LIVERMORE, Calif. – On the 59th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there will be a peace march to the Livermore nuclear weapons lab. Livermore Lab is one of two facilities that develop all U.S. nuclear weapons, including a new “bunker-buster” called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.
The march to Livermore is being called to oppose “the horror of the atomic bomb and the current war in Iraq, to celebrate nonviolence and the possibilities of the human spirit,” according to a statement by Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), “to honor the unmet needs of our school-age children and to demand political change and economic justice by insisting on ‘Books Not Bombs.’”
On Aug. 8 at 1 p.m. a rally will begin at Jackson Elementary School, 554 Jackson Ave. A featured speaker will be Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the America’s Watch, who recently said, “The billions of dollars that are going into this death facility at Livermore Lab are a theft from sisters and brothers here in California and throughout the world who are struggling for survival.”
Gross increases in military spending are drying up funding for education, according to another scheduled speaker, Cesar Cruz: “It is tragic how America has money for war and prisons, but can’t find funds to keep schools open. Our priorities are on profit and slave labor, and not on our children.” Cesar is an organizer of the Fast4Education. There will be an indoor art display of quilted and painted panels, many from the “Ribbon Around the Pentagon” project. Rally participants are also encouraged to bring a new or used book to donate. All books collected at the rally will be donated to the Buenas Vidas Youth Ranch, a safe home for boys located in Livermore. The march to Livermore Lab will begin at 3 p.m.
Tara Dorabji is outreach director of Tri-Valley CAREs. She can be reached at tara@trivalleycares.org.
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