Friday, February 10
7:00 reception, 7:30 program,
7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Avenue Northeast  Atlanta, GA 30307

No RSVP necessary. First come first serve for first 200 people. For more information, please contact Georgia WAND (404) 524-5999 or email courtney@wand.org

Please join the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition and several other peace organizations on Saturday, Feb. 4th to add your voice to thousands across the nation who will gather for a day of mass action to stop a U.S. war on Iran.
When: Saturday, February 4, 4pm-6pm

Where: CNN Center

To get more info, check out the event on Facebook and connect with other activists around the nation who will be attending local events!

Beginning Wednesday, February 1 & EACH WEEK ON WEDNESDAY
Rally Against Endless War

In response to increasing U.S. and Israeli threats against Iran (most recently in Obama's jingoistic State of the Union address), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition is stepping up the tempo of the Endless War rallies. Beginning this Wednesday, rallies will be 5 to 6 p.m. WEEKLY going forward, at a new location, Ponce de Leon & Briarcliff/Moreland. Join us!

• No War with Iran, US Out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. Drones Kill Kids! Bring the Troops Home Now, Money for Jobs and Education – Not War and Occupation, Healthcare – Not Warfare, Close Guantanamo! NO to Endless War! Free Bradley Manning!

February 6
Georgia WAND's Courtney Hanson on "Radio Free Journalists"

Tune in to WRFG 89.3 for "Radio Free Journalists" Georgia WAND's Courtney Hanson will on the show discussing organizing efforts against nuclear power expansion in Georgia.

When: Monday, February 6, 12:00 PM-1:00 PM 

Where: 89.3FM

February 7
Stop Nukes Community Meeting

Now is  the time to join the ever-growing movement to stop nuclear power expansion in Georgia. From a campaign to overturn the nuclear construction cost recovery pay each Georgia Power ratepayer is charged with, to event planning for a March 11 day of remembrance for Fukushima or an environmental justice conference in Atlanta, community members with various interests and backgrounds are banding together to stop nukes in Georgia.

When: Tuesday, February 7, 7:00pm,

Where: Basement space of 42 Degrees, 453 Moreland Ave NE. Please enter through the back door, free parking available in back in lot north adjacent of the Bond parking lot accessible via Euclid or Moreland.

February 10
REAL State of the Union

Don't miss Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Jay Bookman’s annual take on the state of American politics. Local writer, political satirist and co-author and illustrator of "Americapedia: Taking the Dumb Out of Freedom", Andisheh Nouraee, will then  respond before Bookman opens the floor to the audience for a Q & A. No RSVP necessary. First come first serve for first 200 people. For more information, please contact Georgia WAND (404) 524-5999 or email courtney@wand.org

When: Friday, February 10, 7:00 PM reception, 7:30 PM program.

Where: 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30307.

For more information, email courtney@wand.org

February 21
Behind the Wall: Life, Love and Struggle
A Talk with Elizabeth Beck

Elizabeth Beck spent the last six months living and teaching in Bethlehem on a Fulbright grant. Elizabeth is a professor at Georgia Sate University in Social Work, an expert in the field of Restorative Justice and the author of "In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families".  The Palestinian Narrative is one that is less known.  While sides do not need to be taken it is difficult to understand the complexities of the Middle East and the role of the United States against the backdrop of limited information. This talk and slide show--based on Rich Wile’s book “Behind the Wall: Life, Love and  Struggle Palestine” and the stories of Elizabeth’s Beck’s friends and her own experiences behind the wall—bring some of the narrative of  life love and struggle to the discourse.  Limited copies of Rich’s book will be for sale.

When: Tuesday, February 21, 7:30 PM. Space is limited; please RSVP to jesse.bathrick@gmail.com

Where: The Outer Space for Inner Work in Candler Park, located behind 1307 Iverson Street, between Ferguson Street and Candler Street.

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, February 1, 2012

ContactCourtney Hanson
courtney@wand.org
404.524.5999

Department of Energy refuses to restore environmental monitoring to Georgia communities near nuclear site

ATLANTA-The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Tuesday that it does not plan to restore environmental monitoring to Georgia communities surrounding the Savannah River Site (SRS), a US nuclear weapons complex notorious for its Cold War legacy radioactive waste.

This monitoring, which was cut in Georgia 2003, tests drinking water, rain, crops, fish, air and more near SRS in order to protect residents in poor and rural areas, including Georgia’s Burke and Screven Counties, where many people rely on water from private wells, home-grown crops and fish from the Savannah River.

“The DOE’s obstruction to environmental monitoring in Georgia is a gross example of environmental injustice,” Bobbie Paul, Georgia WAND Executive Director said. “Radiation does not acknowledge state boundaries. The people living downwind and downstream of SRS deserve to know what’s in the water, air and food that they consume.”

In 2010, then DOE Assistant Secretary, Dr. Ines Triay pledged that monitoring would be restored to Georgia with a 5-year contract independent of any restrictions from SRS.   In February 2011, SRS and DOE reached a deal with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for $700,000 annually with the agreement that the check would be delivered to Georgia within 30 days. The money was never sent and in July 2011, DOE reported they would only fund $300,000 annually, less than half of what the program received annually when the its funding was cut in 2003. Now, the offer is off the table.

The DOE, which still funds $1.5 million annually for monitoring in South Carolina, said funding it in Georgia would be redundant, and that the money is not available. But Georgia citizens living near SRS are concerned about their safety.

“I’ve lost sisters, brothers, cousins and friends to cancer. Every family I know has lost somebody,” Annie Laura Stephens, president of the Burke County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who grew up and lives near SRS, said. “We’ve tried to have meetings to find out what’s going on in our area, we’re still in the dark. It seems that nobody is listening but Jesus.”

The most recent Georgia monitoring data (from 2002) released in 2004 by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division shows elevated levels of radioactive tritium in Georgia communities surrounding SRS. The report showed dangerously high levels in river water, drinking water, fish and leafy vegetation.

Known by local residents as ‘the bomb plant’, SRS is currently tasked with waste management, waste clean-up after reprocessing, plutonium disposition, and tritium production for nuclear weapons. It is a national superfund site, and has a legacy of contamination spanning back to the Cold War, which is why environmental monitoring was originally implemented there.

###

Explosion in the Bikini Islands. Photos of Dr. Tom L. Edmondson from collection of Patrick Edmondson

I was recently present for an astonishing conversation that worked its way from near-death experiences to the Bikini hydrogen bomb test in the South Pacific. More than one man in our group had a father who had participated, in some historic way, with nuclear weapons. A fond acquaintance, Patrick, whose father, Dr. Tom L. Edmondson, saved his life when he was 10 years old said, “The house I grew up in had my father’s first-hand photographs of the Bikini mushroom cloud hanging in the kitchen.”

***

Without one word of public debate the world woke up on an August day to the staggering face of atomic energy. On that day, 600,000 nuclear workers were institutionalized in secret cities building nuclear bombs. The decades which followed would see trillions of tax dollars lavished to build a nuclear industry with classified budgets kept even from Congress.

The horror of nuclear weapons was sold to the people as saving lives by winning the war quickly. The hydrogen bomb, which started the Cold War by obliterating the island of Bikini in 1946, was effectively glossed over by fun, scanty new bathing suits and an explosion of consumerism blasted into orbit by sexy advertising and easy credit — the American Way of Life.

Factories in a chosen few countries cranked out a half-million pounds of atomic gold, that is, plutonium, of which only 15 pounds can make a bomb like the one that destroyed Nagasaki. Soon our home planet had 30,000 atomic weapons aimed at it, each with the destructive force of 1,000 Hiroshimas. The government-sponsored nuclear industry operated in secret and without environmental oversight for decades until uranium from what neighbors thought was a dog-food factory turned up in an Ohio resident’s well and widespread contamination at the nation’s vast complex of nuclear weapons factories came to light.

Heavily subsidized and protected from liability, the nuclear industry also built over 400 nuclear reactors around the globe to produce electricity, and several full-scale nuclear meltdowns are being endured by Earth’s inhabitants as well as contamination from mining and manufacturing at every step of the uranium fuel chain.

How can ordinary citizens possibly bring the powerful and secretive atomic age to a safe closure?

Public response to the fact of uranium, plutonium and hydrogen bombs that could destroy whole cities was swift and clear. The

“Love Your Mother” artwork by Glenn Carroll

grassroots Ban the Bomb movement started from the heart of radical Christians who could see that nuclear weapons threaten all life on God’s earth and who refused to accept from the start the abomination spawned by the military industrial complex.

Spiritual leaders stood at the forefront of a citizens movement which challenged the morality and legality of nuclear weapons in the courts of justice. Ordinary people joined priests and nuns to get arrested for acts of creative nonviolence and civil disobedience such as hammering a solid gold replica of a nuclear weapon in General Electric’s corporate office or blocking a train transporting nuclear weapons. These simple acts of human resistance to nuclear annihilation bore fruit in 1996 when the International Court of Justice found nuclear weapons possession and threat of use to be illegal.

The Bomb itself contains important lessons. The pictures of the whole Earth which inspired an environmental movement were sent from rockets developed to deliver nuclear weapons which could destroy the other side of the Earth. The powerful mushroom cloud showed us that we are all in it together. And the atom itself teaches us the power that is expressed in a critical mass.

Although the nuclear industry seems entrenched and intractable, it is not even 70 years old, less than one human lifetime. For all its power and captive adherents, nuclear is beginning to crumble under its own unnatural weight. Wholesale production of nuclear weapons on our planet has ceased. The last nuclear weapons test occurred 20 years ago. The trend for nuclear power is steadily downward due to reactor aging and even if the most optimistic version of the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is produced, it will not be enough to overcome the trend. Meanwhile, solar and wind power are sprinting ahead and shaping a much more wholesome future for our planet.

Martin Luther King Jr. testified clearly about the power of love when he said, “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

Nuclear Watch South and Georgia WAND are fine examples of the proverbial “small group of thoughtful, committed people who change the world.” Nuclear technology represents an extreme of a dangerously outmoded way of living based on fear and competition. When we swing back towards love and cooperation a new world will be possible.

Join us in protesting, marching, meeting, testifying and organizing to create a nuclear-free future! Mobilizing our hearts, minds, and bodies we will unleash the power of love in the people as we sing the immortal Georgia WAND song, “if we can only start a chain reaction of the human heart what a wonderful world this will be!”

Photo by Susan Keith

Glenn Carroll is a visual artist and long-time coordinator of Nuclear Watch South, a grassroots environmental organization established in 1977, which frequently collaborates with Georgia WAND on nuclear issues. Current campaigns include stopping Georgia Power's reactor expansion at Vogtle and shutting down the MOX plutonium fuel project at Savannah River Site. www.nonukesyall.org

Now is the time for us to be bold, brave, stand together, and grow a movement to abolish corporate personhood.

Let’s restore our democracy - one  that defends and protects the essential needs and rights of human beings -needs like clean air, clean water, a safe environment that includes safe and secure food - essentials that large corporations do not need.  For these corporations do not live or breathe in and out like you and me -  profit is their sole means of survival.

We know that here in Georgia huge corporate interests - long before Citizens United (a clever name and an oxymoron)  - have long used their power to control or intimidate citizens, judicial appointees and elected officials, to get their way.

Environmentalists know how hard it is to try to shut down coal-fired plants, to stop the insanity of building dangerous nuclear plants, to stop landfills, halt the continual pollution of their neighborhoods when there are short term dollars to be made and billions of dollars in federal loans to be guaranteed. For corporate persons only!

There has always been an uneven playing field between citizens and corporations but now that field is immense, cavernous.

We must say no to corporate personhood that allows corporations to wield the coercive force of law to overpower human beings and communities.

Especially our small rural towns that were once held together by hardworking folks farming the land, building relationships, establishing deep roots and families, creating a shared history, cherishing community, and love.

One such town is a nuclear reactor community in Burke County - Shell Bluff - and its concerned citizens who know the pain of community dissolved and held in a stranglehold  by a corporate power.

A power so big that was able to come in and destroy a community, promising it jobs and who knows what else. This giant saw land for nuclear power reactors, wanted it, went through the courts, and, through questionable means, got it. 25 years later this once thriving community lives in fear, isolation and poverty.  How could this happen?

It happened because this great power came in, and in its greed, failed to love. What did we expect?

We must restore the love and reverse the evil that corporations can do, with the blessing of the courts.

As MLK, Jr. said:

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.  Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

If we agree with Martin then Citizens United vs FEC must be a mistake.

Let’s correct this mistake of corporate personhood that has no heart and cannot love. Let’s move to amend.

