SOS Asheville

At SOS Clare Hanrahan shared information about the Buddhist Peace Walkers who walk from Atlanta through Asheville to the Oak Ridge weapons plant in Tennessee.  Details below from Clare about ways to participate & support (including with your feet!) on Sunday and Monday.  ~ cw

This weekend: Meet and greet Buddhist Peace Walkers. Join us at Asheville Friends Meeting, (227 Edgewood) Sunday, July 30, at 6 p.m. for vegetarian POT LUCK and showing of video Stop the Bombs! Join us at Vance Monument 8 a.m. Monday, July 31st to send the Walkers off, or to walk with them any distance toward Weaverville and Hot Springs. Follow car for support and return to Asheville. Questions? Concerns? Call Clare 828-285-0010 Walk schedule: www.peacepagoda.org/SmokyMountain/

I am excited to learn about the presence of the Southeast Office of the NIRS here in Asheville, and that such an expert as Mary Olson is in our midst.

Because of the interest in this topic at the SOS I am creating a category called Nuclear Issues to be a thread for related conversations.

Below is a selectioin from a paragraph from Mary that Clare forwarded to me with a link to a talk she gave to the U.N:

Here is a link to my recent talk at the U.N. about nuclear power, climate change and also a commentary on why the oil men would be supporting the nuke men. http://www.nirs.org/climate/background/climatetalk_mary_un_050306.htm
This paper is chock full of references — though more on the energy side of nuclear issues — but thanks, especially to Iran, we can see ever more clearly that nuclear power = nuclear weapons, and it is going to take abolition of both to get the Genie back in the bottle!  Since we met, NIRS has decided to start the I-RATE Payer campaign — asking people to give to NIRS on a monthly basis to help PREVENT new nukes in this region — and hopefully prevent the giant electric power rate increases that nuclear power causes. Watch for that opportunity — and find tons of other info, on our website — www.nirs.org

Report #: 2

Name of Topic: Transport through Asheville of Nuclear Materials, AND Oak Ridge Building Nuclear Weapons

Name of Leader: Clare Hanrahan

Names of Participants: Karl Odom, Chris Weaver

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:

Asheville is at the “center of the spider web” of the transportation of hazardous nuclear waste and weapons, by road and by rail., including I-40 and I-26.

Since this region is less populated, it has been chosen, essentially as a “sacrifice zone” in the event of a nuclear transportation accident.

Some devoted people in the community, and great organizations, are working on this issue, and they deserve the support of many others who care.

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

All the people in this group love gardening and water catchment and bike paths and creative positive sustainability work, AND we wish to integrate awareness of EXTREME ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS such as this topic into the creative and positive work of the sustainbiliy community…because an accident on our highways could contaminate and wipe out all the wonderful work we are doing in our communities.

Yes it’s scary but let us integrate this part of current reality so that with greater awareness and creativity we can transform this and other threats.

Some details of the threat: Containment vessels are not even built to minimum standards…the waste from power plants and weapons production in a simple highway accident could contaminate our city or region for thousands of years… …also the larger issue is a native rights issue in relation to the Western Shoshone waste disposal site and the desecration of sacred land elsewhere.

Future Action/Next Steps:

There is a WONDERFUL NEW GROUP called COMMON SENSE AT THE NUCLEAR CROSSROADS which is publishing an important report in the next several days which deserves our attention and if possibly our attendance at a public event (details to be learned and added).

BUDDHIST MONKS who walk every year hundreds of miles to Oak Ridge weapons plant in East Tennessee WILL BE IN ASHEVILLE ON JULY 30. WALK, DRUM, PRAY WITH THEM from Asheville to Weaverville or elsewhere on their walk.

THE OAK RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL PEACE ALLIANCE is a wonderful group in Tennessee & beyond which deserves support.

An idea was shared to buy a full-page ad in the Asheville Citizen Times and write a well-researched imaginary news story about a nuclear transport accident in Asheville to help raise awareness.

Develop a unified response to concerns about terrorism…The only way to prevent nuclear transport terrorism is to STOP MAKING IT AND TRANSPORTING IT!

AS A “VILLAGE” OF SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMERS, LET US HONOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED TO FOCUS ON EXTREME THREATS SUCH AS THIS AND LEND OUR CREATIVITY AND SUPPORT TO TRANSFORMING THESE THREATS, rather than ignoring them.

Let us explore creative forms of direct action.

Recorded by Chris Weaver