Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?

The following essay by Howard Zinn urges us all to rethink Memorial Day, who we honor, and what resources we prioritize. It was published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe and republished in The Zinn Reader with the brief introduction below. With great thanks to the Zinn Education Project. Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance […]

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Another War? Not in Our Name!

Dear Friends of a world free of nuclear weapons, It has been nearly three-quarters of a century since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet the nuclear armed nations continue to threaten humanity with extinction, and according to a number of experts we are in the midst of a new, and more dangerous, nuclear arms race. Nuclear weapons, of course, do not exist in a vacuum; and we will never abolish them without confronting, and bringing to heel, the fundamental militarism that puts them front and center in our nation’s (and other nations’) foreign policy and promotes countless wars […]

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When We Resist Trident, We Deploy Love

Approximately thirty nuclear disarmament activists took part in a spirited rally at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Saturday, May 11th in the spirit of the original antiwar message of Mothers Day, which calls for the abolition of war and mlitarism (and of course nuclear weapons). The Ground Zero Center activists were accompanied by the Seattle Peace Chorus. Also participating was Chicago-based peacemaker Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, whose keynote address at Ground Zero Center was titled: “Deploying Love in a Permanent Warfare State.” Earlier in the day, Tacoma-based attorney Blake Kremer briefed the activists on their legal rights while […]

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FAITH AND DISARMAMENT*

On June 12, 1981 Seattle’s Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen spoke to a gathering at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and gave what has come to be known as the “Faith and Disarmament” speech. Frank Fromherz, who wrote “A Disarming Spirit: the Life of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen,” called Hunthausen’s message that day, “a prayerful invitation to examine personal and collective conscience on great moral questions regarding nuclear arms.” In his speech, Hunthausen referred to the Trident nuclear weapon system at the Bangor naval base just 20 miles west of Seattle as “the Auschwitz of Puget Sound.” In reflecting back on […]

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Sign Petition to Dismiss Charges against KB Plowshares

Sign Global Petition to Dismiss Charges Against Anti-Nuclear Plowshares Activists Facing 25 Years This is an urgent request that you join distinguished citizens of the world including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, other Nobel laureates and many others by signing our global petition to dismiss all charges against the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (KBP7). They face 25 years in prison for exposing illegal and immoral nuclear weapons that threaten all life on Earth. The seven nonviolently and symbolically disarmed the Trident nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay, GA on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, […]

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