Text Fwd: Solidarity Messages from the Great Decisions Action Group

From : Great Decisions Action Group

22785 NW Birch Street

Hillsboro, Oregon 97124-6558


16 January 2010


To: Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

P. O. Box 652

Brunswick, ME 04011


Dear Bruce:

We are a group of actively concerned citizens who meet more than a dozen times a year to keep each other well informed about local, national, and international issues.

We make use of the resources provided by the Foreign Policy Association in its annual Great Decisions publication, but we seek out other topics and resources as well. Through our connections with other organizations working toward social and economic justice, we participate in grassroots efforts to expand public awareness of problems and potential solutions.

Your message on January 11 was the first we had heard about the South Korean government’s plan to build a Navy base on the shore line of Gangjeong village. We are devastated by this news and alarmed at its consequences—both for the fate of the coral reefs and the villagers, whose way of life will be destroyed, and for the future of our endangered planet.

We are persuaded that reliance upon military installations and threats of military action is useless, indeed actually counter-productive, in dealing with the critical planetary problems of economic recovery and human survival in the face of terrorist activity and climate change.

We stand with those American citizens who voted Barack Obama into office in the belief that he will be responsive to the overwhelming majority of Americans who desire peace and who want to see American resources dedicated to human welfare—at home and abroad—rather than to war machinery and destruction of our planetary ecosystem.

Please tell the US and South Korean governments that the best way they can serve the cause of human and planetary survival is to abandon the plans for a Navy base at Gangjeong. By taking this step they will not only save the coral reefs, a key environmental treasure, from destruction. They will also be signaling that these governments recognize this new decade as a time of opportunity to take action toward a new, non-military alternative in dealing with our critical planetary problems.

Yours faithfully, (signatures follow)

Alana Graham, Forest Grove, OR 97116
Joyce Lockard, Beaverton, OR 97006
Ray Lockard, Beaverton, OR 97006
Ellen Haight, Beaverton, OR 97005
Laura L. Good, Beaverton, OR 97006
Judith Arnold, Beaverton, OR 97006
Diane Cadonau, Hillsboro, OR 97124
Jack Kirkwood, Beaverton, OR 97006
Duane Hall, Beaverton, OR 97007
Gloria C. George, Aloha, OR 97006
Patricia Fullenweder, Portland, OR 97229
John Hock, Forest Grove, OR 97116
Celeste Howard, Hillsboro, OR 97124