WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
HomeBlogJuly 2010 July 8, 2010: America's Nuclear Deceptions VS Americans of Conscience
July 8, 2010: America's Nuclear Deceptions VS Americans of Conscience
July 8, 2010: America's Nuclear Deceptions VS Americans of Conscience
The DOE/Department of
Energy's nuclear
weapons design and production complex consists of eight sites.
The NNSA/National
Nuclear Security Administration runs the weapons complex, and is
planning to
build three new nuclear facilities that will significantly expand U.S.
warhead
production capacity.
The
Y12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
will produce "secondaries" which equates to 125 new nuclear weapons per
year.
The Y-12 Plant
is currently scheduled to manufacture upwards of 2,000 LEPS/Life
Extension
Programs warheads by 2016, which are refurbished
WMD and which will equate to 80 NEW
Nuclear Weapons a Year.
This will also exceed
the number of
deployed
warheads permitted under the New START Treaty (1,675), as well as
undermining the argument
that new production facilities are even needed!
Most
nuclear weapons in the
current U.S. stockpile were produced anywhere from 30 to 40 years ago
and they were not
designed or intended to last indefinitely.
In
the mid-1990's, the DOE embarked upon
"Life Extensions Programs/LEPs to refurbish and extend the "shelf life'
of
existing nuclear weapons. Under the LEP, warheads in the current arsenal
are
disassembled, parts are refurbished or replaced with new components, and
the
warheads are reassembled and redeployed.
"The
purpose of the LEP is to maintain
an enduring nuclear arsenal"[adding] at least 30-40 years to a warheads
usable
life, according to the DOE [one official has been quoted at 100-120
years], and
addresses aging issues of limited life components. [Under the LEP, the] DOE
plans to upgrade every type of nuclear warhead in the planned United
States
arsenal." [1]
While
programs for education and
cleaning up our environment are being cut or are frozen, this year's
funding
for nuclear weapons research and production programs by the Department
of
Energy's National Security Administration has increased by 14%. The $6.4
billion we the people who pay taxes are currently providing them; will
be increased to $9
billion by 2018!
"Any nation that year
after year continues
to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the
neediest is a
nation approaching spiritual death." -Rev. MLK
Three
decades after the Cold War, we the
people of the US are being taxed at a rate 75% higher than the annual
Cold War
average of $5.1 billion!
We
the people are also being forced to
pay for "modernization" which equates to EXPANSION to fund new
multi-billion
dollar facilities for the production of plutonium pits at Los Alamos,
NM and thermonuclear "secondaries" at Y-12, in Oak Ridge. Tenn.
Nuclear
components
become WMD when they are combined with the thousands of non-fissile
components
produced at the Kansas City Plant, and that plant is responsible for 85%
of all
nuclear components, which ships out thousands of WMD components to the National
Nuclear
Security Administration for final assembly at
America's WMD facilities.
But, We the
people of Conscience, "hold
these truths to be self-evident: That all men [and women] are created
equal [and]
endowed by
their creator with certain unalienable rights; [and] to secure these
rights,
governments are instituted among men [and women], deriving their just
powers
from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government
becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish
it."[July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence]
Because this six
billion year old planet could be gone in one dark day and every nuclear
warhead will pass through Y-12 and increase America's
nuclear
arsenal by 80 warheads a year, two
hundred people of Conscience gathered for a weekend long celebration
of Nuclear Resistance at the Y-12 Nuclear Plant over the 4th of July
weekend.
Thirty-six were arrested for
NONVIOLENTLY resisting the insanity of nuclear weapons and to stand up
to Americon'sNuclear Policies.
A few faces
of
those who who stood up and did something in Oak Ridge, Tennessee:
Three
time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and a Voice of Conscience, Kathy
Kelly, on July 3, 2010 in front of The Banner made from the cloth cut
from the
clothes of PLOWSHARES 8, Father
Philip Francis Berrigan as he lay dying in his
bed.
Father Berrigan also said: "If enough Christians
followed the
gospel, they could bring any state to its knees."
