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posted Oct. 16, 2009
Alice Zilla, one of those arrested on the county side, carries a large photo of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, and offers sunflowers to drivers entering the submarine base on their way to work.
Arrests at Trident Base in Bangor, WA
Civil disobedience marks 64th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
photos by Leonard Eiger
Some 87 people participated in a vigil and nonviolent direct action against the Trident nuclear weapons system at the Main (Trident Avenue) gate to Bangor nuclear submarine base early on Monday August 10. Nine of the participants were voluntarily arrested.
Joy Goldstein, 74, 0f Vashon, WA, and her passenger, Swaneagle (Mary Tremblay), 59, of Vashon, WA, drove onto the base and were arrested by Naval security, processed and released.
These seven women were arrested for blocking traffic on the county side. Photo was taken after their release from the Kitsap County Justice Center, and before boarding the Squadron 13 Peace Bus for the ride back to the Ground Zero Center.
Jessica Artiega, 24, of Tacoma, WA, Lynne Greenwald, 61, of Bremerton, WA, and Tom Shea, 80, of Snoqualmie, WA crossed the blue line onto the submarine base and attempted to block traffic entering the base while holding a large banner with a sunflower and broken Trident missile saying, “Abolish Nuclear Weapons: Resist Trident”, and a peace flag. All three were arrested by Naval security, processed and released. Tom Shea offered the Naval security personnel copies of an article by Larry Kerschner, titled “August 9, 1945: Ruminations on Nagasaki.”
While vigilers held a variety of banners, flags and signs calling for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons a second group broke the yellow “caution” tape designating the “free speech zone”, and strung it across the County roadway, blocking traffic entering the base. One member of this group walked among the vehicles waiting to enter the base, offering drivers sunflowers, a symbol of nuclear disarmament. Anne Hall, 64, of Seattle,WA, Jackie Hudson, 74, of Bremerton, WA, Brenda McMillan, 75, of Port Townsend, WA, Jean Sundborg, 69, of Seattle, WA, and Alice Zillah, 36, of Olympia, WA, were arrested by Washington State Patrol officers.
From left: Lynne Greenwald, Jessica Artiega and Tom Shea block traffic at the Main Gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.
Next, Jessica Artiega and Lynne Greenwald, who had already been arrested, processed and released by Naval authorities, re-entered the roadway on the county side, carrying the same banner as before. They were then arrested by the State Patrol. All those arrested by the State Patrol were taken to Kitsap County Justice Center in Port Orchard where they were booked and released. Veterans For Peace, Squadron 13, who brought their Peace Bus to Ground Zero Center in Poulsbo for the weekend, picked up the arrestees after their release and returned them to Ground Zero Center.
The Trident submarine
base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, is home to the largest
single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the US. In November 2006,
the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364 nuclear
warheads at Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire US arsenal.
The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolence resists Trident, and offers education, training, and action for a world free of nuclear weapons. See www.gzcenter.org, email info@gzcenter.org.