Oak Ridge

At the 12th annual Hiroshima Day demonstration at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 23 people, including two juveniles, were arrested. While over 130 supporters looked on, three waves of protesters stepped across the "blue line" to issue citizens' citations to factory representatives for violations of international law. Local police drove those arrested to the police station, where the activists were cited for trespass and released.

Four days earlier, District Attorney Jim Ramsey affirmed his earlier refusal to prosecute in a letter to Oak Ridge Police Chief David Beams. "...we expect the city of Oak Ridge to use its city court and municipal ordinances to prosecute violations of minor infractions... There is no sense playing into their hands by cooperating in civil disobedience to overcrowd our jails and the justice system." As expected, the state trespass charges were dismissed nearly as soon as the demonstrators were cited.

Preceding the action, the march on the plant was met at the site by a couple of dozen members of the group Citizen Soldiers for the Atomic Bomb. Group "commander" Stacy Griffin told the press, "Why do we let this go on? What they are doing is treason. They don't love this country."

One member of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, sponsor of the annual demonstrations and a continuing civil disobedience campaign, observed that while Fr. Marcus Keyes solemnly commissioned those who were about to risk arrest, he was accompanied by the amplified recording of Sgt. Barry Sadler on the Citizen Soldier's public address system, singing his Ballad of the Green Berets: "Put silver wings on my son's chest/ Make him one of America's best..."

For more information, contact the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, 100 Tulsa Rd., Suite 4A, Oak Ridge, TN 37380, (423)483-8202; email: orep@earthlink.net web: www.stopthebombs.org