Smoke Signals June 1991 . page 10
The Environment
PeaceworkVono
a half time position where I was still in Coos Bay but
commuting to Salem twice a month. Then in August of
1989 1 moved to Salem to work in the office on a full time
basis. The state coordinator at that time was Don Skinner
and I was the other employee which we called administra
tive staff. Don left in May and I became the state coordi
nator then.
Smoke Signals : How docs someone like Susan Gordan
get into something like this?
Gordon: It's sort of interesting but I did alot of organ
izing when I was in high school during the Vietnam war and
I was very involved in my church at that time and did some
literary magazines at my school. And, I actually became
burned out by the end of high school though they didn't
have terms for organizers at that point or for being burned
out as an organizer but, when I got to college I didn't do
anything and really shied away from political involvement
for along time. But , after my daughter was born in 1981 1
no longer could not do anything. I felt a deep responsibility
towards her to get back involved and become a leader in
changing what was going on and protecting her future. So
I started with an environmental group when I was in Coos
Bay in 1978. After that I began doing more volunteer work
with the local chapter there which was called the Bay Area
Peace Alliance, and I was part of the group that formed
Peace Works by attending the statewide meetings and by
that point I was becoming active in the local chapter which
became a Peace Works Chapter. I'm definitely an organ
izer, that's where my skills are and I'm also a leader and if
I get involved in something I can't sit on the sidelines.
Smoke Signals : Let's talk about the actual protest that
recently took place in Nevada and could you give me some
details about that demonstration against the testing of
nuclear arms.
nies. There was a Christian ceremony where they did a
communion kind of thing and Corbin Harney, who is the
Shoshone Spiritual Leader, did aShoshone Prayer. He also
did a peace pipe ceremony on the stage with the Soviets that
were there. There were several speakers from the stage
and some music. I didn't get down to the front where they
were crossing the fence. I didn't see what happened at the
gate, but my understanding is that the Shoshone Elders
went across first, then the Soviets, then the other indige
nous people. Then the remaining people went across at the
same time. So the group that I was with were all from
Oregon and we crossed quite a distance back from the
cattle guard which is where all the guards were. We started
walking across the test site sort of to the west of where the
cattle guard was and we must have walked maybe 30 or 40
minutes before we were stopped.
7 saw some very white rocks that I picked up
and brought back with me... There were lots of
cactus, there used to be some Joshua trees but
everything that was there is dead... And, there's
some downed electrical or phone wires and
things like that. There's not alot out there. "
- Susan Gordon
Smoke Signals : What did you see?
Gordon : I sawsome very white rocks thatlpicked up and
brought back with me. We saw some trash in there and
someone picked up a stray pair of handcuffs. The handcuffs
they use are the plastic cinch kind like you use on a trash bag
only heavier. There were lots of cactus, they used to be
some joshua trees but everything that was there is dead.
There's some little roads that these sandbuggies travel on
that the wackenhuts, who were the guards for the test site.
And there's some downed electrical or phone wires and
things like that. There's not alot out there.
in and I was the first one to be arrested and then four of us
that were arrested at the same time and two were, I can't
say escaped because you don't escape, you don't run or try
to prevent being arrested, but the guard that was arresting
couldn't arrest us all. So four of us were stopped and two
of us kept on walking and they were in a different area. So
the four of us were arrested and put into a little circle on the
ground and they asked us not to move and we cooperated
with them. Then they moved us all over to another place
near another guard and brought some other folks in
together. We sat there maybe an hour or hour and a half.
Then they brought a van over and put handcuffs on us then
transported us to a holding pen near the cattle guard. It's
just a large compound that's separated down the middle.
