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SOCIAL CAUSE CALENDAR LA TERTULIA IN SAN ANTONIO PAPERBACKS. . . y Mas! Bookstore and Gallery will host monthly conversation circles every first Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at 1819 Blanco Road, San Antonio. La Tertulia is an informal social gathering of people who wish to both socialize and explore ideas. The sessions will be moderated by Dr. Ricardo Sanchez and will supplement regular poetry readings, seminars, symposia, exhibitions and other community forums offered by the bookstore. For more information please call WOMEN CANDIDATES NEEDED IN FORT WORTH The Tarrant County Women’s Political Caucus is looking for women interested in running for local political offices, most particularly for seats on the Tarrant County Commissioner’s Court. The Caucus promotes increasing the number of women in places of prestige and power in American society, especially as elected and appointed public officials. Candidates must support two key issues to win Caucus support: passage of a national ERA and support for a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. For more information evenings. MEXIC-ARTE’S AUSTIN ANNUAL Mexic-Arte will sponsor the Austin Annual ’87 juried and invitational exhibit opening on July 31 and continuing through August 29, 1987 at the Arts Warehouse Gallery, 300 San Antonio, in Austin. Admission is free. For more information call AFTERWORD IT SOMEHOW SEEMS important to tell the story of my crime and how I went to court and how I was found guilty. It dates back to last September, when a number of us broke off from the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Las Vegas, and staged a protest demonstration at the Nevada site for nuclear weapons testing. The principles of the demonstration were simple: testing bombs is bad for the health of workers at the test site and it is bad for our health to make bombs and prepare for war. It should be clear from the psychiatric point of view that this is not war we are preparing for, it is genocide. Therefore, we stated that the Nuremberg principles applied: it is a crime against humanity to prepare for international genocide. So, doctors and nurses, public health workers and friends, demonstrated in the desert and over 100 of us stepped onto the U.S. Department of Energy lands and were arrested for trespassing. This is a misdemeanor. We were handcuffed Lawrence Egbert, a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, practices medicine in Dallas. after being warned to leave the federal reservation. We were carted off in buses 60 miles north to Beatty, Nevada, and booked. Thru an “error” by the Nye County prosecution, the charges were dropped, so we went out and did it all over again in February; this time we were 2,000 strong and there were more than 400 arrested. Back in Dallas, I received a summons ordering a court appearance on April 29. As my wife drove me to the airport, I read the words “Should you fail to appear on your trial date, a warrant will be issued for your arrest.” We agreed I would not fight the case; I would do what the court ordered. I flew to Los Angeles, where my brother lives. The next day, I woke up at 3 a.m. Court was supposed to start at 11 a.m., and we had 400 miles to drive. The route led east, then north up to Death Valley with its winding roads and precipices. Across the barren country we traveled. We came to a turn and then to the town of Trona. There was an odd acrid odor to the place. We saw factories and more factories, plopped down in the middle of nowhere. KerrMcGee factories, chemicals, huge piles of white stuff which looked like slag near a coal mine except for the color and the smell. My eyes burned as I pumped gas into the car. The attendant gave me directions to Beatty: straight ahead 100 miles. I was early for court. The judge was a woman who had to come to the Beatty court because the regular justice of the peace happened to be the father of the police lieutenant who had made the complaint against us. Beatty is a tiny village. I went in and listened as they tried two others like me, only they were from Oregon. It was a typical court room, I suppose, drab with a sign telling us we were in the court of the State of Nevada, the judge sitting impassively in her robes behind her elevated dais, the prosecuting attorney quizzing the police lieutenant who had booked us in February. I sat and listened carefully, since I would follow soon. The man from Oregon was defending himself as I was about to do. He asked to introduce a statement that told why preparing for international genocide was a crime and preventing this crime called upon the laws of God, presumed higher in rank than the laws against trespassing in the State of Nevada. The judge reminded him that he had agreed not to debate the prosecutor’s Motion in Limine. Our friend from Oregon was confused. The Motion in Limine was, is, very clear. The case was to be decided on whether or not he had crossed a line on the road and On Trial in Nevada By Lawrence Egbert 22 JULY 17, 1987