While in Jonesborough, TN, members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation to halt production of uranium weapons offered reflections during the 10-day period -- between May 18 and 27, 2007 -- on what they encountered. The focus of the campaign was U238 uranium weapons cores produced at Aerojet Ordnance.

 Today our group stationed itself across the road from depleted uranium producer, AeroJet Ordnance, to protest its innocuous looking factory of death.
 Determined to "turn swords into plowshares," we sported a banner and held placards decrying the plant's odious product and urging it to stop its production. Several cars honked their support of our action, while others sped by. One neighbor came over to cheer on our efforts. A toxicologist stood with us to answer our questions about DU and its lethal effects on tens of thousands of people and its damage to the environment.
 Our purpose remains to affirm life and to stop the devastation Aerojet's business wreaks locally and abroad. We'll continue to keep working for Aerojet's change of heart.

CPT DU REFLECTION: HOW CAN WE SPREAD THE WORD? (May 22, 2007)

By Wes Rehberg

 With the case so clear and evident that weaponized uranium kills, deforms and sickens so profoundly, how can we who feel this way create a deeper public awareness of the dangers? This is a question that continues to run through my mind as I reflect on our delegations encounters with former workers, activists in northeast Tennessee, veterans and scholars during our time in Jonesborough.
 We've stood together before a producer of these weapons, Aerojet Ordnance, before its fabricating plant, ordinary looking along a rural road. Yet what leaves the plant eventually poisons the planet as its everlastingly killing product spreads among us and other forms of life on earth.
 The word needs to be spread and the production stopped, no doubt. What is called "DU" is really a nuclear weapon that keeps on killing after its initial destructive foray. Absolutely terrible and terrifying.

CPT DU REFLECTIONS: THE WIND CARRIES THE MESSAGE (May 23, 2007)

 The photo and flash video below tell the story -- balloons were sent aloft for two days so that those who find them could let local activists know to where they traveled, and offering the thought that they were sent from Aerojet Ordnance's location, that the winds that carried them also carry the emanations from this weaponized uranium producer.
The photo is by Murray Lumley of CPT-Canada.

 

CPT DU REFLECTIONS: WHEN COOPERATION PREVAILS, THINGS HAPPEN (May 24, 2007)

By Ron Forthofer

   Our CPT delegation on DU planned two major events on successive days this week. The first event was a release of 200 balloons across from the Aerojet Ordnance plant in Jonesborough in an attempt to get some idea of how far and where possible air contamination from Aerojet travels.   
   The second event was a press conference involving local and CPT participants and, hopefully, a representative from Aerojet. The press conference was to be followed by a release of another 200+ balloons. These were daunting tasks for us to pull off in a short period of time, but the delegation rose to the occasion and pulled off both events. 
   The preparation for the balloon release required stuffing a note into the balloons. The note asked the balloon recipients to inform a local contact of the recipients' locations and also asked the recipients to contact Aerojet.  As the first balloons soared to the skies, our spirits rose with the balloons.  
   On the following day, Linda Modica, representing the Sierra Club, and Cliff Kindy of CPT met with the press, but Aerojet continued to refuse to meet with us. Both Linda and Cliff provided great responses to questions from a reporter from the Johnson City Press as well as reporters from the delegation.  We used an empty chair with a nuclear warning sign to show the lack of an Aerojet representative.  
   We were all elated as well as tired after two great days of events.  I am really impressed with what we accomplished in a short period of time.  
   Adding to the events was a brief article about the balloon release and then a longer article that appeared today in the Press.  The article included a great picture showing the empty chair and the nuclear warning symbol.  I think these articles will help alert the community to the potential risks associated with the processing of nuclear wastes into weapons.

Photo by Murray Lumley -- Jane Wright, Cliff Kindy and
Linda Modica at press conference ...