 So, I would like to thank citizens against nuclear bombers in Vermont, and I would like to thank the Monastic Academy for the preservation of life on Earth for cosponsoring our demonstration for peace. Well, if those who meditated for the full 24 hours would you kindly raise your hands and just ask the group to please look out for those folks, share our love for your sacrifice. There were many times in the last 24 hours that I was able to get up and move or do something to meet a physical need of mine, and I watched my friends sit. I think it's hard to imagine just how difficult that is. In Citizens Against Nuclear Bombers in Vermont, I want to extend my gratitude to James Ellers, our campaign director. I would also like to honor the contributions of Ben Cohen, who is one of the co-founders of Ben and Jerry's, who has really been a strong advocate for peace and social justice. And I would like to honor Roseanne Greco, retired Air Force colonel, who has been the brains and the analytical voice and the ethical voice of this movement. And I would also like to thank Jimmy Lees, who has done some outstanding moral and legal writing that has really helped to galvanize many people. I would also like to thank the Senate Government Operations Committee for holding a hearing, for our resolution banning the basing of nuclear weapons anywhere in the state of Vermont. HR7 and SR5, please call the Sergeant at Arms Office or stop by and visit their open till about 4.15. And please tell them to give Representative Stevens the message that we would like a House Committee hearing in the House Committee for Housing and Military Affairs. Our voice deserves to be heard. I'm very happy to see all of you here today. It was a beautiful 24 hours of sacrifice and expression of compassion for this beautiful planet and to come out of it to see your faces is truly miraculous. I don't have much of a voice right now. I haven't had anything to drink for two days. But I hope all of you can hear me and all of you appreciate those who did this ceremony for the benefit of life on earth. One might wonder why would we sit through the hot sun the freezing night without food or water or rest or any breaks, any walking, any leaving for any reason, is that right now we're facing an insanity, an evil, a violence that threatens life on this planet. And we need to find a way in ourselves and in community to face that insanity, that evil, that violence. And so we come here today to meet it with sanity, with honesty, with clarity, to meet it with love and goodness and care, to meet it with truth and peace. So we embody, we commit to embodying peace in order to provide an alternative to war. At this time, for many reasons, the most important one being that most people deny it, we're closer to the devastation of life on earth than ever before. And yet at least now today, we're standing here in peace and love, meeting each other in friendship. Let us spread this, let us spread it effectively to change the world and save life on this beautiful planet. Thank you, Soryu. Now, I'd like to invite Richard Ziplinski to speak from Veterans for Peace. Thank you, Jennifer. And thank you all for being here. I'd just like to say a few words as to why sitting in meditation is so important and maybe add something to what was just said. If we took a poll of all the people on earth today, or maybe it has been done, and asked the question whether you're for war or for peace, and I think the answer would be quite obvious. No one's really for war. Everybody wants peace. So then the question arises, why isn't there peace? Well, some of the answers can be found through sitting in meditation. I've done it for maybe 25 years, and we find out how our mind operates, what's happening in the mind, and what gets in the way of peace, the greed, hatred, delusion, or confusion. We have it in our minds. Things are in our minds and they manifest in the world if we don't recognize them. If we continue to be aware through meditation, we see those things in our mind, and we don't spread them out into the world. We see them in ourselves. It gets replaced with love and wisdom, and we can act effectively, more effectively, in the actions we take into the world. So I want to thank everybody who was involved in this meditation, especially the ones who spent so much time here without moving, eating, or drinking. It is a tremendous demonstration of what we should be doing, looking at our minds and fostering peace that way. With Veterans for Peace, we try to do it out in the world, and I work with our group to foster it in ourselves too. And if I can put a plug for Veterans for Peace, a week from this Saturday, we're having a meeting at Spirit in Nature in Ripton, Vermont, and we're inviting everyone to a peace picnic and conversations about fostering peace in the world, sort of a gathering of organizations that work for peace, so we can have a larger force in that direction. So thank you very much and continue the work. I had one more gratitude to share, and you may have one, but I wanted to say thank you so much to Robin Lloyd for attending today. Because of your long-term peace activism, you have helped to create a foundation for our movement without which we would not be here. And I just want to thank you for your many indispensable contributions to peace. Thank you, Robin. I would be remiss if someone didn't step to the microphone to offer our gratitude to Jennifer Decker. As long as we have hope, we have breath, as long as we have breath, we have hope. And with people like you out in the world, Jennifer, I have hope. So as previously mentioned, the doomsday clock that measures the threat of nuclear war and ensuing nuclear annihilation of life on Earth is closer to midnight than ever before. Now, today, we see who has the courage to stand up for peace, to sit up all night for peace. Some would have us believe that the sound of a jet taking off is the sound of freedom, yet freedom depends upon peace. As Roseanne Greco, the retired Air Force Colonel who is calling our attention to the threat we face, has said, in fact, our voices are the real sound of freedom, not the engine noise of a nuclear bomber. The voice of the people is the real sound of freedom. We're here today to use our voices and our practice to say no to nuclear weapons proliferation disguised as jobs and prosperity. We do not support or accept nuclear weapons in our state, our country, or our world. We, the people, ask our elected leaders to stand for peace, not for endless for-profit wars. Throughout history, states have