Dear Friends,
This is our annual appeal for funds for Ground Zero.
Thank you for your financial contributions and for keeping us in your thoughts during these difficult times. We especially appreciate your support at our demonstrations throughout the year. Please join us whenever you can.
Ground Zero is a steady and unyielding voice in the Puget Sound region for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.
Several weeks ago, when President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a KIRO TV reporter contacted Ground Zero through our website. A face to face interview was quickly arranged and a 3:17 minute report was aired later that day on the six o’clock news.
The October 22nd KIRO TV report included historical video footage of Ground Zero events and addressed our concerns about the U.S. rejection of nuclear weapons treaties. Some of the report was filmed on the downtown Seattle waterfront and linked our annual Peace Fleet event to the enormous stockpile of nuclear weapons deployed 20 miles away at Bangor. Our friend Hans Kristensen, with the Federation of American Scientists, lent his expertise to the report. Mary Hanson spoke eloquently throughout the interview and concluded, ” …having more and more destructive weapons makes you less safe.”
Three days later, on October 25th, Ground Zero activists appeared in Kitsap County Court in Port Orchard to explain why 12 demonstrators blocked the main entrance into Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for much of the morning on August 6th in commemoration of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Ground Zero members continue to speak against Trident nuclear weapons in classrooms and courtrooms, workshops, public meetings, radio and video interviews, newspapers, and in demonstrations in Seattle and Kitsap County. Ongoing efforts include our informative and acclaimed Ground Zero Newsletter, Ground Zero website, monthly leafleting at the Trident base, a campaign against the Trident replacement submarines as well as local community outreach. This year we added Freeway bannering on 1-5 during the summer months, a new activity for Ground Zero that was met with considerable approval from commuters. We have renewed our efforts for a Peace Pagoda at Ground Zero and held gatherings at Ground Zero in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and for Mothers Day.
Expenses in 2018 included new signs and banners, printing and mailing of four editions of Ground Zero, and taxes and insurance for the Ground Zero house and property. Our largest expense for the year was for King County Metro ads, which stated, “Puget Sound: Home to one-third of deployed U.S. nuclear weapons••• Accept Responsibility“, on forty-two Metro buses. Three of the ads wrapped the full side of the buses. The ads ran for eighteen weeks, from July 9 to mid- November, and were featured in the eight-page article in the August 26th edition of the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine.
Please know that Ground Zero works to stay an effective and sustainable organization in all our efforts. We are one of the few all-volunteer organizations where members are not compensated for time, travel or other personal expenses.
Your contribution will help preserve the Ground Zero house and grounds and allow us to continue our work for nuclear disarmament. All donations to Ground Zero will be made for the promotion of peace.
Please click here to go to our donation page.
It is also possible to contribute by including Ground Zero as a beneficiary of your retirement plan or by making charitable gifts directly from your IRA account. Taxpayers age 70% or older are required to make annual distributions from their traditional IRAs, which are then included in their adjusted gross income and subject to taxes. However, donations made directly to 501(c)(3) organizations from traditional IRAs may be made without paying taxes on them. These types of distributions are considered as viable forms of war tax resistance. Please contact us at 360-930- 8697 or info@gzcenter.org if you are interested in donating to Ground Zero in this manner or through a bequest.
We would be remiss not to mention the loss of Ground Zero members Jean Sundborg and Johnny Baranski. Jean was present at most Ground Zero events, always bringing her good will and her hope for a better future. Johnny was involved with Ground Zero in the 1970s and 1980s, and was an organizer during the Tracks Campaign.
To all Ground Zero supporters, we promise to remain true to our Mission Statement, which reads:
Founded in 1977, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action offers the opportunity to explore the meaning and practice of nonviolence from a perspective of deep spiritual reflection, providing a means for witnessing to and resisting all nuclear weapons, especially Trident. We seek to go to the root of violence and injustice in our world and experience the transforming power of love through nonviolent direct action.
Please join with us when you can.
Peace and love,
