Introduction by Leonard Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action Testimony by Ms. Tokie MIZUNO, Hibakusha of Hiroshima, as recorded on May 5, 2010 at First United Methodist Church, Seattle, Washington Seventy eight years ago, on August 6, 1945, a United States (US) warplane dropped an atomic bomb, which detonated over the city of Hiroshima, Japan early in the morning. The blast, radiation and firestorm caused by just a single bomb left approximately 80,000 people dead and 70,000 injured. Of the injured, tens of thousands more died in the subsequent days, weeks, months and years due to radiation-related effects.The multigenerational […]
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U.S. Coast Guard unlawfully establishes “no-protest” zone at Seafair as Peace Activists prepare to meet the U.S. Navy fleet on Tuesday, August 1, in Elliott Bay
Contact: Glen Milner (206) 365-7865 Mary Gleysteen (360) 265-1589 Day of the event (206) 979-8319 The U.S. Coast Guard, in its July 31 announcement in the Federal Register, unlawfully established a temporary “no protest” zone in Elliott Bay, blocking peace activists from entering or leaving Bell Harbor Marina at Seafair. This Coast Guard no-protest zone is in response to the annual Peace Fleet! event during the U.S. Navy Fleet arrival. The Peace Fleet event on August 1 will mark the twenty-second year for demonstrations for peace, and the protest of military recruitment and the glorification of war at Seafair. The no-protest zone is unlike any other […]
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After 78 years can we put the nuclear genie back in the lamp?
By Leonard Eiger July 16th marks the day 78 years ago when the United States let the nuclear genie out of the lamp. 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 named Trinity, Manhattan Project scientists detonated the experimental device known as the “Gadget,” 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 […]
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Activists Blockade Trident Nuclear Submarine/Weapons Base for Mother’s Day
Activists blockaded the entrance to the US Navy’s west-coast nuclear submarine base, which is home to the largest operational concentration of deployed nuclear weapons, in a nonviolent direct action the day before Mother’s Day. Eight peace activists from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, holding banners reading “The Earth is Our Mother Treat Her With Respect” and “Nuclear Weapons are Immoral to Use, Immoral to Have, Immoral to Make,” briefly blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington as part of a May 13th Mothers Day observance. Traffic was diverted as the 15 […]
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Following The Golden Rule
By Leonard Eiger For most of humanity’s recorded time on Earth people have tried to follow the Golden Rule, which is essentially the principle of treating others as we would like to be treated. And yet today it seems that in far too many ways and situations this fundamental axiom has been turned on its head, especially when it comes to relations among nations. Racism, xenophobia, militarism, and their ultimate manifestation – nuclear weapons – rule the day as a symbol and tool of power in many nations. As for the United States, we have twisted the Golden Rule, expecting […]
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