stood for their rights with regard to housing weapons systems. It's time for Vermont to do the same. We love our congressional delegation, but we cannot allow loyalty to their position to lead us in a foolhardy direction to base a nuclear weapons delivery system in a civilian neighborhood. Like a nuclear arms race, this is madness. We encourage our congressional delegation to set aside this mistake in progress and explore alternate missions such as cyber security that will create a foundation of peace through investment in intelligence and the skills and talents of the younger generation. Cyber war is the real threat to our security. Nuclear weapons have never been a solution, not now and not ever. Vermont Youth, many of whom marched down State Street yesterday and provided energizing music for our meditators. It was an extension of the Mind the Music program, I would say. Deserve courageous elders who will stand up for the types of jobs that bring peace and prosperity, not threats of nuclear winter. Today, we stand with many veterans who rightfully question whether this particular project, the F-35, has any value for national security. In fact, it makes us less secure. Hampered by design flaws, the F-35 is a weapon system that is in the hands of one pilot on one bomber plane. This has never happened before. This is completely unprecedented and this is unacceptable to us. There is a new and dangerous arms race accelerating as we speak here today and this is unacceptable. Vermonters want no part in this. We want climate change legislation, not weapons based in civilian neighborhoods that are untested and toxic to our communities when they crash. Do those who serve in the Vermont Air Guard know that these planes have been questioned and rejected by members of the Air Force? If not, why have they not been told? A single nuclear bomb dropped here in Vermont would kill half the people who live here. Do we really want to risk a nuclear war? As a woman who has helped raise Vermont kids for the last 14 years, I want safe working conditions for those who choose a career with the Air Guard. I want them to learn in school our history that the State Guard services are for the state, not for endless foreign wars. I want them to learn and remember that important history. The State Guards are for the protection of the state and recent events have eroded this distinction. In whose interest is this erosion of our rights as a state? We believe that we are stewards of the fragile balance of life. Nuclear winter, climate destruction, starvation, and mass migration from war is not the direction that we choose. We choose to stand for peace. We choose to stand for a military responsible to the people that hears our voices and knows that our voices are the real sound of freedom. We choose the truth that freedom is free. We honor our veterans and we respect their service. We are veterans. We are civilians. We stand together with the knowledge that in the military we do not go along with orders that are unjust and destructive to our way of life. We ask our military forces to stand with us. We say no to the basing of nuclear weapons delivery vehicles and their inherent risks. Vermont will be a target in nuclear war as well as a place from which nuclear war could be launched if the F-35 rolls into Vermont this fall. Nuclear war will end civilization around the globe. Please support HR 7 and SR 5, our resolution banning the basing of nuclear weapons everywhere in Vermont. Please call the State House at 828-2228 and ask Representative Stevens to grant us a hearing. Thank you to veterans and service members present here with us and far away. We do not accept any narrative that would divide us from you. Some of the headlines say that we are targeting you. In fact, I am your granddaughter. I am your friend and I am here to serve and protect you from a mission that does not serve any of us. Hear our voices, the voice of the people. We stand for our constitutional rights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We stay up all night to honor those who are aware of the cost of the presence of nuclear weapons in our world today. We stand for the protection of our life, liberty, and property guaranteed by the Constitution that will not be taken from us without due process. One representative said to us, this issue is too political. Perhaps meaning that he is unsure how it will affect his future electability. I say to him, you will lose more votes when one of these planes crashes or God forbid mistakenly ignites a global nuclear war. Ending life on the planet and showing a weakness in our democracy from which we would not recover. Please, I say to our legislature, show the courage that is owed to our common humanity in this moment. In the 1980s, Vermont town stood for a nuclear freeze. Vermont helped to give rise to the movement that resulted in the end of the Cold War. Vermont can do this again. Stand with citizens against nuclear bombers in Vermont. The beginning of the end of nuclear war is in Vermont. Thank you very much. So as a closing, what I would like to do is to invite anyone who would like to speak a word into the center, a word that comes up for you if you think about this event. I'd like to give everyone a moment to think about what that word might be and offer people in an open manner to voice that when you feel led in this moment to share whatever those words might be. Inspiration. Imagine. Support. Generosity. Care. Solidarity. Generations. Intention. Awakening. Children. Innovation. Love. For James, the owner of the toy, water. Forgiveness. Spirit. Awareness. I invite one or two more shares. Thankfulness. Much gratitude to everyone. If you'd like to come and meditate with us, we have a Sunday sit in Burlington. Every Sunday from five to seven at the Quaker Meeting House on North Prospect. It would be wonderful to spend more time with all of you. You're all welcome and you can also come and visit our retreat center in Lowell, Vermont. Thank you again so much for making this event a success. Thank you. Regardless of the outcome of the resolutions, this doesn't end with those. Just because two planes arrive this fall doesn't mean this ends. So for those of you that don't have the opportunity to connect with us one-on-one in person, do not lose hope if things don't turn out the way that you would like for them to turn out. Report it on the news or through the rumor mills. This does not end when this legislature goes home. We're just beginning. Thank you. Well done. And don't forget to leave your contact info. Thanks.