Five people cited in Mother’s Day demonstration at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, WA

30 people were present on May 8th, at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base.  Five demonstrators blocked the main highway entrance into the base for over 20 minutes and were cited by the Washington State Patrol. At around 2 pm on Saturday, the five demonstrators entered the highway carrying two large banners stating, “CONGRESS WANTS $1 TRILLION FOR NUKES–What will be left for our children” and “TRIDENT THREATENS ALL LIFE ON EARTH” and blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.  They were removed from the highway by the Washington State […]

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RESIST, RESIST, RESIST!

“Voting is civic hygiene – both essential and insufficient. And voting alone has never been enough to protect anything – least of all the vote itself.” – (Ta-Nehisi Coates) Dear Friends, I first saw the photo above in an article by our colleague Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; it is an image I have never forgotten. I can only hope that this boat, and all the refugees onboard, found a safe shore on which to land. Humanity, of course, does not have any lifeboats – no magic escape pods. There is no […]

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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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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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