Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up For Your Rights

I went to the Solidarity Sing Along, which happens daily Monday through Friday at the Wisconsin State Capitol, in addition to feeling great about the continued protests, I found a forlorn potted cedar tree! When we tug at a single thing in nature, even our own heart, we find it attached to everything else. In addition to several hundred people singing, singing for their lives, we were given heart by the 185 students from Pulaski High School who played one of our protest songs, Union Maid, at the Tournament of Roses Parade. The progressives are not asking for anything more than we have ever asked for. We want our rights back, our teachers back, our jobs back and the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What we do not want is wage slavery, disenfranchisement and condemnation of the values that made our nation great. When peaceful loving people unite, those with power and control issues will always try to run us down, shoot us, arrest us, destroy our property, taunt us to act violently and judge our actions as class warfare. True class warfare involves buying representation and perpetrating lies that scare the populace into acquiescing on matters of  corporate welfare, lax environmental protection and continued neglect of infrastructure and our children's education. The real terrorists are the Rethuglicans who lie to themselves and others that there are two classes of Americans, "True Americans", those who accept the domination of the masses by global corporate raiders and the malcontents, who are protesting the wholesale destruction of our way of life. In fact, it is the majority who want their interests to be represented who are doing the bulk of the working and living and dying in this country who stand to gain the most from democracy, freedom and liberty. One of the greatest ironies is the impoverished right wingers who cannot understand that they are being used as pawns in an ugly campaign to divide and destroy our nation from the inside.

The same folks who have been made to swallow the bait of Calvinism are now being used as bait themselves to catch even larger fishes. Our victim culture has mushroomed into a mass of people swarming to blame others when their own actions cut off any possibility of success. Failed policies of the far right have come home to roost around the world and the left is still offering the same solutions that we have been in support of for the last several generations. Neotribalism and support for local communities, rather than obsene financing of CEOs and corporados is still the only way to create jobs, protect the environment from extraction, desecration and untold destruction. In Wisconsin, at this very moment, the head of our Department of Natural Resources is trying to find a way to fast track a mine that would forever taint the waters of Lake Superior. Please, get educated, get active and stop international interests from ruining the places we hold most dear. Becoming involved can be as simp[le as writing a letter to the editor, carrying a sign or speaking out in public against the ethical void from which these agents come. Mining is a no-win situation, except for those who own the mine and never set foot in the countries they destroy for their own wealth. mines and pipelines only enhance two parts of the economy, prostitution and drugs (including tobacco and alcohol). Take a trip through any mining district and see the multi-generational depression that accompanies the bust. Centuries can pass without recovery. the few places that have come back have been because gambling allows the same sorts of powerful interests to run gambling houses for the extraction of wealth from mostly old folks who are bussed in to sacrifice their retirement checks for a chance at luxury.

Things never make us happy. It is only through cultivating a deep and abiding love for our selves that we can find true happiness. once this is accomplished, we have abundant love to share with others. those who are weak and feeble of spirit can be taught to love again if only we share with them our truth and acceptance. The greatest salve for any scar is love. We are not fully human if we do not find it in our hearts to love our selves first and once this is accomplished, that same love flows out to others unconditionally.  I think of it this way. I'm sure we have all heard ad infinitum the admonition that "God loves sinners, but hates sin." We are all manifestations of god so we too have the power to love one another yet hate the actions that pollute our air, soil and water, the actions that cripple entire communities and the influence of greed, deceit and hatred that are perpetrated by powerful interests. We are far more alike than we are different. Those who seek to pit us person against person are doing far more damage to our culture and country than terrorists ever have, or ever will. Get angry if that is what it takes, flex your hate muscle just enough to understand it's power, but then take the next step toward healing and understand that the lies perpetrated by big business and capitalism have been with us for over a century, so defeating them and disarming those in power today will be a long and difficult road. know in your heart that the effort will be worth it. If not for our children, for theirs. If not in our lifetime, at least someday someone will look back on our time as one of making commitments to saving the people, the planet and the possibility of life on planet earth.