Kathy Kelly had just
returned from Pakistan and Afghanistan and told
the crowd who attended the 30th year of Celebration of NUKERESISTERS
and NUKEWATCH:
"Employees at Oak Ridge and people
living near the Y-12 Plant
understand the dangers of contamination, accident, waste proliferation
and
inadequate cleanup. We must expose these dangers. Worldwide, people
aiming to
acquire and maintain nuclear weapons and nuclear energy jeopardize the
safety
of present and future generations."
The
Raging Grannies led by
Motoko F. Huthwaite lead the
crowd in song:
NO MORE
HIROSHIMA,NO MORE NAGASAKI TOO! Burn scars never heal, cancer
everywhere...Just one bomb a city is gone. People dead and dying. The
living are far worse...Burn scars never heal. Cancer everywhere. Home,
work, all are lost. Generations come and go. But deformities, disease
and death keep following, those who were there. Motoko informed this
reporter: "I was born to Japanese parents in America and after Pearl
Harbor I was perceived as the enemy. In 1942, I left America on the
Exchange
Ship and was in Tokyo when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
When the air raid went off in Tokyo I expected to die. I hoped I would
die. The
lucky ones died.
The
July 5, 2010 Action:
The Bird on The Barb Wire at
Y-12, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July
5, 2010 and those who dared to
cross and were arrested for trespassing on 'Federal Property'
The Bird on The Barb Wire at
Y-12, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July
5, 2010 and those who dared to
cross and were arrested for trespassing on 'Federal Property'
Catholic
priest, Father Bix faces the Federal agent just before he is arrested
for following the nonviolent Jesus.
At
the head of the arrest line is Father Bix/Bill Bischell
Bonnie Urfer
on her knee being arrested at
Y-12, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July
5, 2010.
Dominican
Sister Ardeth Platte, being arrested by
the American
Federal Government
Sister Ardeth Platte, moments after being
arrested by the
American Government for NONVIOLENTLY resisting Nuclear Weapons at Y-12,
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July 5, 2010.
Sr. Ardeth
requires a crutch as she had
recently undergone arthroscopic surgery-no
doubt needed because she spends hours on her
knees praying to the NONVIOLENT Jesus to Wake
Up the US Christians to follow the
gospel/good news that Jesus taught:
"BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: THEY ARE
THE DAUGHTERS AND SONS OF GOD"
And certainly NOT those who will bomb,
torture or occupy any other!
Jean
Gump and her husband just a
few hours before Jean was
arrested once again for nonviolent civil resistance against nuclear
weapons because she crossed the barb-wired fence at Y-12 on July 5,
2010.
People
of Conscience who did not cross the
barb-wired fence
The Drums of
Conscience beat at
Y-12, July 5, 2010
Carrie
Schuchardt, wife of "Plowshares 8" John Schuchardt who co-founded
The House of Peace- a home which is a physical and spiritual refuge for
victims of war, in community with adults with special needs, praying at
the barb-wire fence at Y-12.
PLOWSHARES 8, Father Carl Kabot and
Carrie
Schuchardt, July 5, 2010
A few hours prior to that hug,
Father Kabot told
me:
"Nuclear weapons are insane! The firecrackers
that were dropped on Hiroshima
that killed babies, children and women proved we are an insane country!"
Clowns of Conscience at Y-12, 5
July 2010
KA
in a moment of shock and awe
that America would arrest
another Clown for NONVIOLENT Civil Disobedience against the insanity of nuclear warfare
All we are saying is Give Peace a Chance!
Children of America offer, want, and
deserve peace!
"No government, not even
the most democratic, can
force us to live under this threat. No state in the world can offer any
kind of security against this menace of a nuclear holocaust, or
guarantee to prevent it"Any country, which manufactures and stocks
nuclear weapons, is first of all endangering its own citizens. This is
why the citizens must confront their government and warn it that it has
no right to expose them to this danger. Because, in effect, the citizens
are being held hostage by their own government, just as if they have
been hijacked and deprived of their freedom and threatened"when
governments develop nuclear weapons...they are violating the basic
rights of their citizens, the basic right not to live under constant
threat of annihilation." -Mordechai Vanunu, 1987, from Ashkelon Prison
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel