"Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in God’s work to save the world."

ECAPC is a network of churches and Christians committed to the radical nonviolence of Jesus. St. Joan’s hosted one of the first Twin Cities ECAPC conferences in April of 2002 (see Events in Review for 2002 for a report.) There are several churches in the Twin Cities that are a part of this growing movement to “turn the world toward peace” by committing to do justice and reject violence. At St. Joan’s, the “working group” for ECAPC is the WAMM/St. Joan’s Peacemakers group. They hosted this month’s potluck supper.

After the meal and a time of fellowship, the film, Poison Dust, was shown. This video is a startling account of the after-effects suffered by three service men who have served in the Gulf and/or Iraqi wars due to their exposure to depleted uranium. Through personal interviews with these three men and one of their wives, we learn of their struggles to find out why they were experiencing physical problems upon their return from duty.

Depleted Uranium (DU) is what is left (U238) after enriched uranium is separated from natural uranium to produce fuel for nuclear reactors and bombs.

The film starts out with an interview of a young mother holding a baby in her arms. She explains how her child was born with an unexplained birth defect, and her husband, a soldier who served in Iraq, suffers from unexplained headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. In their attempts to learn about the “why” of their sufferings, they learn about DU and its effects on people who are exposed to it. They learn that their baby’s defect is similar to defects found in many Iraqi children who live in areas where the use of depleted uranium is more concentrated. The other veterans also become educated about DU. But, when the soldiers ask to be tested by the military, they are ridiculed and turned away. When they finally succeed in getting tested, their results get “lost” or “unreturned.”

285,292 of the 572,833 troops who served in the Gulf are chronically ill. Symptoms include respiratory, liver, and kidney dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, and low blood pressure. Birth defects are reported among some veterans’ newborn children.

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Rose Grengs has been a SJA parishioner since 1982. She is an immigration attorney and passionate about the subject. She is a member of the choir and active in the Peace Movement. She and her husband, Paul, routinely attend the 11:00 Mass. She is the mother of four children and grandmother of two. She is looking forward to retirement, travel and enjoys music, especially singer, songwriter, Greg Brown.

Depleted uranium is a dangerous radioactive waste that is causing untold human and environmental damage. A local company, Alliant Techsystems, manufactures weapons using this material. A group of dedicated activists demonstrate weekly outside this company’s doors in an effort to raise awareness and to stop further manufacture of weapons using this toxic substance.

While the job of educating the public and stopping the use of DU sometimes seems overwhelming, there are some things you can do:

• Support efforts to get a law passed in Minnesota requiring that our soldiers be tested for DU. Connecticut and Louisiana have passed such laws already.
• Show the video, “Poison Dust.” It is available for showing to your group or organization. To get a copy, call John or Marie Braun at 612-522-1861.
• Join Alliant Action’s weekly vigil at Alliant Tech, held every Wednesday morning, 7-8 a.m. Go to CircleVision.org for more information about Alliant Tech and the Alliant Action vigil.

DU is cheap. The government makes it available to war contractors like Alliant TechSystems in Edina for munitions. Some 740,000 tons, in unstable hexafluoride form, are stockpiled at three U.S. Department of Energy sites – Paducah, Kentucky; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There is no plan as yet for DU waste disposal.

DU is deadly. DU combined with titanium is an extremely hard alloy and makes devastating armor piercing ammunition. The shells literally burn through armor on impact. The U.S. military has used it in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia.

DU is radioactive and chemically toxic. DU aerosolizes on impact and forms a dust that can be breathed or ingested. The “alpha” particles DU emits – high energy clumps of protons and neutrons—wreak havoc inside tissue, bombarding cell nuclei, breaking chains of DNA, damaging genes and causing cancers. DU has caused unprecedented cancer rates among civilians and soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere, and birth defects in their children – our children.

DU is illegal. International law forbids weapons of indiscriminate effect, including radioactive weapons. In 1997, a United Nations Sub-Commission adopted a resolution (1997/36) repeating that DU weapons are incompatible with humanitarian and human rights law. Manufacture and use of depleted uranium is a war crime.

WE CAN NO LONGER BE SILENT. FIND OUT ABOUT DU.