By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, and Elizabeth Murray, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, originally published by Kitsap Sun, January 24, 2021 From January 18 to February 14, four large billboards are going up around Seattle that proclaim “Nuclear Weapons Are Now Illegal. Get them out of Puget Sound!” What can this possibly mean? Nuclear weapons may be unpleasant, but what is illegal about them, and how can they be in Puget Sound? Since 1970, under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, most nations have been forbidden to acquire nuclear weapons, and those already possessing them — […]
READ MORETag Archives: Abolish Nuclear Weapons
MLK: Going to the Heart of Nonviolence
Every year Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action honors the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. around the anniversary of his birthday. Just what does an organization working to abolish nuclear weapons have in common with Dr. King? Perhaps this quote from Dr. King sums it up best: “When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men”. Dr. King speaks to the root – or what could be called the taproot – of violence in the hearts of human beings that spurs “scientific power” to “outrun moral power,” thereby holding all humanity under the […]
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Ground Zero honors MLK with a vigil at Bangor
A small group of dedicated peacemakers bundled up on Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday to honor his legacy with a peaceful vigil at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor Main Gate. Bangor is homeport to the largest concentration of deployed nuclear warheads in the U.S. The nuclear warheads are deployed on Trident D-5 missiles on SSBN submarines and are stored in an underground nuclear weapons storage facility on the base. There are eight Trident SSBN submarines deployed at Bangor. Six Trident SSBN submarines are deployed on the East Coast at Kings Bay, Georgia. One Trident submarine carries the destructive force of over 1,200 Hiroshima bombs (the Hiroshima bomb […]
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Ground Zero’s Annual Appeal
December 2, 2020 Dear Friends, This is our annual appeal for funds for Ground Zero. We hope this finds you well, in body and in spirit. Thank you for your financial contributions and for keeping us in your thoughts during these challenging times. Ground Zero is funded mostly by small donations, which in many cases represent significant sacrifices by the donor. We are grateful for our donors and of the many sacrifices made for Ground Zero as we continue our work. Ground Zero activities in 2020 began with our vigil at the Main Gate entrance to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on […]
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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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