ANTI-NUCLEAR ACTIVISTS TO CELEBRATE BALTIMORE IS A NUCLEAR FREE ZONE

 ANTI-NUCLEAR ACTIVISTS TO CELEBRATE BALTIMORE IS A NUCLEAR FREE ZONE 

 On Sunday, January 22 at 5 PM we will gather in Baltimore on York Road and Gittings Avenue to celebrate that Baltimore City is a legally-binding Nuclear Free Zone since the City Council passed the ordinance in 1992. The rally will take place by a Baltimore City sign announcing the Nuclear Free Zone.

   We have selected this day as on January 22, 2021 the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place.  This historic treaty was voted by 122 nations and eventually became international law which comprehensively bans nuclear weapons in the same manner as biological and chemical weapons.

 

  Setsuko Thurlow, a hibakusha and survivor of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, said the following when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

 

“Whenever I remember Hiroshima, the first image that comes to mind is of my four-year-old nephew, Eiji – his little body transformed into an unrecognizable melted chunk of flesh. He kept begging for water in a faint voice until his death released him from agony. To me, he came to represent all the innocent children of the world, threatened as they are at this very moment by nuclear weapons. Every second of every day, nuclear weapons endanger everyone we love and everything we hold dear.”

 

 Responding to the prospect of nuclear omnicide, we convinced the Baltimore City Council to take a stand. On August 6, 2018, the members passed a Back from the Brink campaign resolution, five steps governments could take which would lead to the elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

 

  

 We will use the rally as a teaching moment.  Speakers will address various issues, including nuclear free zones, Back from the Brink, the TPNW, a Congressional resolution to support the Treaty, the DOOMSDAY CLOCK and the announcement on January 24 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists as to how close we are to nuclear midnight, the campaign to remove US nuclear weapons from five countries in Europe, and a Pastoral Letter by the Most Reverend John C. Wester, archbishop of Santa Fe. 

 The rally has been organized by the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Baltimore Phil Berrigan Memorial Chapter Veterans For Peace, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Maryland Peace Action,  Maryland CPUSA and Pax Christi Baltimore.  Call 410-323-1607 or email mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs