wfn.org | [ENS] Episcopalians remember nuclear victims

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Episcopalians remember nuclear victims

By Dan Webster

ENS 080905-1

[Episcopal News Service--] The sweet smell of burning sage began and
ended a
four-day interfaith event to remember the victims of nuclear bombing and
nuclear testing.

The University of Nevada-Las Vegas was the site of a conference, "Many
Stories, One Vision for a Nuclear Free World." The Episcopal Peace
Fellowship was one of 27 religious and non-profit groups co-sponsoring
and
endorsing the conference, put on by Pax Christi USA and the Nevada
Desert
Experience, on August 4-7.

Janet Chisholm from Nyack, New York, chair of EPF's national executive
council, was the first speaker.

"You might say I fell in love with the bomb," said Chisholm, who grew up
in
Las Vegas. She recounted school days memories of what local residents
were
told by the federal government about the safety and necessity of nuclear
weapons. There have been 928 announced nuclear tests at the Nevada Test
Site, 100 of them detonated above ground. Many above ground tests were
advertised in the Las Vegas newspapers and citizens were invited to
bring
sunglasses and come and watch.

"It was amazing. It was entertaining. It was exciting," she told nearly
400
participants from across the U.S. She was so convinced she went to
college
planning to design missiles and rockets.

"But darn it, they made me take a religion course and then I became a
religion major," said Chisholm. That began a life of activism for her,
though telling her story was Chisholm's breaking silence over hometown
nuclear testing. She said she believed her childhood Presbyterian
pastor,
who said the desert land around the then-small Las Vegas community was
like
the Holy Land.

"I really believed this desert was holy land," she said, declaring, "all
land is holy. All people are holy."

Dr. Tony de Brum, another event speaker, grew up in the Marshall Islands
and
served its government. His story began as a child, fishing before dawn
with
his grandfather, when a bright flash broke the early morning stillness
of
the island shore. The colors were so eerie, he said.

"It was like sunrise and sunset decided to happen at the same time," de
Brum
told a rapt audience. "I can still hear the men saying, 'Run! Run!'"

He recounted what he called "numerous broken promises and deceitful
actions"
against his people, who bore the brunt of the effects of 12 years of
U.S.
nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

"Some ask us why don't we just move. We tell them, for us, this land
does
not belong to us. We belong to the land," said de Brum.

Several workshops and teach-ins were woven between the main speakers.
The
Fellowship of Reconciliation and Pace e Bene offered introductions to
their
trainings for nonviolence.

Bay Area NVC offered a workshop on nonviolent communications. Erin
Barlow,
13, one of the younger attendees, had been given a scholarship from EPF
to
attend the event after writing an essay. Barlow went to the nonviolent
communication workshop.

"I was made more sensitive. I definitely will think differently about
conservatives," said the middle school student and member of Church of
the
Epiphany in Henderson, Nevada. "I will try to understand what they're
thinking and get past the idea of personal gain."

Barlow's interest in the nuclear issue arose from a reading assignment
in
school. It also may have come from a family connection. Her
grandfather was once a site manager at the Nevada Test Site, 60 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.

Barlow also attended the Saturday evening action at the Test Site with
Chisholm, where Martin Sheen was one of the speakers. The actor, who
plays
President Jed Bartlet on NBC-TV's "The West Wing," said his character
would
grant a "presidential pardon" to all those arrested "crossing the line"
onto
the test site.

Sheen, a longtime anti-war and anti-nuclear activist, recited a poem
from
Rabindranath Tagore that concludes, "Into that heaven of freedom, my
Father,
let my country awake."

Phoebe Lee heard Sheen's talk. She came with Sue Bolen from Boise,
Idaho,
where they attend St. Michael's Cathedral.

"I've been.on the periphery of the nuclear issue until now," said Lee.
She
was one of nearly 200 people who "crossed the line" in civil
disobedience.
After receiving a citation and being released, Lee and Bolen joined
several
protesters camping out on adjacent Shoshone land.

Episcopalians from dioceses in Utah and California also attended.

The closing ceremony, "Beyond Words: An Interfaith Ritual for Peace" was
performed by the Omega West Dance Company from Berkeley, California.
Some of
the music used in the performance was from St. Gregory of Nyssa Church
in
San Francisco, California, with ceremony and dance involving religious
leaders from different faiths and music and gestures from Hindu,
Buddhist,
Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions.

-- The Rev. Dan Webster is communications director for the Diocese of
Utah
and a member of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship's National Executive
Council.