Bobbie Paul serves as Executive Director of Georgia WAND. She has spent almost 25 years supporting the vision of WAND’s founder – Dr. Helen Caldicott – to gradually rid the world of nuclear weapons. She has helped the Georgia chapter define its three areas of concentration across the state and Southeast region:  Peace in Action, Environmental Justice and Empowering People to Act Politically. Paul has watch-dogged Savannah River Site (SRS) for over fifteen years and led campaigns to successfully restore Department of Energy (DOE) environmental monitoring of SRS in Georgia. Paul is a former theatre professional and the co-founder of a regional theatre company in St. Petersburg, Florida (now known as American Stage Company). She has worked for the US Department of State as a theatre specialist in Egypt and Jordan.

The meeting, called by the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and Georgia Women's Action for New Directions, began with a luncheon, and featured speakers the Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, Bobbie Paul, Georgia WAND Executive Director, Helen Butler, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Executive Director, Rita Jackson Samuels, lifelong civil rights activist, Annie Laura Stephens, Georgia WAND organizer, Reverend Willie Tomlin, Reverend Peter Parker, Reverend Charles Utley and Bettieanne Hart.

Shell Bluff residents also spoke out, telling their stories and expressing many worries about the condition of their land as well as health and safety of themselves and their neighbors. The safety of drinking water, outdated radios used for safety alerts from Plant Vogtle, the tough choice between a job at the plant or being sick, questions about why so many people are dying of cancer were among concerns raised.

Georgia WAND and the Coalition for the People's Agenda invite to get on the bus to Shell Bluff, Georgia for a community meeting and day of action! The day will include dialogue and lunch with the community living directly in the shadow of nuclear sites Plant Voglte, nuclear power plant, and Savannah River Site, nuclear weapons complex, a community meeting, press conference and tour of the area.

The Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery will offer his insights and inspiration.

Don't miss this chance to learn from the residents and see first hand the impacts of the nuclear industry in our state.

When: Saturday, January 7, 9am

Where: The bus will leave from the Georgia Hill Library building, 250 Georgia Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30312

Plenty of parking is available and the building is accessible via MARTA bus #32 Bouldercrest/Georgia Aquarium. We suggest a $10 donation to cover the bus trip, lunch and snacks on the bus. Payment can be made in cash or checks made payable to Georgia WAND Education Fund the day of the trip.

January 8
Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace Awards

Come and listen to contest winners read their winning essays on peace! The top 5 of nearly 100 contestants will be awarded. Congressman John Lewis has been asked to present the awards. Refreshments will be served.

When: 2:30-4:30 pm, Sunday, January 8

Where: American Friends Service Committee, 60 Walton Street

For more information, contact Betsey Miklethun 770.662.5544 or Minnie Ruffin 404.691.3231.

January 10
Educational Event- Protecting the Most Vulnerable

From January through March, Georgia WAND will be at the Gold Dome working  to pass a resolution to create a Study Committee on the impacts of radioactive tritium on women, pregnant women and children.

Join us for a community educational event to learn more about this critical issue! Lisa Ledwidge, Campaign Coordinator of Healthy from the Start, a campaign to include women, children and future generations in environmental health standards will speak about why health standards don't protect the most vulnerable.

When: Tuesday, January 10, at 6:30pm

Where: Inman Park Methodist Church

Ledwidge will discuss health effects of radiation and other contaminants from nuclear power plants on women and children, and what we can do to protect the most vulnerable in the population.

A community meeting to plan grassroots organizing against nuclear power expansion in Georgia will follow the presentation. Call Georgia WAND 404.524.5999 for more information

January 16
Occupy Atlanta Rally to Save the Glen Iris Home

Occupy Atlanta has been occupying the Pittman home for several months to keep it form being foreclosed upon. Please show your support for this local family!

When: Saturday, January 14 from 4-7pm

Where: 404 Glen Iris Dr., Atlanta, GA 30308.

Click here to read more.

January 16
King March

Come march with the Georgia WAND contingent! We'll meet at the corner of Auburn and Peachtree, in front of Starbucks. Georgia WAND usually marches near the end of the parade, so you'll have the chance to see other marches as they pass by!

When: Monday, January 16, 1:15 pm

Where: Peachtree and Auburn

For more information, call Georgia WAND 404.524.5999 or email courtney@wand.org

January 19
AFSC Annual King Peace Program

This program will  lift up the message of peace in King’s final book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community. In1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education. With a universal message of hope that continues to resonate, King demanded an end to global suffering, asserting that humankind-for the first time-has the resources and technology to eradicate poverty.

