2013 NDE & Solidarity Events & Actions Archive

JANUARY

January 12, 12 - 3 pm (with award ceremony at 1 pm)
Reception for Three Social Justice Art Exhibits: Looking the Other Way, Downwinders Exhibit, & Be The Change
Left of Center Art Gallery
2207 W. Gowan Road, N. Las Vegas, NV 89032 Map
Peace Art Opening including Downwinder Room (with some objects donated by NDE) NDE is grateful to organizing partners Craig Rock and Patty Dominguez for helping include NDE materials and history in this exhibit. This Saturday's program looks to be both fun and thought-provoking. Check it out!

January 15, 7 - 9 pm
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Actual Birthday
Read, share & discuss Rev. King’s sermons and writings together. Bring your favorite excerpts. Light refreshments served.
at the Pace E Bene house behind NDE 1420 W. Bartlett Ave., 89106 (near MLK/Lake Mead)

What do Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermons, writings and life teach us? How can we apply his wisdom to the problems of violence in society and wars in the world? King was connecting different issues and social groups to strengthen everyone's resolve for justice. Will we follow his example today?

When machines and computers, profit movies and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered...Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring external hostility to poverty, racism and militarism.

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam, April 4, 1967

Come with your reflections, and we will explore our questions together using Beyond Vietnam as a jumping off point. Light refreshments will be served.

Beyond Vietnamare available from Nevada Desert Experience in a pamphlet which also includes A Letter from Birmingham Jail and Loving Your Enemies. These and other King resources are available online from Stanford University.

January 17, 9 - 11 am
Thursday Peace Vigil Extended (and slightly relocated) to Target SHOT-Show at Sands Expo & Convention Center Map

On January 17, the weekly peace vigil outside the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse from 9 to 10 am will be in a different location and will run for an extra hour until 11 am. The vigil will be at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Sands to be near the Sands Expo and Convention Center but visible to people on The Strip. Closest parking is at the Venetian/Palazzo.

The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) and Conference is the largest and trade show for the gun industry. The SHOT Show attracts more than 50,000 people and 1,600 exhibitors. It is owned and sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation which ironically is based in Newtown, Connecticut. The SHOT Show is not open to the general public but is huge and noteworthy.

In the spirit of active nonviolence, NDE believes that real conversations are needed about the impact of gun violence and what we can do to reduce it. NDE doesn't have an official position vis a vis gun control, restrictions on military-style weapons, large capacity ammo clips or other legal details, but one thing we do know is that All victims count! Sympathy for victims shouldn't vary depending on who's children are being killed or targeted, what their skin color is or how wealthy their families are. Many allies in the anti-drone movement are calling on President Obama to show as much compassion for children killed in drone strikes that he orders as he has shown for the children of the Newtown, Connecticut massacre.

The conversation must not be hostage to polarizing attitudes and rhetoric. The problem of large-scale violence abroad with weapons and ammunition bought in the US must not be ignored. Ultimately, the impact of militarism on domestic and societal violence must be discussed too. This vigil may attract some hostile responses from conference attendees, so we'll have some recommended talking points to help people stay focused. We'll behave in the best tradition of nonviolence as expressed by the NDE covenant of nonviolence. Thanks to the Fellowship of Reconciliation for bringing this show to our attention and trying to build a fuller national discussion about firearms and society.

Videos & Media Coverage

Youtube video playlist

Flickr photos & video: shots from the street on 1/17 (the corner of LV Blvd. and Sands). There is also one additional video clip of Jim Haber reading some of the litany of names, similar to the slightly longer clip in the youtube playlist.

KNPR State of Nevada: Jim Haber was interviewed while on the street on 1/17 by Dave Becker of KNPR's State of Nevada for about 10 minutes. If you listen to more of the show that day, they interviewed other people on the issue too, from the opposing perspective mostl.:

Channel 13: KTNV: local ABC coverage of the 1/17 vigil.

Channel 5: KVVU: local Fox coverage of 1/17 vigil.

January 21, 10 am - 1 pm
Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Day Parade

NDE's Annual "Peace People" contingent in Las Vegas' Gigantic "King Week" of Celebration

Join the Peace People contingent in one of the largest parades anywhere celebrating this prophet of peace. We handout and broadcast MLK excerpts as we go, and this year's handout looks extra sharp. It really is a joy to participate in, and we are pleased to be joined by a wonderful "art car" as well as a van, so people can walk or sit and wave, still really engaging with everyone.

