NOPE--Not On Planet Earth

Help the rural folks in southern Indiana who face contamination from depleted uranium--lots of it.

The editorial board of the rural paper the Madison Courier, serving southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, is urging citizens to make public comments on the US Army's request to basically abandon 2,000 acres of the Jefferson Proving Ground where, from 1984-1994, depleted uranium rounds were tested. Millions of unexploded rounds, in addition to 162,000 pounds of DU in the soil, remain on that acreage and the Army wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow them to just keep it fenced off and not only leave it dirty but stop monitoring it.

With defenders of our country like these, who needs ISIS?

Cancers, birth defects, and other consequences are certain. DU remains radioactive for geologic time spans.

Fallujah baby, born to mother exposed to DU

The radiation from DU causes these health problems and literally kills people even if the UXO is never exploded. Unexploded ordnance that sits leaching its ionizing radiation into the soil means into the groundwater and surface water. It is mobile. It will get into the food chain.

The US has wasted enormous amounts of people and money developing, testing, producing, and shooting this godawful material, totally illegal under the basic rules of international law on war if we believe that outlawing poisonous weapons applies. As it stands, some nations have banned DU and many international organizations have urged very specific international law doing so.

The public has until Dec. 18 to provide input on the NRC study. Send email comments to - http: www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2014-0097 (click on Comment Now) or by regular mail to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 3WFN-06-A44M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001. Put Docket ID NRC-2014-0097 in the subject line.

The days of divide and conquer should end. We should stand with those who are being mistreated, from Ferguson to Madison County, Indiana, from Staten Island to Camp Lejune.