When: Thursday January 19  6:30-7pm children's program, 7pm- 8:30pm p rogram, 8:30pm-9pm reception.

Where:  Atlanta Friends Meetinghouse, 701 West Howard Ave, Decatur.

For additional information or to volunteer, contact: Alice Lovelace, 404-586-0460 ext.17 or alovelace@afsc.org

January 20
Rally Against Corporate Personhood

Come help call attention to the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United v. FEC decision, a ruling overturning longstanding rules limiting corporate spending in our political process. The decision was a victory for already powerful industries and their lobbying firms over the voice of the citizen and the charities that support we the people. Say NO to corporate personhood!

When:  Friday, January 20, 2012 beginning at 2 PM

Where: Courtyard of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, 75 Spring Street, Atlanta, GA 30303

Georgia WAND Executive Director, Bobbie Paul, will speak briefly at the rally, joining many progressive partner organizations. For more information, contact Don Dressel ~ dondressel@gmail.com

January 24
"Doctors of the Dark Side"

On the 10th anniversary of transfer of detainees to Guantanamo and the upcoming 3rd anniversary of President Obama's Executive Order on Gitmo's closure, please join us for the screening of the acclaimed film "Doctors of the Dark Side," a documentary on involvement of the medical profession in the U.S. government's torture program.

When: Tuesday, January 24th at 7pm

Where: PushPush Theater 121 New Street  Decatur, GA 30030

Co-sponsored by: Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition Atlanta, ACLU of Georgia, AFSC, Amnesty International, International Action Center-Atlanta, National Lawyers Guild-Ga Chapter, Project South, and US Human Rights Network.

January 25
Rally Against Endless War

Join the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition to rally against endless war, calling for the US Out of Afghanistan and Pakistan; Stop U.S. Drones Kill Kids!; No War with Iran; Bring the Troops Home Now; Money for Jobs and Education – Not War and Occupation; Healthcare, Not Warfare; Free Bradley Manning!

When: Wednesday, January 25, 4-5pm

Where: Moreland Avenue and Caroline Street (Edgewood Retail district)

For more information, visit www.georgiapeace.org or call 404.522.4500

January 28
A Call to Action: Uniting to end Georgia's Death Penalty

Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Amnesty International will host this state-wide death penalty abolition summit.

When: Saturday, January 28, 10am - 2pm

Where: Ebenezer Baptist Church, 407 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30312

Please RSVP to info@gfadp.org or call 404.250.3540

Join us for a community educational event Tuesday, January 10, at 6:30pm, Inman Park Methodist Church to learn more about this critical issue! Lisa Ledwidge, Campaign Coordinator of Healthy from the Start, a campaign to include women, children and future generations in environmental health standards will speak about why health standards don't protect the most vulnerable.

Ledwidge will discuss health effects of radiation and other contaminants from nuclear power plants on women and children, and what we can do to protect the most vulnerable in the population.

A community meeting to plan grassroots organizing against nuclear power expansion in Georgia will follow the presentation. Call Georgia WAND 404.524.5999 for more information.

Protestors outside of Georgia Power December 23, 2011

For many, the end of December marks a slowdown from the regular grind – a break from school, work, and being chained to our smart phones, a rare opportunity to tune out the world.

Perhaps this is why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chose Dec. 22 to approve the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactor design, putting Georgia Power Co. one important step closer to beginning construction on the first two nuclear reactors in the United States in 30 years, and putting them right in our backyard at Plant Vogtle, in Burke County, Georgia. They thought no one would notice.

But the decision wasn’t overlooked. Protestors gathered outside Georgia Power Dec. 23 to send a clear message: NO nuclear reactor is healthy, financially viable or safe and we don’t want any (more) in Georgia.

Plant Vogtle, which already operates two reactors, is housed in the small community of Shell Bluff, about 20 miles southeast of Augusta. It sits directly across the Savannah River from the Savannah River Site, a nuclear weapons complex built to produce nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Designated a national Superfund site because of its hazardous nuclear waste, SRS’s primary mission today is legacy contamination cleanup.