The parade officially starts at 10:00 am at 4th and Gass just north of Charleston and ends at Ogden.

Photos from MLK Events

"Nuclear Weapons Testing - Effects on Civilian Populations!"
February 23, 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Left of Center Art Gallery & Studio
2207 West Gowan Road, North Las Vegas, NV 89032
702.647.7378

Join Us for a Collaborative Event at The Left of Center Art Gallery as part of their Social Justice Exhibition Community Forum Series

On Saturday, February 23rd, a community forum will include a panel discussion with people affected by nuclear testing in Southern Nevada and Utah. The forum will explore the history and legacy of people living downwind from the Nevada Test Site. Speakers include representatives of ranching communities in Southern Utah and the indigenous Native American populations, living and working in the immediate fallout patterns. NDE staffer Jim Haber, and NDE Council members Bonnie Eberhardt Bobb and Peggy Maze Johnson will be included. The discussion will touch on the legacy of downwind populations in the Marshall Islands after World War II, and testing in Kazakhstan by the Russians under the Soviet Union.

February 23
Gensuikyo Delegation to the Marshall Islands - Our office received the following message yesterday from an important Japanese anti-nuclear organization about their recent delega tion to Rongelap in the Marshall Islands...

MARCH

March 23 - 29
Sacred Peace Walk 2013
The Sacred Peace Walk (SPW) is Nevada Desert Experience's premier event. This 65-mile, annual pilgrimage to the Nevada Test Site (the NTS, now officially the Nevada National Security Site) begins on March 23rd with an orientation in Las Vegas and preparation for our six-day walk starting on March 24th (Sunday). The Walkers arrive at Peace Camp on Thursday, March 28th after a day walking in Vegas and three days in the desert. In between is a day of reflection at the Sekhmet Temple, vigils against drones at Creech Air Force Base, and a "Peace-over" Seder. The SPW concludes on "Good Friday," as we greet the sunrise with the Western Shoshone and conclude with a Good Friday liturgy and procession to the entrance to the NTS later in the morning. A fuller schedule, maps, registration and background information are available from the peace walk webpage. For images and reflections from 2012 SPW participants check out the Summer Desert Voices.

We walk in the footsteps of a long legacy of peace walkers and spiritual leaders to draw attention to the nuclear dangers that continue to threaten our sacred planet and the community of life. Please join us in transforming fears into compassion and apathy into action. As one repeat walker put it last year, "The Sacred Peace Walk reminds us that prayer is an active process to engage in, not a passive wish to indulge in. If you’re not careful, you’ll get sunburns, blisters, and life changing experiences."

JUNE

NDE's U-233 Opposition: Letter to Gov. Sandoval
Governor Responds: Opposes burial

AUGUST

August Desert Witness-Nagasaki Day Vigil at Nellis AFB; Next Day Art in Action by Nevada Test Site

This year's August Desert Witness by Nevada Desert Experience is bringing some long-overdue focus on Nellis Air Force Base in North Las Vegas. We'll also add to the tunnel art under US-95 just outside the Nevada Test Site (NTS, now the Nevada National Security Site) near the historic Peace Camp area. For more on NDE programs and focus, see our Summer newsletter, Desert Voices. 

Friday, August 9, 7 to 8:30 am
Outside the main gate to Nellis Air Force Base
Craig and Las Vegas Blvds., N. Las Vegas

HALT B-61 LIFE EXTENSION!
NO NUKES NOW!
DISMANTLE THEM ALL!
NO MORE NAGASAKIS!

We will stand on the corner of Craig and Las Vegas Blvds. at the entrance to the feeder road to the main gate. Park in large parking lot BEHIND 7-11 (on opposite corner of base), NOT IN parking lot of the 7-11 itself. Alternate parking also available in lot shared by the 24 hour casino and adult book store.

Media Alert

Las Vegas Review-Journal Video: Activists protest on anniversary of Nagasaki bombing

Saturday, August 10, 7 am to noon
Art in Action in historic tunnel under freeway just outside the Nevada Test Site followed by pot luck brunch at the Goddess Temple in Cactus Springs.

