IT BLOWS MY MIND

By Marilyn Kavanaugh

I wasn't sure why I went. But go I did, on a sunny August Sunday remembering the horror of those who died from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 62 years ago. Equally important, I lent myself to a peaceful protest of the terrible weapons trigger-ready at the naval base 20 miles west of Seattle.

So I packed my lunch and after church took the Bremerton ferry to Bangor along with 10 other St. Pat's people. Quietly standing to protest the Trident subs with their 2000 plus nuclear weapons was the order of the day. There are many things to protest, many things to work for: Human rights, political change, global warming, an end to homelessness. Why this?

For 30 years caring people of all faiths and no faith have been gathering at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, a pleasant spot rather like a state park with no facilities. (The house that had been built there was burned down last year. This same weekend there was a groundbreaking for a new house.)

So we gathered, put on sunscreen, sat in on training for those who would cross the line the next day, bought tee-shirts. It seemed like a lark, or at least a peace dove. But it was more than that..

There were 30 Buddhist monks who had walked for two weeks, 336 miles from Eugene, Oregon to lead the way. They drummed and chanted There were people from the Unitarian Church, from Port Townsend, a Church, from Port Townsend, a diverse group united by their concern. Soon we lined up with careful instructions to stay close and watch for traffic (we marched down a busy road). Then we crossed together and went through the woods - suddenly we were just outside the gates of the Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor.

For an hour we stood in vigil, about 80 of us, holding banners. The monks did their thing, meditative and stirring at the same time. The cars rolled by slowing to enter the base. Some of us waved. The responses varied from friendly waves back, to one-fingered salutes, to no response at all.

After the walk back we shared thoughts and sang Amazing Grace in a circle. Coming home we felt virtuous (until we found that enticing ice cream shop by the ferry landing.) Even after the sugar high, we felt good. The parish contributed nearly $500 to Ground Zero through contributions and the sale of promotional tee shirts (Go Mary Speltz, go!). And St. Patrick's was well represented, 10 of the 80 total.

And now I knew why I had come. If we purposefully or accidentally discharge any of these nuclear weapons we, and the world we know, will come to an end. Survival will be hardly worth it. All other "good deed" efforts pale in comparison to the need to abolish nuclear weapons.

Brian Watson, a Ground Zero member wrote in the spring of this year, "Ground Zero's values and actions are based on a radical nonviolence, and represent an alternative to the preparations for unimaginable violence that occur every day on the other side of the chain-link, barbed-wire fence running along the western edge of Ground Zero's property."

The founders of "Ground Zero" chose that name for two reasons. 1) "Only by going to the epicenter - the "ground zero" of violence in ourselves can we create true peace and also 2) the transformation of our nuclear-armed world to one in which nuclear weapons are unthinkable requires us to be literally, at ground zero - as close to 'the bomb' as possible. That first reason: facing the ground zero of violence in ourselves gives me pause.

Statistics are sobering, sad, serious and sinful.

The 2,016 nuclear weapons loaded onto 14 Trident submarines make up 37% of the US nuclear arsenal. Each Trident submarine is equal to 1,000 Hiroshimas. Ponder one thousand Hiroshimas.

If those figures aren't horrific enough, Brian Watson quotes from a website article stating there are now 2,364 nuclear weapons (do we really need 348 more?).

A study conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council calculated that a single Trident sub, firing its maximum capacity. ..to Russia…would cause 52 million casualties, of which 49 million of those would be dead or dying. This study was reported in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists six years ago. I bet today "improvements" would increase those numbers.

That's about it. It was well worth it and yes, I'd do it again. Thanks to our two drivers, Polly Young and Elizabeth Hansen, and the other demonstrators Robin Rowedder, Jim Clark, Vicki Grayland, Marion Schwartzenbach, Greg, Mary and Kate Speltz, and Kathy Wagner. Indeed, it did "Blow My Mind."