Remember the victims of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the 2011 victims of Fukushima!

Join us for a Memorial Program and Vigil

on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Quaker Meeting House

931 North 5th Avenue (south of Speedway Blvd.)

6:00 p.m.

Program features Russell Lowes, director for SafeEnergyAnalyst.com and lead author of “Energy Options for the Southwest, Nuclear and Coal Power”, speaking on Nuclear weapons and Nuclear power, Lea Goodwine, speaking of her personal memories of visiting Hiroshima, and music by the Tucson Raging Grannies.

Following the program, attendees are invited to walk to Speedway Boulevard
and 4th Avenue for a short candlelight vigil. Please bring signs, flashlights and candles.

Sponsored by:

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Pima Friends’ Meeting (Quaker)

Physicians for Social Responsibility

The Arizona Peace Council

Veterans for Peace

Code Pink Women in Black

The Green Party

The Nuclear Resister

For more information contact Margaret Pecoraro, 520-885-3908, margaretspiano@aol.com.

CODE PINK: Women for Peace, Tucson Chapter, Responds to Massacre (press release)

TIME & DATE: 12:00 Noon, Tuesday, January 11, 2011

LOCATION: University Medical Center, 1501 North Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ 85724

CONTACT: Mary DeCamp (520) 408-4974 mdecamp@q.com

ANNOUNCEMENT: A Press Conference will be held at 12:00 noon tomorrow, Tuesday, 1/11/11, at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, to allow our community’s many peace-minded groups to offer prepared statements in response to the Saturday Safeway Massacre targeting Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

Representatives from Code Pink: Women for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, AZ4NORML, the Tikkun Community & Jewish Voice for Peace, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Tucson Chapter, Middle East Justice Now!, the independent producer of Access TV’s Lovolution Village, Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Tucson’s Raging Grannies, and a growing list of other Tucson peace activists will be on hand to offer statements and answer questions.

BACKGROUND: Code Pink was born out of the 9/11 terror attacks. When the twin towers fell, the Department of Homeland Security responded by adopting a color code to alert air travels of the degree of danger – air travelers hear it is a “Code Orange” or “Code Yellow” day while awaiting their pat-downs down.

But our administration forgot to include a color for peace. So Code Pink: Women for Peace was born in 2002 with the mission to use creative ways to call for peace to replace terror in our lives.

Code Pink invites all those who are interested in working locally to promote peaceful alternatives to join together to alleviate the grief and to supplant violence with more sustainable alternatives.

Group Statement from some of these organizations about the mass shooting on January 8, 2011:

“Tucson peace activists, represented by the undersigned organizations, express their deepest sympathy for the anguish experienced by the victims and their families of the shooting on January 8, 2011, and their fervent hopes for the full recovery of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the others who were injured.

Tucson peace activists also wish to state their abhorrence of the rhetorical-political context for the shooting. That context includes Arizona’s near-bottom position in expenditures on education and mental health services and near-top position in laws favorable to gun ownership and use.

We believe the political climate and ordinary political discourse in Arizona, as reflected in statements by particular elected officials and by actions taken by the Arizona legislature as well as in violence expressed on talk shows and in threatening activities in various political campaigns, is a toxic brew. It expresses violence, encourages it, and then, with its lax gun laws, makes it easy to turn suggestions of violence into actual physical violence. Tucson peace activists reaffirm their commitment to non-violent actions in promoting peace locally, nationally and globally for all human beings.”

signed by WILPF, Tucson Raging Grannies, Tucson Tikkun Community, Jewish Voice for Peace

In the All Souls Procession tonight were a group of women from the Tucson branch of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF), with a larger than life-size puppet of Jane Addams. “Peace and Justice” says Jane’s sign in the photo above, with WILPF member Pat Birnie (lower left). On a leaflet they were handing out:

Jane Addams was an outspoken woman with strong opinions. In 1915, this was uncommon, and unwelcome. When she spoke out against WWI, declaring all war to be a horrific waste of lives and money, she was called a socialist, a communist, even a traitor. Fifteen years later she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hull House in Chicago, which was her major passion, provided services for indigent and immigrant women and children. Jane Addams helped to start Hull House in 1889, along with her long-time companion, Ellen Starr. She was also very influential in women’s suffrage and labor unions, and helped establish special courts for juveniles. Both the NAACP and the ACLU were also co-founded by Jane, as she was always seeking justice for the oppressed and the poor she saw all around her.

Photo above of “Jane Addams” with WILPF supporters (L to R: Terry Rillos, Margaret Pecorano, Margo Newhouse, Stephanie Keenan, Mary Somers, and Debi Livingston), courtesy of Carole Edelsky.

R.I.P. Jane Addams (1860-1935), the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (second internationally). She was the founder and first President of WILPF.

“The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) brings together women from around the world to work for peace by non-violent means and to promote political, racial and economic justice for all.”

For more info: www.wilpftucson.org.