 What do you say to them? They will eat you. Where is she? Who is um... She was over there. On the peace boat from the Japanese movement they have a wonderful cruise ship that goes around the world and stops and talks peace at every court and she's been involved with that and uh... her mother is Japanese Her name is Maha joined and ratified the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear countries have seven more countries to go before the treaty will enter into force and that treaty is the ending instrument that we have to prohibit nuclear with Hibakusha, the atomic bomb survivors has been a big part of the adoption of the treaty um... they have been to make sure that no one will suffer through what they did the average age of Hibakusha is now over 82 to introduce you quickly the amazing leader inspiring leader from Nagasaki he's 88 years old this year and he lost five of his family members Hibakusha's the atomic bomb survivors have been long time nuclear weapons cannot coexist with the humanity and I think what Hibakusha want to see is the voices to continue and not an increase in the defense budget or the resuming of nuclear testing so I just would like to call for no more Hibakusha thank you as we remember the horrors of nuclear war we need to rededicate ourselves to making sure that it never happens again we live in a world where today North Korea now has 20 nuclear bombs you have potential hotspots Israel, Iran, India Pakistan India China and where the most nukes are the US and Russia today President Trump is breaking treaties and we are entering a new arms race and even worse they are starting a space force which means you may have nuclear weapons very close over our heads in the next year or two I mean this is really dangerous here in Vermont we now have a squadron of F-32 jets the Pentagon has decided to arm some of them with nuclear weapons same kind of planes are being deployed near Russia and Poland and Turkey and around Russia with the first right capability some people here say well the F-35s won't have nuclear weapons but it's all top secret and if you trust the military they had nuclear weapons here before and they will do whatever they need to do so for the sake of humanity we need to redouble our efforts to disarm this world the bulletin of atomic scientist now says we are 100 seconds from Armageddon the closest ever since they started the doomsday clock in 1945 stopping the F-35 is what we can do locally defunding the military disarming is what we need to do next thank you this is the national league for peace and freedom we can see our banner here this is the 100th anniversary of suffrage this year we want to thank President Puppetton for coming all the way down here thank you very much I'm just thanking people at this moment and I want to thank the Tyco drummers as well thank you Tyco presents with their sound and we will be walking faster so that the cranes can actually slide as they do when they're in Glover so let's me organize our show right over there at the head of college and we zoom down it's very hard to sing loud with a mask on I'm noticing it's wonderful to have all of you here thank you for coming I'm Rachel Segalayushi her pronouns and I work at the peace and justice center I want to thank the folks who use the march down here I'm very excited that Tyco drummers and bread and puppet were able to be a part of it so thank you all yeah so one of the handouts that we have notes that 75 years ago today when we dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima 90% of the people in the city were killed on contact and I was thinking about Burlington with a little over 40,000 but if we think of it as 40,000 people 90% 36,000 I think 36,000 on the spot and then thousands more in the days to come and illness for generations and trauma to live with but for me imagining the 36,000 on the spot here in Burlington really made it real for me in another way so I think we'll go to another song unless somebody wants to come and share any thoughts I could also bring the mic to you and I can sanitize it in between uses if somebody wants to speak and doesn't want to come down here we can accommodate that good afternoon my name is John Ruer I'm a long time member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and I've been looking at nuclear war and nuclear weapons since Ronald Reagan came into office in 1980 saying we could win a nuclear war there's just two points I want to make today the first is the danger of this is as great as it has ever been the danger of having a nuclear conflagration of some kind some kind for lots of reasons that you only have to read the newspapers to learn China a full nuclear power and the United States are playing war games against each other we're trying to see even as we speak Russia and American relations are as low as they've ever been those two countries possess 92% of the world's nuclear weapons including 800 weapons each that are on hair trigger alert that if launched in the next hour would surprise no historian looking back they could only say they knew that was coming just like we knew this pandemic was coming it did nothing about it nuclear weapons there they're still in hair trigger alert look at Iran a war with Iran if you want to see how that could start the Vermont International Film Festival is actually linked to a movie called threads that shows what a nuclear war all out would have looked like in 1984 that movie is the most realistic nuclear war film ever made if you want to see it I recommend you go to their website look online and we'll have a discussion about it tomorrow night but it just so happens that that movie starts with showing all the families that are going to be affected by the war killed by the war but in the background the news is playing about how the Russians and the United States are intervening in Iran eerily familiar then there's North Korea that now has nuclear weapons with the United States and it threatening each other constantly there are many other scenarios India and Pakistan both have about 300 nuclear weapons it's been well studied if they have their own war just localized to their region the amount of soot from all