by Joshua J. McElwee
Two Buddhists are banging fan drums as they walk through the downtown area of Oak Ridge, Tenn. They're marking a fast beat while chanting a Japanese mantra in low, hushed tones. As they walk their yellow robes are billowing in the wind.
Step by step they move forward. They weave through the trafficked streets and low-rise buildings of the "Secret City" -- so known because of its veiled history as the location where the uranium used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was enriched.
Behind the Buddhists march over 160 activists. They've all gathered to protest a proposed major new facility at the nearby Y-12 National Security Complex, a key nuclear weapons production and maintenance complex.
NCR first covered the April 16 event last week.
Now, the group which organized the protest has made available video from the April action.
Take a look below to see footage of those marchers and their vigil outside the gates of the nuclear weapons complex. It gives you a sense of the production they put on, and the creative energy that went into planning the event -- including music, a declaration from a group known as 'Grandmothers for Peace,' and a fun take on the works of William Shakespeare.
