Hello again from Ground Zero Center,
The Fireworks are over, and now it's time to declare our independence from (and speak out against) every injustice, including war and nuclear weapons!
Besides a couple of items I forgot in the last email newsletter, our Editor in Chief, Alice Zillah, just released the mid-Summer issue of the Ground Zero Newsletter. Don't miss it - a great way to stay connected with our work. Click here to read the July 2015 issue!
Ground Zero resister Brenda McMillan is scheduled to appear in Kitsap County District Court on Wednesday, July 22nd for a mitigation hearing resulting from her blocking the entrance road to the Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base during Ground Zero Center's Mothers Day weekend nonviolent direct action. Brenda is scheduled to appear on Wednesday, July 22nd at 1:15 PM. If you are in the area, please help us pack the courtroom to witness Brenda telling the Judge her reasons for her action. The courthouse is located at 614 Division Street in Port Orchard. Click here for a campus map with parking information. The courthouse is also served by public transportation.
We have a poster for the upcoming August weekend Hiroshima/Nagasaki weekend of remembrance (and action). Thanks to Ed Digilio for creating this year's poster. Click here to view or download the PDF version of the poster. Please print and post them wherever you think they will generate interest (AND participation) in the event.
If you've finished reading all the articles I referenced in my last email, I have some hot new ones for you. Street Spirit is a publication of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) San Francisco that reports extensively on a wide variety of important issues. The June 8th issue contains three extensive historical articles on Ground Zero, including an interview with Jim Douglass. Click here to read Life at Ground Zero of the Nuclear Arms Race. There are links for the other two articles at the end.
And don't forget to join one of the upcoming events on this the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Besides the events around Puget Sound, there will be many other events around the nation and around the world. Physicians for Social Responsibility has a listing of events in many cities around the country. Click here to find one near you.
The Tacoma Catholic Worker's "Retirement Party for Nuclear Weapons" got it right! It is high time to retire nuclear weapons after 70 years. Based on the U.S. government's current modernization efforts, it's not looking like the President, Pentagon or Congress got the news. Of course, recent headlines don't help - "New Pacific Russian Nuclear Missile Submarine Facility Could Open by October" was the recent headline in the US Naval Institute News. As I said when I posted it to the NO To NEW TRIDENT Facebook page, that headline likely has the Pentagon and Congress screaming "The Russians Are Coming!" But let's not lose perspective. One paragraph in this article reminds us of the real reason behind the Russian ballistic missile submarine resurgence:
"At the height of the Cold War, the Russian Navy based more than a dozen SSBNs at the Kamchatka Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base but that number dwindled following the collapse of the Soviet Union." Of course, the U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet never "dwindled" after the Berlin Wall fell. In fact, Trident patrols continued at near Cold War levels and still do. Is it really such a mystery why the Soviets are rebuilding their fleet?
We certainly don't need another "foolish and wasteful arms race that dominated the Cold War period," to quote Walter Pincus in a recent Washington Post article. And Trident (particularly New Trident) is front and center in this new and rapidly developing arms race. We must keep Trident, and particularly New Trident, front and center in the debate about nuclear weapons.
I've never been a fan of forced retirement, although in the case of Trident and all nuclear weapons I will make an exception. Scrap Trident for humanity's sake!
"At the height of the Cold War, the Russian Navy based more than a dozen SSBNs at the Kamchatka Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base but that number dwindled following the collapse of the Soviet Union." Of course, the U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet never "dwindled" after the Berlin Wall fell. In fact, Trident patrols continued at near Cold War levels and still do. Is it really such a mystery why the Soviets are rebuilding their fleet?
We certainly don't need another "foolish and wasteful arms race that dominated the Cold War period," to quote Walter Pincus in a recent Washington Post article. And Trident (particularly New Trident) is front and center in this new and rapidly developing arms race. We must keep Trident, and particularly New Trident, front and center in the debate about nuclear weapons.
I've never been a fan of forced retirement, although in the case of Trident and all nuclear weapons I will make an exception. Scrap Trident for humanity's sake!
Peace,
Leonard
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