Adding to the degradation, nuclear power reactors 1 and 2 at Plant Vogtle started operating in 1987 and 1989. An independent study by the Radiation and Public Health Project found that the cancer death rate for children and adolescents in the ten counties surrounding the plant rose 58.5%, between 1987 and 1990 while the national average decreased 14.1%. Cancer rates for adults in Burke County alone rose dramatically as well, most markedly in African Americans (30.7%) all while the national rates decreased.

These high cancer rates likely result less from air pollutants and more from radioactive contaminants in drinking water and food. However, no comprehensive environmental monitoring is happening in Georgia. Residents living downwind and downstream of Plant Vogtle don’t know if their water is safe to drink, if local crops, fish or game are safe to eat - if the land they’ve been living off for generations are actually killing them.

Lack of data provides the perfect excuse for the industry to continue to put profits over the people they’re ignoring. The public, not Georgia Power, is bearing the financial burden and Georgians are getting hit twice. Because the default rate on nuclear loans is over 50%, Wall Street won’t take the risk, so the government stepped in, granting Georgia Power an $8.33 billion taxpayer-funded federal loan guarantee.

Georgia Power is also charging every customer an extra ‘tax’ each month to help finance the construction of the two new reactors (check your bill for the "nuclear construction cost recovery fee.") Already $42 million over budget on the project, the fee is nearly three times as much as originally planned. Ratepayers could be shelling out as much as $15 extra per month by 2015, the company says.  Making matters worse, Vogtle reactors 1 and 2 went over budget by about 2000%, and the Public Service Commission struck down a risk sharing mechanism that would hold Georgia Power, not the public, responsible for their cost overages on the next two. Ratepayers can probably expect to be shelling out much more than just $15 per month by the time it’s all said and done.

Even though the industry doesn’t seem to see the consequences of putting the health and financial burden on the public, the safety risk is nearly impossible to ignore. Images of nuclear reactors up in flames, of parents swiping Geiger counters over their radioactive children, of abandoned playgrounds and schools have saturated the media since the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in March – the worst nuclear catastrophe in history, and a dire warning against America’s so-called ‘nuclear renaissance.’

If it goes unheeded and the unthinkable comes to light in Georgia, it won’t be the nuclear industry that pays the ultimate price.

Courtney Hanson is Public Outreach Director at Georgia WAND. She is a writer, environmental activist and women’s rights advocate in Atlanta. Prior to moving to the south, she worked as a journalist in Chicago, covering education, personalities, community events, women’s issues, homelessness and poverty.

They day will include dialogue and lunch with the community living directly in the shadow of nuclear sites Plant Voglte, nuclear power plant, and Savannah River Site, nuclear weapons complex, a community meeting, press conference and tour of the area.

The Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery will offer his insights and inspiration.

Don't miss this chance to learn from the residents and see first hand the impacts of the nuclear industry in our state.

The bus will leave from the Georgia Hill Library building, 250 Georgia Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30312 at 9:00am sharp.  Plenty of parking is available and the building is accessible via MARTA bus #32 Bouldercrest/Georgia Aquarium. We suggest a $10 donation to cover the bus trip, lunch and snacks on the bus. Payment can be made in cash or checks made payable to Georgia WAND Education Fund the day of the trip.

Itinerary:

We encourage you to meet us at 8:30. We’ll have coffee and doughnuts available before getting on the bus.

We will arrive in Shell Bluff at Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church (1582 Ben Hatcher Road, Waynesboro, GA 30830) around noon. The itinerary for the day is as follows:

Noon- Lunch in the fellowship hall, hosted by the parishioners at Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church and Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff

1:00- Meeting in Sanctuary*

3:30 –Media Interviews with Dr. Lowery

4:00 Tour of Area including banks of Savannah River

4:45 – On the road back to Atlanta

7:30/8:00-arrive back in Atlanta

We will provide water and light snacks on the bus ride back to Atlanta. There is a bathroom on the bus as well as TV screens and a DVD player- so be prepared for a short, fun, educational video to help pass the time.

*The community meeting is co-sponsored by the Coalition for the People’s Agenda and Georgia WAND, however all participants will be guests of Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church and its parishioners as well as the community of Shell Bluff. A very spiritually connected community, residents there are eager to welcome the Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, the People’s Agenda, and concerned citizens from across the state. It is hoped that this meeting will provide an opportunity to hear personal stories from those who have lived in the area for years and gain insight into the environmental and economic justice issues which prevail.

Please RSVP to courtney@wand.org or 404.524.5999 ASAP to reserve your spot on bus or for more information.