Vigil at N-8

Five years ago at Minuteman Missile Silo N-8 in New Raymer, Colorado, three nuns were arrested for pouring blood on a silo lid, and had the book thrown at them by a federal government tired of civil disobedience. Sixty-two years ago this July 16, the Trinity test was conducted at the north end of the Alamogordo Test Range in New Mexico. To commemorate both events, 50 members of Colorado peace groups went to New Raymer July 14 to urge the federal government to "uproot, not upgrade" the Minuteman missiles in Colorado and Wyoming. Far too many U.S. citizens think we are closer to global disarmament now that the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union has reverted to the authoritarian but open Russian Federation. Let's look again at the Nuclear Posture Review, Stockpile Stewardship, and other U.S. national security documents. Let's pay attention to Russia's July 14 decision to pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty because of the U.S. position on nuclear disarmament. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was right to set the Doomsday Clock ahead. We are nowhere near nuclear disarmament.