As you drive past the Goddess Temple up US-95 from Las Vegas en route to the test site you can use the portapotty or guest house bathroom. You can leave your food in the guest house and top off your water too. (We'll have cold water to share also.) The tunnel we paint in is under the freeway just north of the Mercury exit for the Nevada National Security Site (NTS), about 65 miles from Vegas and about 16 miles from the Goddess Temple. Exit for Mercury. Make a U-turn before entering the NNSS; go under the freeway, through gravel parking area on the right and look for us about 100 yards down on the right.

Although the government doesn't confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons anywhere, it is widely known that Nellis Air Force Base has bunkers that have been used for nuclear weapons. According to the Federation of American Scientists nuclear weapons expert Hans Kristensen, Nellis's Area 2 bunkers have more nukes than only two or three other places on the entire planet. Most may be awaiting transfer to Pantex, Texas to be dismantled. The B-61 bombs that are there however, may or may not be destined for that relatively positive fate.

The federal budget for nuclear weapon dismantlement has been severely decreased at the same time that funds for life extension enhancements for the B-61 continue to skyrocket. These trends fly in the face of our national obligation to lead the way towards global nuclear disarmament.

NOTE: NDE encourages everyone to observe a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, the precise anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima by a U.S. atom bomb in 1945. What is remembered lives. 

August 24
March on Washington 50th Anniversary in Las Vegas
Photos
On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought the struggles for civil rights and economic justice in focus for the nation. In the ensuing years, MLK enlarged his analysis and work to include the third of the triple evils-militarism-to materialism and racism in a way that was so true and threatening to the supporters of war and the status quo, that he was assassinated for it. On August 24, 2013, in Las Vegas (as well as Washington and elsewhere) several hundred people marched and rallied, carrying on the work that was so powerfully articulated then, and that remains so important today. Nevada Desert Experience is proud to have helped organize this event.

September 21, 12 pm (International Day of Peace)
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
Film followed by Panel Discussion
Presented by Nevada Desert Experience and Get Equal NV
Location: The Center (Serving the LGBT Community of Nevada) , 401 E. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89101 Map
Free

About Bayard Rustin and the Award-Winning Documentary:
During his 60-year career as an activist, organizer and "troublemaker," Bayard Rustin formulated many of the strategies that propelled the American civil rights movement. His passionate belief in Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence drew Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders to him in the 1940's and 50's; his practice of those beliefs drew the attention of the FBI and police. In 1963, Rustin brought his unique skills to the crowning glory of his civil rights career: his work organizing the March on Washington, the biggest protest America had ever seen. But his open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him again and again as a "brother outsider." Brother Outsider: the Life of Bayard Rustin combines rare archival footage — some of it never before broadcast in the U.S. — with provocative interviews to illuminate the life and work of a forgotten prophet of social change.

September 28-29
NDE National Council Meeting--Our semi-annual board meeting
Las Vegas, Nevada

November 13-14
Public Discussions about (so-called)"Low Level" Radioactive Waste with Gov't Officials

The US Department of Energy and the Nevada Site Specific Advisory Board are hosting two events to argue their case for continued and increased storage of nuclear waste in Nevada. They will also be trying to make people understand why they classify the different types of radioactive waste in the way that they do. The current system is more focused on how the waste was made and by whom rather than on how dangerous it is to handle and transport or how long it stays dangerous.

The meeting is largely in response to the stalled efforts by the DOE to convince the governor and people of Nevada that the specific waste known as CEUSP (that's Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project, which is mostly U233 and which will be too hot to handle for over 100,000 years) is okay to bury in shallow trenches just under other, less dangerous LLW and that this will be kept safely away from people and the ecosystem for all that time, and well marked so people know to avoid it. For more on the CEUSP and the problems of nuclear waste classification, see http://nevadadesertexperience.org/issues/2013/u233.htm.

The meeting is officially being billed as: Public Outreach for Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal The public is invited to participate in discussions on low-level radioactive waste disposal at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Topics will include NNSS mission, Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project (CEUSP) waste, and an overview of NNSS waste disposal.

Two public meetings will be held:
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 5-9pm Cashman Center 850 N. Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89101

Thursday, November 14, 2013 5-9pm NV Treasure RV Resort 301 W Leslie St Pahrump, NV 89060

Federal representatives will be available for questions and answers during the meeting. You are also encouraged to submit questions in advance of the meeting, which will be addressed during a Qs & As session following a presentation.
Please submit questions by Friday, November 8, 2013 by e-mailing Nevada@nnsa.doe.gov.

See additional Blog Posts from 2013 (scroll down to find them).