Why I'm fasting

My name is Chelsea Collonge; I graduated from UC Berkeley last year in Peace and Conflict Studies and currently work for Nevada Desert Experience, an interfaith antinuclear organization. I have decided, along with 5 other Berkeley students, to fast for 8 days in solidarity with the UC hunger strikers. This is the longest fast I've ever done, and I'm nervous about what the personal consequences will be for my friends who are fasting for longer. But when I contemplate the radioactive contamination that the UC labs have spilled into the surrounding communities in Los Alamos and Livermore, with all its attendant disease, I know our physical suffering will be put into perspective. The mission of a public university and the mission of a bomb lab are fundamentally incompatible. I am grateful for this opportunity to struggle nonviolently with other students to help cleanse our university of a deadly, antidemocratic enterprise. I also feel a huge sense of urgency to do something to remove the fig-leaf of academic respectability (courtesy of the UC) from the laboratories that are poised to design and produce NEW H-bombs, which the Bush administration has threatened to use against Iran. Please, if you're reading this, take the time to contact the regents and tell them, "UC-Bechtel is managing Armageddon; it's time to sever the university's ties with the weapons enterprise." Thanks so much for supporting us.