They put men on one side and women on the other. They
hold you there until they put you on the bus and then
transport you then release you. I thought that the guards did
really well. When I was arrested in 1987 they were really
hyper and aggressive. In 1988 when people were doing
blockades there was alot of violence and people were
physically hurt. This time, there was one lieutenant who
was really being a jerk and everyone who had come in
contact with him was talking about him. But I didn't have
any encounters. I and another women was grabbed from
behind and thrown to the ground, but the guard didn't
touch any of the men. He did this kind of macho stand off
with them and there was no physical contact with the men
and I thought that was kind of interesting. I think that I was
the first person that he arrested and he was definitely
worked up and he saw us from a distance and he told us not
to move, we just kept walking and I was the first person he
came up to and I just think he was a little enthusiastic about
it. But what happened was when he threw the two of us to
the ground, I mean he threw me to the ground and told me
to sit and then he went after Jill and got her and when the
men that were with us saw that they just stopped where they
were because they weren't going to abandon us if this guy
was going to be ruff and be a jerk. So they basically froze
where they were and the guard tried to get them to walk
over and join our little prison circle and they wouldn't do
it. They said you have to come get me I'm not going to just
walk over there for you. When the guard went over then
theyjust walked over to the circle but he didn't touch them.
Smoke Signals : I can't help but notice that you have a
sense of purpose and accomplishment by your actions, can
you explain that?
Gordon : With this particular action, there's a couple of
aspects of it for me, I was actually an organizer, getting
people to go down there. So part of my sense of accom
plishment is I did succeed in getting maybe 50 or 60 other
folks to go down there. Each of those people that went had
their own individual experience. The people that went for
the first time are very enthusiastic about going back in
April. Especially those that didn't cross the line, they're
ready to make that kind of statement. So that feels good
and that's part of what I feel afterwards. Part of my
frustration though is that I feel fine about what I did myself,
But I'm frustrated that the media doesn't cover those kinds
of events and that it's been so lost in the Iraq situation that
we can't even find what's going on at the United Nations
Treaty Conference which is still going on right now. Its just
been so preempted by the middle east situation and I have
this feeling that one of the reasons was that George Bush
knew that it would take the media away from the compre
hensive test ban and really limit public outcry about vetoing
a comprehensive test ban by the United States. So, I think
it was a very political strategic date that was chosen to pre
empt any public awareness that this conference was even
happening.
Gordon : There was about 2500 people there and about
750 got arrested when they crossed the boundary to the site.
The Nevada test site is about 65 miles northwest of Las
Vegas. The day before the actual demonstration, there was
an international conference that included some keynote
speakers to welcome folks and get organized and then they
had set up several theme rooms that you could go to during
the day and be part of ongoing conversations. One of the
theme rooms was focused on indigenous people and look
ing at the affects of nuclear testing on those indigenous
people around the world and that was the room that most
of the Shoshone and Native American people went to. The
room I was in and helped facilitate was Definitions of non
violence and we spent time discussing what non-violence
meant to individuals and what it meant in your life. It was
an interesting and ongoing discussion, I don't know what
came out in the afternoon but people's levels of what is non
violence and what is violence vary tremendously. APT has
six guidelines that they ask you to abide by while your at an
action there. One of them includes no destruction of
property while you are on the test site. Which means no
graffiti, no taking down signs, no destroying fences, nothing
like that. And the other part of that is no verbal abuse to
the people who are arresting you. For some people this is
not violence and for some it is. But those are the restric
tions for those actions that happen under the APT offices.
So that was kind of interesting.
As far as the action went, we got out there fairly early in
the morning and there were a couple of religious ceremo-
Smoke Signals : What was you're impression of the site.
Gordon : It's always interesting to cross the fences. It's
not something I do casually and when I do a non-violence
training and talk to people who haven't done it before I tell
them that this is not a game and certainly not a game for me.
And that if you're not prepared really in your heart to
believe in what you're doing and do it for you're own per
sonal reasons then you shouldn't participate. You can't do
it because it's fun or because you're friends are doing it.
And, if you're not ready to accept the consequences which
in this case could be as much as six months in jail, don't do
it. You're not doing it for the right reasons.
Smoke Signals : So, they took you on thebus and proc
essed you. How did you get back home. Did you get to stay
together as a group or did you all meet back there?
Gordon : Our affinity group went in together. Affinity
groups are groups of people that go with the idea of
supporting each other through the process. Some people
stay on the legal side of the fence and they watch you're
arrest, they watch you're arrest and see which bus you're
put on, they follow the bus, they know where you're being
taken, and their there to pick you up when you're released.
And so we had two people in our group that took the cars
and followed us. We were driven 60 miles north to the town
of Beatty and then issued a citation then released on the
street. There were six of us in my affinity group we walked