Nukewatch Plans Walk For a Nuclear-Free Future

Please let everyone you know about the upcoming walk between the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station and Point Beach Nuclear Facility. The event will start at noon, April 23, just North of the Kewaunee reactor and it will end after ten miles at the North end of Point Beach State forest with a potluck picnic. Thousands have protested these facilities in the past. We would like several thousand to walk with us again.

All three reactors are at the end of their design life. In their original plans, they were supposed to be decommissioned by now, resulting in millions of pounds of radioactive waste. Operators recently pursued license extensions and increases of maximum allowable electricity production levels. Both threaten Lake Michigan and millions of people with their continued operation and on-site waste storage.

Clean energy technologies exist to offset the 20.7% of Wisconsin energy that is generated at these facilities. The extraordinary amount of corporate welfare that continues to flow to these facilities needs to end. Conservation alone could eliminate the need for these old and ill-conceived electric generating stations. The on-site nuclear waste storage at these two facilities alone could render much of Northeast Wisconsin useless for farming and human habitation for many, many years.

I am personally planning to get out to the Lake Michigan Shore early in the day. Just north of the starting point along Lake View Drive is a wonderful beach that folks need to see to believe. During the ten mile walk, from Noon to 3PM, we will be sharing the wonderful company of others who believe that is time for us to move beyond nuclear energy in light of the recent developments in Japan as well as the twenty-five year anniversary of Chernobyl, which government officials believe has led to over thirty-five million deaths. This rally was planned long before the recent earthquake and tsunami that unleashed the worst ecological catastrophe in the history of the nuclear industry. The next twenty five years will make clear the ultimate injustice of nuclear energy production on innocent people whose only crime was to live near a reactor, but at this time, even our leaders are trying to put a good face on the mayhem, death and destruction created by the Japanese power stations that are failing right now.

You can bet that with a President in office from Illinois, where they currently have the fifth highest nuclear energy percentage of any state, the well-heeled lobbyists have beaten a path to the White House. In fact, there are currently afoot in Congress, plans to extend even more government backed (guaranteed)loans for future growth of this dastardly industry. The very use of the term industry makes one sick. The idea behind industry is to create something useful and ideally, socially benign. Wisconsin's history has proven that corporations who undertake splitting the atom for power have a very bad track record for doing it safely and responsibly. The talk about nuclear energy being "green", or carbon neutral are complete and utter fabrications. In fact, the admissible levels of radiation have been doubled in the United States recently, no doubt an early nod to further contamination of our environment by shameless and conscious-less corporate outlaws who seek to shift attention away from this dangerous activity.

Only four "Red Findings" have ever been issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Three of them were issued for hazardous situations at the Point Beach Facility. The two Point Beach reactors have recorded at least ten hazardous events since 1995. The Kewaunee reactor has had eight hazardous situations, including the exposure of a worker and groundwater contamination during that time. The managing corporation of these facilities has changed several times and the operators have felt compelled to lie to inspectors and fail to carry out emergency planning required by law.

These nuclear reactors were aggressively pushed on local citizens with plenty of political power. Ratepayers are ultimately responsible for this capricious form of "development" and are told little about the true nature of the threat that the nuclear reactors pose along some of the most beautiful shoreline in Northeast Wisconsin. As we progress into a more sustainable future, revoking the "rights" of corporations to endanger millions of unsuspecting citizens for the prize of corporate profits has got to end. Please let everyone you know about the need for people to show up for this event. Standing up for what is right and good must be undertaken if we are to guide future policy that has such lasting negative effects.

