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Action Against Nuclear Weapons at the Livermore Lab
Marking the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, on August 6 a protest at the Livermore Lab called for an end to nuclear armaments. Demonstrators planted sunflowers at the gate to the Lab, the flowers being a symbol of nuclear protest.
Tara Dorabji is Outreach Director with Tri-Valley Cares in Livermore, the watchdog group for the Livermore Lab. I asked her, at the gate to the Lab, what she thought about the turnout and energy of the protest she helped organize. She responded saying it was "fabulous." She went on: "At least 800 people have showed up over the course of the day—hundreds and hundreds—it’s clearly a growing, vibrant movement: diverse, intergenerational, so many young people. That’s what’s heartening for me to see, is the next generation really carrying on this peaceful struggle, this non-violent revolution. It’s an evolution of consciousness, and we’re right here, at the gates of the Livermore Lab with this vibrant energy preparing to plant our prayers of peace."
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Some thoughts from the day and a few photos. We gathered to oppose war past and present, to remember its victims, and to plant seeds for change and a better, wiser world.
Early in the prepared program a young Japanese girl stepped on the stage. Wiping tears from her eyes, she retold stories of how her grandmother had survived a nuclear attack. Afterwards, she went to stand alone with her thoughts by the parking lot to wait for a ride that was slow in coming.
Who wants to remember such horrors? Who wants to talk about them? Especially when wars continue....
In the blazing sun the small crowd politely listened to the following speeches and protest performances while waiting and thinking nervously of the half mile or so journey we would be making to the Laboratory gate.
Finally, the time arrived-- and we set off. Some tried to get a people-power chant going-- but most of the marchers were quiet; there really were not that many of us. Some say we were several hundred, some called us "dozens." Thousands? Where were we?
As the small group of protesters marched toward Lawrence Livermore Research Laboratory, it was dwarfed by the broad open landscape and lines of washed luxury cars and SUVs going in the opposite direction.
"Where are all the people who should be marching with us?" I kept wondering. At Home Depot, or WalMart? Renting stacks of videos?
At the gate, we were met by security guards and police who eyed us silently.
While some of the activists meditated and prayed, others planted sunflowers and seeds by the gate, or hung folded cranes and protest messages on the chainlink fence.
Before long, the sun was gone, and a sliver of moon appeared over the hills with one or two stars.
Another year had gone by, and some spoke of returning again the next year.
Early in the prepared program a young Japanese girl stepped on the stage. Wiping tears from her eyes, she retold stories of how her grandmother had survived a nuclear attack. Afterwards, she went to stand alone with her thoughts by the parking lot to wait for a ride that was slow in coming.
Who wants to remember such horrors? Who wants to talk about them? Especially when wars continue....
In the blazing sun the small crowd politely listened to the following speeches and protest performances while waiting and thinking nervously of the half mile or so journey we would be making to the Laboratory gate.
Finally, the time arrived-- and we set off. Some tried to get a people-power chant going-- but most of the marchers were quiet; there really were not that many of us. Some say we were several hundred, some called us "dozens." Thousands? Where were we?
As the small group of protesters marched toward Lawrence Livermore Research Laboratory, it was dwarfed by the broad open landscape and lines of washed luxury cars and SUVs going in the opposite direction.
"Where are all the people who should be marching with us?" I kept wondering. At Home Depot, or WalMart? Renting stacks of videos?
At the gate, we were met by security guards and police who eyed us silently.
While some of the activists meditated and prayed, others planted sunflowers and seeds by the gate, or hung folded cranes and protest messages on the chainlink fence.
Before long, the sun was gone, and a sliver of moon appeared over the hills with one or two stars.
Another year had gone by, and some spoke of returning again the next year.
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