'Moms Against Bombs' Coming to Bangor Trident Base

Ground Zero Center holds three scheduled vigils and actions each year in resistance to Trident and in protest of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and its costs.

Photos by Leonard Eiger

(SEATTLE) - Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action will hold its annual Mother’s Day Weekend observance on Saturday, May 12th.

This year’s theme, “Moms Against Bombs”, honors the origin of Mother’s Day by Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, after the Civil War, Howe called for mothers everywhere to unite against the continuing use of violence and war to solve differences.

The day-long event at the Ground Zero Center near Poulsbo, WA, calls attention to the huge nuclear arsenal at the Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base.

The Trident Base, just 20 miles from Seattle, contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Each of the 8 Trident submarines at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as 8 independently targetable nuclear warheads. Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force of between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb).

The Mothers' Day weekend program includes education about nuclear weapons and Trident, nonviolence training, a vigil at the Kitsap Mall, and a vigil and nonviolent direct action at one of the Bangor entrance gates.

Ground Zero Center holds three scheduled vigils and actions each year in resistance to Trident and in protest of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and its costs. Participants have also been working to reverse the Navy’s plan to build a Second Explosives Handling Wharf at Bangor. Ground Zero is also working to de-fund the Navy’s plans for the next generation ballistic missile submarines, estimated to cost $99 billion to build.

For over thirty-three years Ground Zero has engaged in education, training in nonviolence, community building, resistance against Trident and action toward a world without nuclear weapons.

The Ground Zero Mothers' Day "Moms Against Bombs" begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Center, 16159 Clear Creek Road N.W., Poulsbo, WA.

Visit www.gzcenter.org, “Events Calendar” for schedule and details.

Contact: Leonard Eiger, Media and Outreach

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
www.gzcenter.org
subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com