundary of the Nevada Test Site.)
See also the Map of Peace Walk Route (PDF)
See images from the 2012
Sacred Peace Walk (SPW)
See
images and video from the 2011 SPW
See
images from the 2010 SPW
Full-scale nuclear tests at the NTS/NNSS were
stopped in 1992, in large part to grassroots pressure
by NDE and others. What is going on there now that
motivates our action?
The government is working on new and expanded plans
for the NNSS. Some of it is couched in the language
of anti-terrorism and treaty verification, but the
overarching work there undermines our commitment
to nuclear disarmament.
The Stockpile Stewardship
Program was established in response to the Fiscal
Year 1994 National Defense Authorization Act (Public
Law 103-160), which requires, in the absence of
nuclear testing, a program to:
1. Support a focused, multifaceted program to increase
the understanding of the enduring stockpile;
2. Predict, detect, and evaluate potential problems
of the aging of the stockpile;
3. Refurbish and re-manufacture weapons and components,
as required; and
4. Maintain the science and engineering institutions
needed to support the nation’s nuclear deterrent,
now and in the future.
Stockpile stewardship is inconsistent with the mandate
under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty which requires that the United States and other
nuclear armed countries to work to eliminate their
nuclear weapons. Under the pretense of making sure
that what nuclear arms exist are reliable and safe,
new types of bombs and delivery systems continue to
be designed and tested.
The US is actively seeking new warhead designs for
new warfighting scenarios under the Reliable Replacement
Warhead program. . . .
New missiles and other delivery systems that are
more accurate have prompted weapons designers to promote
the manufacture of new, smaller nuclear warheads.
The size of the bomb doesn't change the fact that
a new weapon is in contradiction of the agreement
to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the stockpile.
What is happening at the Nevada National Security
Site (formerly called the Nevada Test Site)?
The NNSS is home to classified research. As such,
one can't be sure of all that is going on there. Nonetheless,
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) maintains a website
that describes research and facilities at the NNSS.
Much of the currently listed activities
Capabilities specific to the NNSS include:
Atlas, the Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF),
the Device Assembly Facility (DAF), the Joint Actinide
Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility,
and the U1a Complex for subcritical nuclear tests.
The last subcritical nuclear explosion was in 2010.
Subcritical tests are part of what the government
started when George Bush ended full-scale testing
in 1992, as part of its "stockpile stewardship"
program. The global anti-nuclear community has been
dismayed at the resumption of these tests since there
hadn't been one since 2006. What does that say
about the US commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons
from the world?
The Atlas pulsed-power program is in "cold standby"
meaning that the building with the machinery has no
electricity. At this time there are no plans to restart
Atlas experiments. BEEF has "limited activity"
according the the Nevada Site Office. The DAF remains
ready ready to assemble bomb tests, though none are
scheduled. Because of the DAF is the most secured
most "hardened" of research facilities,
it gets used for other experiments with highly radioactive
materials. The DAF also houses the JASPER
What is happening at Creech Air Force Base in
Indian Springs?
Creech AFB
is home to the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing which
is responsible for flying the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9
Reaper "unmanned aircraft systems" (UAS),
sometimes called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and
commonly refered to as "drones." Most drones
are small and slow, equiped with cameras for spying.
However, the Predator and Reaper are armed, and control
for the firing of Hellfire missiles or the dropping
of bombs (which the Reaper can also carry) comes from
crews at Creech. Ground crews on site where a drone
is deployed launch and land the aircraft. Control
is transfered to Creech or one of a few other air
force bases during a mission.
Since NDE first vigilled outside Creech Air Force
Base in September 2008, demonstrating against Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle (UAV) attacks, several other groups
around the country have taken up our call. The Drone,
as UAVs are commonly referred to, has become the icon
of Obama’s wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The military is responding to the widespread deaths
of civilians by these robotic hunter-killers and the
outcry against them, but not by reducing the attacks.
Rather, they are adjusting their “spin”
here and “in theatre.” They are also designing
smaller missiles, allowing UAVs to carry more of them—not
a positive development, even if each one destroys
less. The
resource page on the NDE website has links to
many articles and reports about these weapons.
