Fwd Text: Reply to Cordaro News Release - "Bravo" Bomb Test Anniversary Vigil and Action / 6 arrested - Winona CW John Heid among them

* Image source*
http://picasaweb.google.com/subversivepeacemaking/PacificLifeCommunityActionBravoTestAnniversary#

Fwd from Frank Cordaro on March 4, 2009
[ Reply to Cordaro News Release - "Bravo" Bomb Test Anniversary Vigil and Action / 6 arrested - Winona CW John Heid among them!


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Subversive Peacemaking
Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2009


News Release “Bravo” Bomb Test Anniversary Vigil and Action

For: Immediate Release March1, 2009


From: Leonard Eiger, 425-445-2190
subversivepeacemaking@comcast.net
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
16159 Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370
www.gzcenter.org

In commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the U.S. "Bravo" nuclear bomb detonation at Bikini Atoll, members of the Pacific Life Community, hosted by Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, held a vigil and nonviolent resistance action at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, in Kitsap County, Washington.

Participants gathered at the Trigger Avenue entrance to the Trident nuclear submarine base around noon, holding signs and banners with various messages, including a large banner that read, "Nuclear Free Pacific Now". Another sign read, "1000 Trident patrols are nothing to celebrate."

Six members of the Pacific Life Community crossed the blue line onto the base and kneeled, blocking the roadway. They were arrested by base security personnel, processed and released; no citations were issued at that time. Those arrested were Jerry Zawada, 71, of Tucson, AZ, Edwin Ehmke, 62, of Menlo Park, CA, Mary Jane Parrine, 63, of Menlo Park, CA, John Heid, 54, of Winona, MN, Megan Rice, 79, of Las Vegas, NV, and Mark Kelso, 52, of Las Vegas, NV.

After reading their "CITIZEN ACTION STATEMENT", members of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Denny Moore, 64, of Bainbridge Island, WA, Jesica Arteaga, 23, of Tacoma, WA, Larry Kerschner, 62, of Centralia, WA, Bernie Meyer, 71, of Olympia, WA, and Jackie Hudson, 74, of Bremerton, WA blocked traffic while standing in the crosswalk holding a banner that read (in part) "Nuclear Bomb Deaths 55 Years Ago". All were arrested by Kitsap County Sheriff deputies, and transported to a county facility where they were processed and released; no citations were issued at that time.

On March 1, 1954 the United States tested the first deliverable hydrogen bomb, code named "Bravo”, at Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. Bravo was the largest U.S. nuclear test ever exploded, with a yield of 15 megatons, 1000 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima (and well beyond the predicted yield of 6 megatons).

Marshallese Islanders and American military personnel in the area at that time received radiations doses substantially in excess of those considered safe, and Marshallese Islanders continued to receive radiation exposures (for years) due to radioisotopes from fallout in
water and soil contaminating food and drinking water.

Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor is home to the U.S. Navy's West Coast Trident nuclear submarine fleet. "The warheads assigned to the ballistic missile submarines stationed at Bangor and at Kings Bay, Ga., now constitute more than half of the U.S. strategic weapons force" (source: Seattle Times).

The Pacific Life Community is committed to ending nuclear weapons and war-making through nonviolent direct action along the Pacific Rim in collaboration with the global peace movement. Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is committed to nonviolent resistance to Trident and the abolition of all nuclear weapons.

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Photos available at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/subversivepeacemaking/PacificLifeCommunityActionBravoTestAnniversary#.


Contact Leonard Eiger at subversivepeacemaking@comcast.net for high resolution images.

The "Citizen Action Statement" read by arrestees is printed in its entirety below:


CITIZEN ACTION STATEMENT AT SUB BASE BANGOR ON OCCASION OF 55TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIKINI ATOLL NUCLEAR TEST

March 1, 2009

On March 1st, 1955, 55 years ago, the U.S. nuclear test, Castle Bravo, was conducted in the Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll. At 15 megatons it was the largest nuclear explosion ever perpetrated by the United States, creating a crater 1.2 miles in diameter. The explosion of dry-fuel thermonuclear fuel exceeded the expectations of the scientists and has been labeled an exercise of “human fallibility.”

The test affected U.S. service personnel on ships, natives of Rongelap Island, 100 miles from the test, and Utrick Island, 300 miles distant; and fishermen on a Japanese vessel. Victims ensued among all these entities. Ten years later one death of an islander and 90% of the population experienced thyroid tumors. How many more have died since from nuclear radiation cancers? Compensation is still denied to Islanders. The environment cannot be compensated.

This March 1, 2009 citizen’s intervention of Trident Bangor Sub Base remembers all the victims of nuclear weapons testing: their uprooting, sufferings, and deaths. Our action also stands on the side of International Law and human morality that all nuclear weapons must be abolished.

The creative human energy and the natural resources used for Trident must be converted to creating a viable human and living species environment.