September 04, 2015
The Golden Rule and her intrepid crew are in Santa Barbara this weekend, where yesterday we held a 2 pm press conference in front of the Maritime Museum at the Santa Barbara Harbor. David Krieger, director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation spoke, and Santa Barbara Veterans For Peace will present us with a check for $500!
We have had wonderful events in recent days. In Long Beach, Jessica Reynolds Renshaw spoke movingly about her family's decision to take the baton from the Golden Rule and sail into the Marshall Islands nuclear test zone on the Phoenix of Hiroshima. Jessica was 14 years old at the time.
She was joined in the Long Beach program by Leo "Bud" Feurt, an "atomic veteran" who was on an aircraft carrier in the Marshall Islands and actually saw the Phoenix of Hiroshima being escorted out by the Coast Guard.
The Navy intentionally exposed Bud and his fellow sailors to 28 nuclear blasts. Almost all of them have had related cancers and only 5% remain alive. Bud Feort is now California Commander of the National Association of Atomic Veterans, who are still fighting for compensation.
We raised almost $1,000 in Long Beach, and made many new friends.
On Sunday, Aug. 30, the Golden Rule sailed near the Santa Monica Pier, in a salute to the Arlington West memorial to U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Los Angeles VFP has set up this huge display every Sunday for over 11 years, and it has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world.
Later on Sunday evening, about 40 VFP members and friends joined us for a wonderful potluck picnic right next to where the Golden Rule was docked at Marina del Rey.
The following day, in Santa Monica, we had a moving press event at the Chain Reaction peace sculpture, a 26-foot high nuclear bomb mushroom cloud made out of chains. Longtime local antinuclear activist Jerry Rubin told us of the history of the sculpture, designed by famed political cartoonist Paul Conrad. Blase Bonpane of the Office of the Americas gave a great speech about how the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the beginning of a militarist U.S. foreign policy.
Upcoming stops include Morro Bay / San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco Bay Area (Sept. 20 - Oct. 10), Fort Bragg, and finally back home to Humboldt Bay by mid-October.
Updates, along with photos and video of all these events, will soon be posted on www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org as well as our Facebook page. We would welcome any assistance in getting the word out far and wide.
Long live the Golden Rule, sailing for a Nuclear Free World!