Taking Nuclear Free Future to DC

By Carol Urner and Ellen Thomas for the Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee

The second Nuclear Free Future (NFF) Tour began April 1 and should end May 15.

By mid-May we expect to be too exhausted to continue this new tour into the Southeastern states, up the East Coast and into the Midwest. 

We are still accepting invitations, although we already have enough to make this second NFF tour as valuable as the first.  Contact Ellen Thomas by email with your questions and/or to issue an invitation to stop by.  In our January/February NFF tour it was good to break long drives with shorter but precious visits to listen and share with WILPFers and others over coffee, tea or a tall glass of water.

We will be stopping in DC for the week of April 15-23, primarily to meet with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) to educate Representatives, key Senators and the Administration on current nuclear issues.  At least five of our Disarm/End Wars Committee members expect to be there to deliver personal letters from our Branch members to their Representatives. Scroll down for useful information and resources if you are interested in joining us this year or next.

A preliminary report of our first tour appeared in the March WILPF e-news. Ellen is now working on a much more detailed report of what we felt was a successful start to what we hope can be a significant WILPF boost to much needed nuclear abolition movement building NOW.  We were able to meet with almost everyone who requested visits on the first tour, and also with some other individuals not included in our preliminary reporting.

For this second tour we have already received invitations from Triangle Branch in Chapel Hill NC (for April 13) and are considering four others in this same area. We have invitations from Baltimore Branch and a UFPJ group also there.  We look forward to visiting with Greater Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Branches in Pennsylvania, with Pacem in Terris in Wilmington DE, and with New York Metro Branch. We would love to meet with Cape Cod and Montpelier Branches, which have also invited us, if the scheduling works. If it does perhaps we could accept the request that we revisit Boston, which would greatly please us.

We also have invitations we hope we can arrange for from Detroit and Ann Arbor, Minneapolis/St Paul, and St Louis Branches in the Midwest.  If possible we would love to accept the invitation from Physicians for Social Responsibility in Kansas City MO.  Again, others can still invite us, but those listed here will of course have priority if the scheduling can be arranged.

It would be great to meet with you anywhere on our second Nuclear Free Future Tour. It will also be great if we can all work together through this year and the next to build the better societies we seek, to develop nonviolent ways to solve our many problems, and to save our planet home from becoming another Mars as well.

It is not too late to register for ANA DC Days, April 17-20 and Spring Meeting, April 21-22, or to send letters for us to deliver to your own Representative. Send email to Ellen Thomas, or call 202-210-3886, with questions and for additional information.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday you can join us in promotion of Eleanor Holmes Norton’s HR 1976,  the only bill in Congress that supports Bernie Sanders’ call for global abolition of both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. 

You can also spend Thursday and Friday at the annual ANA spring planning conference, where we will all be able to contribute from our own experiences while lobbying or in our own communities, as well.  If you are able to stay for the spring planning retreat on Thursday and Friday it will cost only $75.00 additional, payable to ANA on arrival, and including light breakfast and lunches.

If you register directly with ANA please let Ellen Thomas know.  As late registrants, even WILPFers will be responsible for their own housing and transportation, but ANA has many suggestions for places to stay.

 To get the most out of the experience you should be there the whole day  Sunday 4/17 for the “lobby training” (though in WILPF we don’t think of it as lobbying so much as educating Congress and also listening and learning valuable information from them).

A super majority of the world’s national governments and people are ready now for the Prague promises President Obama once made to us, and in our own lifetimes, as soon as possible. The human race, and possibly most or all life on earth, is arguably more seriously in danger of extinction now than at any time during the so called Cold War.  Yet, there is still a little time, and thanks to the internet, a lot more information for us to work with.

We look forward to sharing with you and others the GOOD news that progress is being made both at home and around the world.