Eye-Opening Experience at Reverse the Trend

Eye-Opening Experience at Reverse the Trend

By E. Isaac Lee

I suppose “eye-opening” is a basic way of describing my current time of working with Reverse the Trend, but it fits too well. My work has expanded my worldview in multiple ways, from the issues at stake, how these issues intersect, and who is involved in them. For one, I went through high school and college believing the “Nuclear Scare” was a thing of the past (as most people believe about a lot of unpleasant things). The idea of Mutually Assured Destruction held firm, along with the idea that the people in charge of these massively destructive weapons knew what they were doing. Of course, 2016 rattled that belief, exposing the lack of trust and competence in the system, especially the flippancy President Trump had when talking about nuclear armageddon. I learned about the economic cost of continued modernization and missile defense systems, and the risk that China and the US could wind up pumping thousands just to get the edge over one another in an arms race. 

But Reverse the Trend showed me that nuclear weapons have had an incredibly ugly history. Testing sites on the land of indigenous peoples, mishandling of nuclear waste in San Francisco and Greenland. These incidents aren’t even in the past, as I soon learned about the displacement of the Marshallese people, how some generations have grown up away from their home islands, and how areas like the Kwajalein Atoll are still closed off because the US government continues to conduct Minuteman III tests there. Nukes aren’t just an existential threat, but a nexus of race, class, and climate issues - it has contributed negatively to these, or in the case of climate, global warming is exacerbating past nuclear mistakes (such as sea levels threatening the Runit dome, a nuclear waste storage in the Marshall Islands).

However, my time in Reverse the Trend has also taught me that there are a variety of people fighting the good fight. My first contact was with other young adults, students, and coordinators like Christian. But eventually through contact with groups like ICAN and Ploughshares, I see organizations that are attempting to incorporate a multitude of voices - young and old, black and white, from all corners of America. 

I learned about the Marshallese community in my home county and am working to partner with them and amplify their voices and needs. I’ve virtually attended high-level meetings pertinent to these issues to better understand how the system works and the rationale behind decisions of national security. I’ve interacted with people across the world (thanks to Covid-19) and gained a global perspective on nuclear and environmental issues.  These experiences show to me that in order to generate real change, you have to speak to the people who have been affected, and focus on their voices over your own. 

Quite honestly, I haven’t had any intimate, personal stakes towards nuclear weapons or the environment - I live quite the privileged life. Members of my distant family living in Korea, however, continue to face the threat of a nuclear response between North Korea and the US, as well as all the saber rattling and debate that comes with it. 

Multiple groups of indigenous peoples live with the consequences of nuclear testing, a byproduct of imperialism where the most egregious parts of developing these weapons was offloaded on those whose interests didn’t matter in an election cycle. It’s nice to hear oneself talk, but it’s even better to create tools and spaces where those near the epicenter of an issue can talk.