the fires that would ensue would darken the skies enough around the world to lower the temperature three or four times worried about it raising in the next 50 years would happen in a couple of weeks utter climate disaster and mass starvation even with a very limited nuclear war if they all go off our civilization is done for so we really need to pay a lot more attention to this than we are now the second thing is how much hope we actually have back in 1980 there were 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world now there's fewer than 14,000 that only happened because people worked very hard to convince their political leaders to back the nuclear freeze and put a million people in the streets of New York City in 1982 demanding that these weapons be frozen and then reduced and we succeeded Ronald Reagan became the greatest disarmament president in history and all that was in place decreasing from that 70,000 to now 13,500 until the Obama administration and this generation forgot how bad nuclear war can be and now there's a build-up all nine of the states that have nuclear weapons are spending lots and lots of money in the world probably $100 billion a year to modernize weapons and part of that modernization is making them more accurate and smaller so they're actually usable if you all read about the explosion in Beirut that was out far enough on the dock that it didn't kill that many people 135,000 but 5,000 injured it would have been 5,000 or 6,000 killed and 100,000 injured they were lucky but that size explosion I calculated the other day is really on the small end of our nuclear weapons now we actually have nuclear weapons that are smaller than that and that makes war planners think they're usable the problem is that they use a few there's radiation effects that Lebanon doesn't have to worry about huge radiation effects that are both short-term and long-term but also there are too many big nuclear weapons left even though we've gotten rid of 85% there's enough to really destroy civilization and all human civilization as we know it there are probably a lot of miserable people surviving but nothing that you'd want a world to be the point is the danger is greater than most people realize and we've got to get that word out about that and secondly we have a lot more power and I think we do to stop it we have such a microcosm of this F-35 thing and what a great example of how people flying this plane and using this plane are kidding themselves the defense secretary and the nuclear posture who says the F-35 is a nuclear capable bomber it's the only nuclear weapons delivery system and the guard can flatly tell you they're not going to use it it's not set to use those nuclear weapons now but it could be 6 months from now or a year from now but in the belief that it's good for the economy and we love having our sons have such exciting jobs flying these planes and all the patriotic hoopla they're kidding themselves or downright lying about how that F-35 could be the beginning of the end with a nuclear holocaust in the movie threads I mentioned you'll see F-4s the old F-4 phantoms the old people here will all remember what they looked like because they flew Vietnam you see them constantly taking off in the background when the holocaust begins that would be enough 35 in this day and age so thank you for coming down here but please as you leave here get online there are countless organizations doing good work but the things to pay attention to are the bank back from the brink resolution which says we can immediately reduce the danger without any cost to anybody by taking immediate away the president's authority to start a nuclear war on the zone which he can do right now taking the weapons off hair trigger alert stop building new nuclear weapons to save a pile of money that we need for climate change problems pollution and the pandemic and then negotiate a treaty which actually already exists that's close to coming into force to prohibit nuclear weapons worldwide if we do these things we can bring ourselves back from the brink very carefully so please get on to nuclearband.com or preventnuclearwar.org and learn about these things and take them to city hall the city of Burlington the city of South Burlington and the city of Winooski has passed back from the brink resolution asking the federal government to do these things with letters sent to the president but three cities is nothing compared to the what 170 cities we had in the 1980s that all passed freeze resolutions to freeze nuclear weapons we need the activism you have the power please join us to do it and I'm hoping if I had a hammer New York City on June 12, 1982 organized the Vermont contingent so I wrote a letter to Senator Pat Lehi because he was just on VPR they were playing his interview with John Lewis and Lehi was going on about how bad racism is and everything and then it dawned on me because I live in the old North End and every day I get to listen to the F-35 flying over that Lehi went against the Pentagon put the F-35 here and where in all of really white Vermont doesn't fly over the most densely populated with people of color part of Vermont Winooski and the old North End of Burlington and that's racism and that's what I wrote it was a really short letter but that's what I wrote and he keeps continuing to ignore those of us who complain about the F-35 but anyway I just wanted to share that anybody wants to write a letter and explain to them that his nice friendly talks with John Lewis that John Lewis wouldn't have put the F-35 right next to the most colorful part of all of Vermont so Wendy's words just also reminded me about something I wanted to name which is the need for intersectionality in this work that a lot of the anti-war work that was really building a lot through the 60's and 70's and into the 80's really started to dwindle as other identity based activism started rising and I think the things are all very obviously connected but I think that we don't always make that connection blatant in our anti-war work and I think that until we're able to do that more clearly we're gonna have a hard time pulling more people into the anti-war movement so I