Nonviolent protest at the gate to the Livermore National Laboratory in California.
ACTON ALERT: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change
Tri-Valley CARES
• Friday, August 6 at 9 AM Pacific. Video link: https://youtu.be/_kM7IuzKQls
• Monday, August 9 at 9 AM Pacific. Video link: https://youtu.be/OB57nQAcSWQ
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Natiional Laboratory
David Hartsough (co-founder of the Nonviolent PeaceForce and author of Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist) has issued an invitation to join in marking the somber commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the US nuclear mass-murder of Japanese civilians in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two US bombs instantly killed 180,000 Japanese civilians.
Hartsough writes:
“Dear Friends,
“We will commemorate (virtually) Hiroshima Day August 6 and Nagasaki Day August 9 at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Labs where the US is modernizing our nuclear weapons arsenal this year. Hope you can join us. We will remember the hundreds of thousands of people who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and commit ourselves to abolish all nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.”
Demonstration and Vigil at the Gate of a Major Nuclear Weapons Lab
• Friday, August 6 at 9 AM Pacific. Video link: https://youtu.be/_kM7IuzKQls
• Monday, August 9 at 9 AM Pacific. Video link: https://youtu.be/OB57nQAcSWQ
(August 5, 2021) — Join us to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Abolish nuclear weapons. Tune in, connect the dots, and act for change.
SCENARIO: The planning committee struggled mightily with questions about rally planning in an environment when we are emerging from a global pandemic, but are not there yet. Much is unknown.
Therefore, we have planned this event to be inspiring, informative, change provoking, and safe for all. There will be a virtual rally from 9 to 10:45 AM Pacific Time on both Hiroshima day (August 6) and repeated on Nagasaki Day (August 9). See links on front.
The overall rally broadcast will feature the following speakers who will be filmed at the West Gate of the Livermore Lab at 9 AM on Aug. 6 to kick off the virtual event: Daniel Ellsberg, Nobu Hanaoka, Marylia Kelley and John Burroughs. The other amazing presenters listed below will be prerecorded.
Each co-sponsoring group may bring three people to be with the in-person presenters on August 6.
If you wish to be there, please contact those cosponsoring groups, or email marylia@earthlink.net to ask if there are spaces available. There will be no risk arrest component to our event this year.
Meet the Speakers and Musicians
Daniel Ellsberg speaks on U.S. nuclear policy. He is perhaps best known as the whistleblower who released “The Pentagon Papers” to hasten an end to the war in Vietnam. He was an analyst at RAND Corp. and a consultant to the Defense Dept. Ellsberg recently released papers detailing the 1958 risk of nuclear war over Taiwan.
Nobuaki Hanaoka was an infant when the bomb fell on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. His mother and sister died from illnesses linked to radiation poisoning and his brother died at age 39 from premature aging associated with fallout from the bomb. Hanaoka is a retired Methodist minister, and came to the U.S. following seminary training in Japan.
Tsukuru Fors is a founding member of Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance and a trans peace/anti-nuclear/human rights activist in Los Angeles, Calif. As a graduate of a high school in Hiroshima where 350 young lives were brutally taken on August 6, 1945, Fors pursues a life mission to move the world closer to a nuclear-free future.
Marylia Kelley addresses Livermore Lab’s role in promoting a new nuclear arms race. She is Executive Director at the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs and brings 38 years of research, writing and facilitating public participation in nuclear policy decisions. Kelley has testified before the U.S. Congress, the Calif. Legislature and the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. John Burroughs addresses the illegality of nuclear weapons under international law. Burroughs is with the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and has represented them in Non-Proliferation Treaty review proceedings and in negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. He was a member of the legal team for the Marshall Islands in its nuclear disarmament cases in the International Court of Justice.
Marcina Langrine and Benetick Kabua Maddison are two young activists with the Marshallese Educational Initiative, located in Arkansas where the highest concentration of Marshallese in the continental United States reside. They address the twin existential threats faced by the Marshall Islands, a rising ocean due to climate change and radiation damage from 67 U.S. nuclear tests and leaking debris left behind.
Nell Myhand addresses the need to redirect resources to meet human needs. Myhand is a member of the Bay Area Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Steering Committee and serves as a Quad Chair of the California PPC working locally and nationally to amplify the voices of low/no wealth people and our demands to meet our basic needs.
Betsy Rose is a singer, songwriter and community song leader, active in women’s and social change movements. In summer 2018, she helped organize and lead Choral Majority, a 400 strong pop-up community chorus. She has sung at many actions outside Livermore Lab, and brings a musical blend of spiritual grounding and justice-making inspiration.
Benjamin Mertz is a composer, performer, and song leader who specializes in music of the Black Spiritual tradition. He can often be found leading songs at benefit concerts, vigils, protest actions, sacred services, and workshops, including at actions outside Livermore Lab. Mertz’s most recent album of Black Spiritual music is called “Climbing Up the Mountain.”
We are honored to welcome co-emcees Patricia St. Onge & Wilson Riles, Jr., a former Oakland City Councilmember. St. Onge is social change consultant and Six Nations/Haudenosaune and Quebecois. She will offer a blessing at the West Gate of Livermore Lab.
Virtual production for the rally is with thanks to Ed Ellsworth of Enlightened Films.
More info at www.trivalleycares.org, www.wslfweb.org, & www.sfbaypsr.org
Cosponsoring Groups Include:
Asian Americans for Peace & Justice, Calif. Poor People’s Campaign Bay Area, East Bay Peace Action, East Timor Religious Outreach, Ecumenical Peace Institute, Livermore Conversion Project, Niebyl-Proctor Library, No Nukes Action, No. Calif. Communist Party, No. Calif. Pax Christi, No. Calif. People’s World/Mundo Popular, Peace and Freedom Party of California, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Tri-Valley CAREs, WarResisters League-West, Western States Legal Foundation, and the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
