Join Peace & Freedom Party, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Tri-Valley CAREs, The Western States Legal Foundation and 12 other co-sponsoring groups for a commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The message: Abolish nuclear weapons. Tune in, connect the dots, and act for change.
On August 6 beginning at 9am PT, participating speakers will be appearing in-person at the west gate of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Public attendance will be limited this year, but the entire event will be broadcast live via YouTube. The event will be rerun on August 9, with expanded content.
The event will be emceed by social change consultant Patricia St. Onge and former Oakland city councilmember Wilson Riles Jr. Scheduled to appear live or via prerecorded message are:
- 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 (he/them) 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 & 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."
Co-sponsoring this event are Asian Americans for Peace & Justice; California 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; N. California Communist Party; N. California Pax Christi; N. California People’s World/Mundo Popular; Peace and Freedom Party of California; San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility; Tri-Valley CAREs; War Resisters League-West; Western States Legal Foundation; and the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom.
For more information, please see TrivalleyCAREs.org, WSLFweb.org and/or SFbayPSR.org.
To view and/or download a PDF of the event flyer, click here.
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