Lydia Wood of NuclearBan.US Gives Challenging Talk in Maine
Published on April, 04 2019
Lydia Wood of NuclearBan.US speaks at the USM’s (University of Southern Maine) Gorham campus on March 14, 2019. Photo: Martha Spiess.
By Martha Spiess
Maine WILPF
NuclearBan.US Campaign Coordinator Lydia Wood visited Maine on March 14, 2019. She was interviewed by Maine WILPFer Grace Braley in the Portland Media Center Studio, who asked questions about what the Nuclear Ban is and how civil society is working to ban the bomb.
Following the program, Lydia spoke about “Social Justice, Feminism and the Bomb” at the USM Gorham Campus at the Student Diversity Center. Her interview is in production and a YouTube video of her USM talk is available and is posted on our Facebook page. She spoke about the bomb as a tool of imperialism, and WILPFers were impressed and challenged by her talk.
We did get some feedback from viewers, primarily in response to the YouTube channel where Lydia’s talk is posted, and from the program airing now on Portland - Public Access and CTN. The intersectionality of Peace & Justice and Climate issues is gathering the most comments so far. “Climate” commentary comes primarily from youth as in this post by Sayre:
“Thank you for describing the UN Treaty against nuclear weapons. I also work for climate change too and clearly the issues are connected."
R. James writes: "I work on climate and nuclear energy is not one of the solutions to global warming. Nuclear energy is not clean. It is not green.”
Lydia Wood spoke of the disproportionate impact of nuclear weapons upon people of color. Bravo Test in 1954 in the Marshall Islands was where, every single day for 12 years, the US dropped the tonnage equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs.
On this point, Jen (relocated to Arkansas) wrote us: “I'm from Kwajalein Ebeye...I love Ebeye with all my heart, it is my home...it is also hell on earth.” Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs, dropped on Japanese civil society, were followed by US testing for years within the Majol (Marshallese) coral atolls and island group of Micronesia.
For more information, contact me at mspiess@myfairpoint.net.
