about non-violence

David Hall describes "non-violence" at Ground Zero Center for Non-violence during the action "Billions for life, not billions for killing". 12 people were arrested later in the day in a carefully planned civil disobedience action using the same principles of non-violence practiced by Jesus, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. The days events were in celebration of MLK.


Here is the post action press release:

January 16, 2011

News Release

For Immediate Release

Poulsbo, Washington, Saturday, January 15, 2011 - The Seattle Raging Grannies set the mood for honoring Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, Saturday at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington.

Eighty three people from the Center participated in a vigil at the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale with the help of a full scale, 44 foot long, inflatable Trident D-5 missile. Each D-5 missile, deployed on Trident nuclear submarines, carries up to 8 warheads, each with an explosive yield of up to 475 kilotons. Each D-5 missile costs approximately $60 million.

Participants carried signs and banners calling for an end to war and nuclear weapons. Notable was a quote by Dr. King: "When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men."

Back at the Center for, Dr. David Hall, former president of Washington Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, presented the threats posed by these nuclear weapons stored at Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific and deployed on the Trident nuclear submarines based at Bangor Navy Base in Kitsap County.

The Seattle Raging Grannies chorus entertained participants with a series of musical parodies celebrating the day's theme of "Billions for Life, Not Billions for Death." The theme reflected Dr. King's words: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

After nonviolence training 12 activists risked arrest by symbolically closing the Trigger Avenue gate during the afternoon shift change as an act of resistance to Trident, a first strike weapons system. Blocking traffic symbolizes stopping the horrific threat of Trident missiles, for a short time.

Rosy Betz-Zall, 60, of Seattle, WA; Anne Hall, 65, of Seattle, WA; Larry Kerschner, 64, of Centralia, WA; Brenda McMillan, 77, of Port Townsend, WA; Denny Moore, 66, of Bainbridge Island, WA; and Shirley Morrison, 88, of Seattle, WA walked onto Trigger Avenue with a banner reading "BILLIONS FOR LIFE, NOT BILLIONS FOR DEATH."

Kitsap County Sheriffs arrested the six protesters. After initial processing they were transported by Sheriff's van to the Kitsap County Jail for further processing. They were issued citations for blocking traffic and released.

Then another six Ground Zero Center activists crossed the 'blue line' designating federal control. Patricia "Patti" Bass, 63, of Poulsbo, WA; Carolyn Dorisdotter, 72, Seattle, WA; Norm Keegel, 71, of Bainbridge Island, WA; Gordon Sturrock, 52, of Eugene, WA; Sam Tower, 68, of Tacoma, WA; and Robert Friend Weber Whitlock, 32, of Olympia were arrested by naval security personnel, processed and released after being issued citations for trespassing.

Relating to the day's theme of "Billions for Life, Not Billions for Death, according to Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation, "Washington State is planning to cut schools, health care, public safety and other programs by more that $4 billion. While Washington State taxpayers have paid $28.6 billion so far for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." That figure does not include the annual defense budget or nuclear weapons spending.

The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, is home to the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal, housing as many as 2000 nuclear warheads. In November 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364 nuclear warheads at Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal. The Bangor base houses more nuclear warheads than China, France, Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan combined. For over thirty-three years Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action has engaged in education, training in nonviolence, community building, resistance against Trident and action toward a world without nuclear weapons.
Contact: Leonard Eiger, Media and Outreach Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action www.gzcenter.org subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com (425) 445-2190

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Leonard Eiger, Media and Outreach
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action www.gzcenter.org

Disarm Now Plowshares http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• MLK
• Squadron13
• nuclear weapons
• Hiroshima
• Nagasaki
• Bangor
• Trident
• warhead

[hooliganSKATE]

why is this here?!?! nobody wants this

[texasmortarman]

Lets see where "non-violence" got your "pillars of current day non-violent thinking" Jesus; dead on a cross, Gandhi; shot and killed with a pistol, Martin Luther King Jr.; shot in the face with a rifle. Violence is nature, follow a wolfpack, follow a community of chimpanzees, we are the human animal and violence is our game, we are the best at it, that is why we are the dominant species on the planet.

[M1thotyn]

Oh shut up and go push some more drugs you drug pusher. Somewhere there are kids who aren't on risperdal, ritalin, adderal, abilify, anafranil, tegrotol, zyprexa, ativan, cogentin, zoloft, seroquel, depakote, elavil, prozac, clozapine, (WTF, this list of psychiatric drugs to top 10 million RX's in the 2000's goes on and on and on! ) lamictal, klonopin, concerta, cymbalta, dexedrine, geodon, haldol, halcion,.. No wonder it takes time to be a psychiatrists, you got to memorize all this shit.

[wolfgangpmay]

When "W" Bush wanted to continue torturing prisoners in Guantanemo, Cuba, Gordon Sturrock made certain that our group: "Veterans Against Torture" made that entertainment by Dick Cheney and George "W" was sent to our "so-called" free press.

Gordon, who was once a Military Policeman in Germany, is necessary, so that our country does not continue along the path of barbarism! Good Job, Gordon!

[SANDST0NE]

Interesting. I never thought of Ronald Reagan who pressured Russia into an arm's race, thereby collapsing their economy, as practicing the principles of non-violent regime change. But you specifically cite Russia as an example of non-violent regime change, so I guess we have to give credit where credit is due.

BELATED PEACE PRIZE TO RONALD REAGAN.

[AllieCaulfield]

Revisionist history at it's worst. Pacifism is a sickness that is propagated by privileged white middle class people in the west. The peace movement was amazingly effective at stopping the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Be a pacifist all you want but stop telling others how to resist.