I am one of the volunteers for the Proposition One Anti-Nuclear Campaign tent over at the White House. I’ve been volunteering there since June 2014. The Prop 1 tent was started by William Thomas in 1979. We have kept the tent up and running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, since 1981 as a vigil for peace and against nuclear weaponry and nuclear power.
Mr. William Thomas and his wife Ellen Thomas met Concepcion Picciotto shortly after they started the vigil. Picciotto has been the main curbside patriot until recently, manning the tent an average of 20 hours per day. Due to her health and advanced years, she now keeps the vigil going from noon to 7:00 p.m. every day. The rest of the hours are picked up by Phillipos Melaku-Bello, with a sprinkling of other students and volunteers such as myself. I do the Thursday 7:00 p.m. to Friday 7:30 a.m. shift and the Sunday 7 p.m. to Monday 7:30 a.m. shift.
Melaku-Bello is currently putting in 95 hours a week, by himself, and could use a little help from more volunteers. The nuclear disarmament issue and the negation of nuclear power like in Germany is old news, but remains just as serious an issue as ever before. Human error, worsening weather, and natural disasters are inevitable. We have witnessed Fukushima and can expect more such disasters in the future if something on a grand scale is not done. Volcanoes, fault shifts, and other world-changing events can be expected to cause catastrophe for nuclear industries if they are not shut down.
We owe it to our children to protect the biosphere against any further mishaps. As long as nuclear weapon stockpiles exist, there is a potential for catastrophe. The United States and Russia still have several thousand nuclear weapons. The only way to prevent smaller nations like Iran from arming, and to secure the disarmament of nations like India and Pakistan, is to uphold our end of the Nonproliferation Treaty.
Progress was seen on Thursday April 2, when Iran, the United States, and five other nations announced a preliminary nuclear pact that would vastly limit Iran’s nuclear production. But any nuclear production is too much. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton continues to fight on our behalf, having reintroduced HR-1650, the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act, 11 times.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs for social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Instead of nuclear weapons, America needs to be spending its money on schools, hospitals, healthcare, and jobs.
According to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the United States will spend at least $179 billion between 2010 and 2018 on nuclear weaponry. And on top of that, President Obama has just put in another trillion dollars. These funds could be better spent. We must act to remove this danger and put our country’s money in the right place by contacting government officials and telling them just how we feel and what we expect from them. Please consider joining me in support of Prop1.org.
If you would like to become one of the patriots who donates time to the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil Tent across the street from the White House, please text 571-235-3817 for an interview. Thank you ever so much for your time and attention. God bless.