encourage everybody to think deeply about things like what Wendy just said and about where are the bombs being made where are the minerals being extracted from the ground and who's being impacted by that where have the bombs been tested and who's being impacted by that I'm thinking about how this song starts it's around if we get that far and there's basically three lines and you sing each one twice so it's A, A, B, B, C, C the first line is we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one so just maybe say the words one time we're gonna rise up, rise up till it's one we're gonna rise up, rise up till it's one and it goes we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one one more time we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one good the second line is when the people rise up the powers go down so just say it when the people rise up the powers go down and the tune is the powers go down and the second time it's slightly different it goes when the people rise up the powers go down so let's try that two times through when the people rise up the powers go down when the people rise up the powers go down and then the third line they try to stop us but we keep coming back they try to stop us but we keep coming back they try to stop us but we keep coming back all together they try to stop us but we keep coming back one more time they try to stop us but we keep coming back row each line twice and we'll just keep going for a while and if people start to feel brave you can branch off you could just sing one line the entire time or you can rotate through all three we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one when the people rise up the powers go down when the people rise up the powers go down rise up till it's one we're gonna rise up till it's one when the people rise up the powers go down when the people rise up they try to stop and then people can keep singing just the first line if they want but then I'll also add in the second line we're gonna rise up rise up till it's one rise up till it's one we're gone we're gone rise up rise up till it's one rise up when the people rise up rise up until it's one when the people rise up we keep coming back Is that everybody else who wants to come and share some thoughts? My name's Lester. Can you hear me okay? Should I keep the mask on? Hi, can you hear me now? I'd like to read an account that was written from a survivor of Hiroshima, Toyomi Hashimoto. August 6th, 1945, Hiroshima. Possibly the darkest day in a dark decade. Three days later, the United States drops a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Toyoma Hashimoto remembers that day. Though at each anniversary the skies over our city are blue and peaceful, the memory of that day in 1945 still troubles my body and soul. In spite of the wartime conditions, my husband and our little son and I lived a happy life. On the morning of August 9th, 1945, I walked to the gate to see my husband off to work. My three-year-old son, Takashi, went out to play. I was alone in the house, when in the distance I heard an approaching airplane. Japanese, I wondered. I stepped outside to see my son running to me, calling, airplane, airplane. The moment we re-entered the house, there was a blinding flash, followed by a tremendous explosion. The roof of the house caved in, pinning us under a mountain of debris. Hours passed. Then I heard my son crying softly and calling for mother and father. He was alive. I tried to reach for him, but a huge beam immobilized me. I could not break free, though I screamed for help. No one came. Soon I heard voices calling names of neighbors. My son was bravely trying to crawl from under a heap of clay that had been one of the walls. When he turned and faced me, I saw that his right eye was obliterated with blood. Once again I tried to move, but the beam would not budge. I screamed so loud and long that I must have lost my voice. I called to the people I could see scurrying about, but they did not hear me. No one answered until the lady next door finally pulled my son out of the wreckage. I suddenly became aware of a sharp pain in my breast, left hand, and stomach, as I tried to crawl out. I saw that a huge nail was stuck in my stomach. Fire, fire! I could hear people shouting around me. It was either break free or burn to death. With a violent wrench I pulled myself from under the beam and doing so I ripped the flesh of my stomach and blood spurted from an agonizing gash in my body. I was at last out of the ruined house. Still my son was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the kind lady next door had led him to safety. I had to search for him, but I could only limp slowly because of the pain in my stomach. As I crept slowly along, people more seriously injured than I clutched at my feet and pleaded for help and water. I heard loud voices shouting, leave the old people, help the children first. All I could do was to promise to come back with water if it was possible. Thank heaven you're alive. I heard a familiar voice saying and turning with intense happiness I saw my husband who was holding our son in his arms. We climbed to the top of a hill together, walking among countless courses. On the hilltop a kind man gave us bedsheets, candles, sugar, and other useful things. At once we began to try to do something for a Takashi who had lost consciousness. After a while as we dripped sugar water into his mouth he awakened. He had already lost the sight of his right eye. Married slivers of glass were embedded in his head, face, body, arms, and legs. An air-raid alarm, still in effect, prohibited lining candles. In the pitch darkness my husband and I picked out as many pieces of glass from his body as we could find. So full of life and energy until that moment and now my son blind in one eye and covered with blood and dirt. Still he bore everything bravely and only asked, am I being a good boy? So I think I had a request that we do. We shall overcome next. And if there's any actual singers or musicians here who would rather lead, be happy to hand this roll off. I got it by default. We shall all. So if you've got your song sheet we're gonna do Imagine by John Lennon.