Contact nukewatch1@lakeland.ws for more information

Walk for a Nuke-free Future April 23rd, 2011

While millions Worldwide oppose nuclear power generation and the inevitable weapons of mass destruction that nuclear power makes possible, our government continues to tell us that the radioactivity that we are getting from Japan is "minute". Seriously. When your milk becomes "hot" from ionizing radiation, it should be a warning that the entire food chain is contaminated. The US atomic Energy Commission deployed radiation detectors across the Western Coast of the United States last week. They stationed 22 units in Washington, Oregon and California. Within hours of getting data from them, several interesting things happened. First, the online telemetry,intended to quell fears that we are under a giant plume of radioactive isotopes, was taken down, which violates open records laws considering that any data amassed by the government through the use of tax dollars can not be withheld from citizens, unless it is a matter of national security. Second, twelve of the twenty-two radioactivity detection units were removed because they showed "abnormally high" readings. Lord and Lady know that in a crisis like this, that would more likely tell us that they are working, not that they are not! Finally, the very news that this entire boondoggle represents, for those of us who feel that we live in a free society, was wholly ignored by the major media outlets. Rather than create public "hysteria", our leaders must figure that the fallout from public awareness of this crucial issue would be more devastating than a few extra chest x-rays, for all of us. Please forgive my passion, but I have seen this approach taken many times before. The motivation is always the same and the outcome is the same as well.
As far back as the seventies, (and even before)citizens have opposed nuclear insanity. When I got involved we worked in Denver. Around the Bi-centennial, much of our opposition to following the corporate line on nukes was hidden beneath a thick slathering of cultural jingoism and "patriotic" drivel. The whole "America, Love it or Leave it!" crowd drowned out most accurate information about the dangers of nuclear energy production and environmental insanity that was being perpetrated by industry on the masses. My first protest marches against nukes were against The Bomb. Because of my inquisitiveness, it didn't take long to learn that our government had lied to us from the start about both the bomb and the precursor to nuclear weapons production, nuclear energy production. The marches that we attended in the early seventies morphed into teach-ins by the mid seventies.
While our neighbors were decking out every single thing in Red, White and Blue, our family made posters and charts listing things like the half life of many of the by-products of both nuclear fusion and uranium enrichment. At the time the closest nuclear facility to us was the Rocky Flats facility north of Denver. The facts were known and everything we said could happen, did. I have written of the feelings that this brings up in me before but it is worth mentioning again. rather than feeling elated or exonerated, being proven right in this instance feels more like a knife-swallower's trick gone horribly wrong. At one time, the Rocky Flats "facility" had the notoriety of being the largest Superfund site ever remediated by the USEPA. (Environmental Protection Agency)
This post is an invitation to come to Wisconsin, join in with others who are ready to end the madness and express your outrage over continued use of this unimaginably dangerous "source" of electricity. We will be walking, seven miles, between two reactor sites, one at Two Creeks (which is several miles North of Manitowoc, Wisconsin) and Kewaunee. Some of the most beautiful beaches on the Western Shore of Lake Michigan lie within the hot zone of these facilities. The public trust has been violated by putting such dangerous electric generating stations on the shores of this feshwater sea. In addition to the active reactor cores, these facilities harbor between them, over 100 tons of high level radioactive waste, which requires "safe" storage for tens of thousands of years. Remember, just 10,000 years ago, this area was covered by a one mile thick ice sheet. We may not have the threat of earthquake, but...
Previous protests that we have had at these facilities were wonderful chances to share food and fun, good information about the threat posed by nukes, a chance to experience a carnival atmosphere with other caring and compassionate people, and a time for friends and families, united to save Mother Earth, to re-unite and savor the knowledge that we speak with many voices but say the same thing, as one, STOP THE MADNESS! Japan may be the lead brick that breaks the camel's back so to speak. The radioactive nail in the coffin of this destructive and dangerous, although well-funded "technology". The Obama administration has roots in Illinois, one of the states with the worst environmental records. It takes people power to demand that our government make good decisions and we have been sheelple for too long. Stand together and work together and the task of creating a new paradigm will be much easier. We have the resources, the creativity and the intellect to replace nuclear generation with benign technologies. all that is needed is the expression of public will to proceed.
This event is scheduled from Noon-four o'clock, but I'm sure that we will be there earlier and later. In honor of the 35 million people who perished as a result of Chernobyl, and the many millions more who will be sacrificed as a result of the recent events in Japan,come out, stand shoulder to shoulder with others who want a sustainable planet for the next seven generations, not the threat of near certain annihilation that the specter of nuclear contamination holds for our people, our planet, our homes and our families.