We continue to receive much encouragement to link
our work for nuclear disarmament to the need to stop
these new weapons from becoming the new arms precipice
like the A-bomb before it. The following excerpt from
our April action, Ground the Drones...Lest We Reap
the Whirlwind expresses well our opposition to these
tools of war:
With audacity that would confound Orwell, the Pentagon
touts the “true hunter-killer role” of these
robot “drones.” Armed with Hellfire missiles
and other weaponry, they have names that suit their
lethal uses: the MQ-9 Reaper and the MQ-1 Predator.
Such tools can kill but not pacify. By killing civilians,
UAV drones do not prevent or eliminate terrorism,
but instead incite more violence and retaliation.
Proponents of the use of UAVs insist that there is
a great advantage to fighting wars in “real-time”
(with a 2-second satellite delay from Nevada to the
Middle-East) by pilots sitting at consoles in offices
on air bases far from the dangerous front line of
military activity. With less risk to the lives of
our soldiers and hence to the popularity and careers
of politicians, the deaths of “enemy” noncombatants
by the thousands are counted acceptable. The illusion
that war can be waged with no domestic cost dehumanizes
both us and our enemies. It fosters a callous disregard
for human life that can lead to even more recklessness
on the part of politicians.
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 the 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.
Why is Nevada Desert Experience bringing attention
to Creech Air Force Base?
NDE's mission includes trying "to mobilize people
of all faiths to work toward nuclear abolition and
nonviolent social change." While the drones aren't
armed with nuclear weapons (although some may contain
depleted uranium, poisoning people and the environment),
the United States' history of threatening to use nuclear
weapons and the various ways the U.S. has selectively
spread nuclear technology including for nuclear weapons
and hasn't worked to really eliminate nuclear weapons
but rather wants to enhance our nuclear threat by
modernization, every modern war or conflict that includes
the United States, is a nuclear war in spirit, and
a radioactive war in practical physics.
Remote military systems like UAVs are able to threaten
others without putting one's own soldiers in harm's
way. That seems like an obvious "good" in
a military sense. But new weapons get used and used
again. NDE has based our years of activism on engaging
the opposition, not trying to harm or even berate
the opposition. NDE doesn't support new weapons development.
One tactic of NDE's praxis of nonviolence is to
facilitate the EXPERIENCE of this part of the Mojave
desert, here in Nevada and Newe Sogobia. Living
in the desert for a week on the Sacred Peace Walk
in the context of an interfaith community helps people
respect and adore our desert. Creech AFB, Nellis
AFB, the Yucca Mountain Project and the NTS are all
situated in this awesome, delicate, intense desert.
The violence of our opponents in this land and abroad
can be thwarted through the practice of loving all
living beings, including the vibrant wilderness of
this desert.
Physical distance doesn't always insulate one from
the harmful effects of killing. It is easier to drop
a bomb and leave than to see the death and destruction
that one has caused. Still, the sensor operators in
UAV crews are watching, and feeling the remorse that
comes with such violence. More chaplains and counselors
have been brought in, and we can take solace that
the video-gaming of making war isn't as dehumanizing
as we might fear.
Nestled between Nellis Air Force Base, with its world-leading
stockpile of nuclear weapons, and the Nevada Test
Site, the most bombed place on Earth, Creech Air Force
Base is in the heart of the desert that NDE reveres
and is yet another desecration of this beautiful land.
Why Do This Now and At This Place?
Join a spiritual pilgrimage from
the epitome of unsustainable excess consumption
to the place
of the greatest violence on earth. Come help us stop
this suicidal nuclear violence! Come walk the ways
of peace in the desert! Hundreds of people have walked
from Las Vegas, Nevada to the Nevada (Nuclear) Test
Site/Nevada National Security Site for the cause of
abolishing nuclear weapons. (The NNSS is situated
unlawfully on lands belonging to the Western Shoshone
Nation. Since 1951 the U.S. has contaminated the desert
and the earth 1000 feet below by exploding over 900
nuclear weapons tests which included over 1000 detonations
of nuclear bombs.)
