There is a problem that we must address, if we wish to have any more Mother Earth Days. The immense separation that we have allowed to exist between us and others on this planet has resulted in the worldwide sale and production of nuclear, chemical, genet

ically manufactured and biological weapons and thus the overall race to end life on this planet and in the universe. Our government is probably the biggest drug trafficker and arms dealer in the world; we sell to both our so-called enemies and allies.

Fossil fuel power plants, hydroelectric power plants (dams) and nuclear power plants are all unsustainable, and we need to use alternative methods to produce energy and cut our unsustainable consumption practices before it is too late.

This past weekend, 7 and 8 April 2001, this there was an Action for Peace at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex (a nuclear bomb production plant) in our backyard of Oak Ridge, Tenn. What is the connection between Y-12 and the

Oak Ridge National Laboratory? For those of you that don’t know, UT and our partner Battelle Memorial Institute were given a 5-year management and operations contract of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

UT-Battelle is joined by seven university affiliates and two subcontractors. The six core university partners and Oak Ridge Associated Universities deliver a strong regional alliance to ORNL. Core universities use their scientific resources to promote re

gional and national access and participation at ORNL. Each has complementary strengths in one of ORNL’s core competencies: Duke University in biology and biomedicine, Florida State in the physical sciences, Georgia Tech in advanced materials, North Caroli

na State in neutron/nuclear science, Virginia Tech in communications and the computational sciences and the University of Virginia in environmental sciences. Subcontractors Duke Engineering & Services, Inc., and BWX Technologies (a subsidiary of McDermott

Co., sister to Babcock and Wilcox) bring experience in nuclear engineering and management of nuclear facilities to the UT-Battelle team. (From Forging a new era of interaction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.) As well, for those of you who don’t kn

ow, BWX is a joint enterprise of BWX Technologies, Inc. and Bechtel National Inc., and was awarded the management and operations contract for the Y-12 nuclear bomb plant by the U.S. Department of Energy.

At this action, people were arrested for doing their patriotic duty, assembling and speaking out nonviolently against a corrupt and murderous government/corporate entity and enjoying the privileges of taxpayer funding by stepping onto U.S. government pro

perty. Why is it illegal, trespassing, for people who pay taxes (everyone that is in this country pays some type of tax, whether it is sales or other) to step on government property? What are they hiding from us? Why all of the Y-12 security patrol off

icers and sheriff’s deputies, some up front and others in militarily strategic positions elsewhere? Why all of the officers with cameras (regular and video)? Why has the U.S. Department of Energy and other corporate entities continuously lied to the p

eople who work at the nuclear facilities and the residents of Oak Ridge and surrounding areas, as well as people elsewhere around this country and the world about the dangers of nuclear and/or chemical waste and about what they are actually doing?

The Y-12 nuclear bomb plant is the last full-scale operating nuclear-weapons plant in the United States and is in the process of upgrading the W87 warhead that rides on the MX missile. Just one MX missile has the destructive power of 100,000 of the atom

ic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima. Y-12 wishes to embark on a $4 billion expansion to rebuild the nuclear bomb plant to restart the production of new nuclear weapons. (From the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance.) Why? Who is the boogey man

now? I would say one of them is China hence our current antagonism towards them now and any other country or people who defy U.S. imperialism.

Irucka Ajani Embry can be reached at [email protected] and wants to know what are alternatives to our unsustainable consumption practices and alternative energy methods and sources.