By Leonard Eiger Today marks the anniversary of the day in which the world entered the atomic age. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM at the Alamogordo Test Range, on the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, in the test code-named Trinity, the experimental device known as the “Gadget” was detonated, creating a light “brighter than a thousand suns.” A mere 6 kilogram (13.2 pound) sphere of plutonium, compressed to supercriticality by the surrounding high explosives, created an explosion equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT (20 Kilotons). Was this, as thought nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the beginning of […]
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Ground Zero Creates Billboards Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki Atomic Bombings
Editor’s Note: The following news release was sent out to media outlets on Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Seattle area Billboards inform citizens of Nuclear Weapons stockpiled in their Back Yard on the 75th Remembrance of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Contacts: Leonard Eiger (425) 445-2190, outreach@gzcenter.org Rodney Brunelle (425) 485-7030 Glen Milner (206) 365-7865 On July 13, and continuing for four weeks, four billboards will display the following paid advertisement: Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor… Base with largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the U.S., Remembering the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Accept Responsibility! Included in the advertisement […]
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Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth
EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of the following poem, Phil J. Davis, is shown standing in the foreground of the featured photo (above) taken during the recent (May 9, 2020) vigil at the Bangor Trident base Main Gate. Phil was cited by the Washington State Patrol for intentionally blocking traffic entering the nuclear weapons base during a previous vigil. Phil wrote the poem as his mitigation hearing statement, which he read to the Judge on September 26, 2019 in the Kitsap District Court in Port Orchard, Washington. As Phil describes it: For past hearings after an arrest or traffic citation, I have carefully […]
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Beating Swords to Plowshares
*by Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence Inscribed on a wall across from the United Nations in New York City are ancient words of incalculable yearning: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” – Isaiah 2:4 I’ve stood with activists in front of that same wall singing Down by the Riverside, a song promising we’ll lay down our swords and shields, -“and study war no more, no more.” In memorably eloquent words spoken after the onset of COVID-19, the […]
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Letters to the Editor – An Important Outreach Tool!
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letters to the editor (one recently submitted and one published) are from activists dedicated to putting an end to the threat of nuclear war. Letters to the editor are an important tool in not only reaching our fellow citizens and sharing our views, and also reminding our news outlets know that this issue is of extraordinary importance to all of humanity. Please share your letters to the editor; send them to outreach@gzcenter.org. A Tale of Two Nightmares: Global Pandemic and Nuclear War By Mona Lee, Seattle At some level, human civilization has long been aware of […]
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