This past summer we toured the Nevada Test Site and we pondered the tragedy of Earth destruction. We reflected on the decades of secrecy and buried truths regarding nuclear testing, radiation, and their drastic health effects incurred over the years. The parallel is that ELF has been fully operational at Clam Lake, Wisconsin since 1985 and at Republic, Michigan since 1989. We can not and will not wait for decades of environmental hazards and cancer/leukemia risks to be wrought by electromagnetic fields before stopping ELF. The time is now.
Send a copy of the letter to Sec. of Defense William Perry also at the same address. Tell Mr. Dalton that you are in agreement with U.S. Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl and Representatives David Obey, Bruce Vento, and Martin Sabo from Wisconsin and Minnesota who asked that Project ELF be considered in the 1995 round of military base closures. (These five legislators wrote to Jim Courter, Chair of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission urging consideration for closure. No representatives or senators from Michigan signed the letter.) Some reasons you may include are:
a. ELF provides the Navy with a first-strike nuclear capability which is not usable and is counter-productive for U.S. security.
b. It is time for the Navy to reduce its aggressive posture and extreme nuclear build-up. The Soviet Union has collapsed. The Cold War is over.
c. Consider these budget cuts in a tight budget year. Closing ELF would save $16 million each year. This amount is invested predominately in capital and operational costs rather than being labor intensive, making it more feasible to close.
d. Environmental effects on employees, nature, and residents are too costly to risk. The frequencies used have not proved to be safe.
A brief letter will take a few minutes of your time and is so urgent. The deadline date for impact is March 1, 1995
2 Be part of Direct Action. Contact Anathoth Community (7l5) 472-8721 or Nukewatch (608)767-3023 for a schedule of the quarterly civil resistance actions in Wisconsin. The next gathering at Clam Lake is January 14 - 16, the Martin Luther King holiday. There have been four major actions a year for the past three years at the Wisconsin site, resulting in more than 255 arrests and a total of nine months in jail along with fines or other consequences. Legal monthly vigils are also beginning. These are faithful folks!
Contact U.P. Faith and Resistance - Martha, (906) 475-7582 or Ardeth/Carol (906) 225-0271 regarding nonviolent civil resistance at ELF in Republic, Michigan. An outpouring of faithful action from 1984 - 1986 in an effort to block ELF from being constructed and becoming operational resulted in persons spending more than a year of imprisonment in total. Since August of this year more than forty persons have participated in monthly actions for the symbolic closure effort at the transmitter site. There were no arrests for encampments, chaining entrances, or blockades during the first three months. In November Jean and Joe Gump, Cory Bartholomew, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte placed a ladder and climbed over the razor-wired fence into the site. All were arrested, jailed four days and released without being prosecuted. Federal warrants may be issued. Actions are being planned for Holy Innocents, Dec. 28th and Martin Luther King, Jan. 15th.
3. Letters to the editor of newspapers in Michigan would be helpful in educating local people. Suggest that the U.S. Congressional leaders in every district be contacted. Have the legislators send in writing their position on ELF. (It is included in every congressional budget annually.) Encourage each person to register opposition publicly to ELF.
K.I. Sawyer public affairs announced that the last of the B-52s has left the base. The bombardment wing and squadrons have been decommissioned. Closure will take place on September 30, 1995. Carriers and nuclear weapons have been ordered to Minot AFB in North Dakota and Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. This makes Michigan a nuclear-weapon-free State in the near future. Meanwhile, ELF, the communication trigger for launching nuclear weapons from Trident submarines continues to keep us on the brink of genocide. Together we will close it down, dismantle it, and convert it to plowshares. Peace.