I personally wonder what other measures can be taken to get the word out about what is going on at the Y-12 bomb plant. My brother and his fiancee' live a short drive away, in Knoxville. Neither of them was aware that bombs were present there at all, let alone being built. They said that according to what they had seen in the local media, the only thing going on in Oak Ridge is research and some demonstrators getting arrested. I shared facts with them about what is going on there, but they didn't seem very interested. It's very difficult to know how to engage the greater populace when close family members don't want to hear what's going on.

Won't you join us in Oak Ridge? The next demonstration is in August (which our usual group won't attend because it coincides with Spiral Heart's camp), but we will be attending the April 2003 demonstration. You can get more information at www.stopthebombs.org and see more pictures in the Photo Gallery.

Irish Flambeau is a Peace Witch and leads circle dances at every opportunity.
May 2002

Dancing for Peace at the Bomb Plant by Irish Flambeau
Appearing in the Summer 2002 issue of Reclaiming Quarterly

In April, Reclaiming witches from Georgia and Alabama participated in the peace demonstration outside the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN. The biannual demonstration was organized by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA). OREPA contends that our government is breaking international law of nuclear nonproliferation. Click
HERE to read startling facts about what's going on in Oak Ridge, the last full scale nuclear bomb plant in the U.S.

The day before the rally, Catwrenae, Parsley and Irish Flambeau from the
Gaia Reclaiming community led circle dances for OREPA's class on nonviolent activism. We were joined by Rivkahdara, Caitlin and Bill from Alabama. We were pleased that many of the participants remembered us and the dances we'd led the year before. We had already decided to repeat one of the dances as a recurring theme for this action, and were delighted when folks easily recalled that dance and said they'd been hoping we'd do that particular one (photo below).
"Spirit of Peace", from the Dances of Universal Peace.
photo by Rivkahdara
The day of the rally, we built a labyrinth near the staging grounds of the demonstration. We used flour, which worked fine, but since the grass was a little long it was hard to see unless you were walking it. In the future we plan on trying yellow caution tape and staking it down. While we were building the labyrinth, two squad cars arrived and a female police officer got out and asked us what we were doing. She was very pleasant. I explained and offered to show her the bag of flour, but she waved me off. She and the officer in the other car then just sat near us and had a conversation. There was no tension at all. Later, the director of OREPA came over and asked us if we were OK, since he had overheard a police radio broadcasting, "There's someone over in the field spreading white powder."

The rally consisted of informative speeches, live music, a children's art tent and a storyteller. Lunch was provided by Food Not Bombs. A giant puppet show told the story of a money maker deciding to build a bomb plant, much to the consternation of the nature spirits. The bomb plant was built by skull people overseen by a military woman on stilts, and protestors in the skit tried to convince the bomb people to stop. Death swooped in and overtook everyone, even the bomb makers. A grieving Goddess puppet then resurrected everyone and all the nature puppets. The watching crowd erupted into a spontaneous dance that evolved into a spiral dance. It was tremendous!
Photo by Irish Flambeau
The last event of the demonstration was the direct action. This year, because of 9-11, the bomb plant officials are enforcing a federal law against trespassing on the property. Previously they only arrested folks under city statutes. Four people crossed the line and were arrested. One of those was Tim Mellen, an employee of OREPA. Tim explained to me that they were glad the federal law would now be upheld, because they wanted to get into federal court in order to have a jury trial and be heard. Up until now, city charges have been thrown out by the judge.

After the arrest of the four people willing to face federal charges, two large affinity groups sat down and blocked the road, intending to be arrested on city charges. The police declined to arrest them or the giant puppets who were also taking part in the blockade. The groups sat there in for three hours in total peace.
Photo by Irish Flambeau
During that time, Gaia Reclaiming led a spiral dance in the street singing Beverly Frederick's song, "We Are Your People". We followed that with several Dances of Universal Peace. Police on Y-12 property looked on with binoculars. It became obvious to us that the police were not going to arrest the blockaders, so we left. We found out later that the affinity groups had later marched down to a busier intersection where they finally succeeded in being arrested. It's rather amusing that they had to work so hard to get arrested.
Photo by Rivkahdara
I personally wonder what other measures can be taken to get the word out about what is going on at the Y-12 bomb plant. My brother and his fiancee' live a short drive away, in Knoxville. Neither of them was aware that bombs were present there at all, let alone being built. They said that according to what they had seen in the local media, the only thing going on in Oak Ridge is research and some demonstrators getting arrested. I shared facts with them about what is going on there, but they didn't seem very interested. It's very difficult to know how to engage the greater populace when close family members don't want to hear what's going on.

Won't you join us in Oak Ridge? The next demonstration is in August (which our usual group won't attend because it coincides with Spiral Heart's camp), but we will be attending the April 2003 demonstration. You can get more information at www.stopthebombs.org and see more pictures in the Photo Gallery.

Irish Flambeau is a Peace Witch and leads circle dances at every opportunity.
Dancing for Peace at the Bomb Plant