Peace Train April 27, 2018
By JUDITH MOHLING
Walking along Broadway in Boulder last Saturday I passed excited people and families, some with guns, flags unfurling in the breeze, signs like “Don’t Tread on Me,” and “Keep Calm & Carry a .45.” It was a gun-rights rally. An hour earlier on the corner had been a Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center anti-war demonstration with peace activists and their signs opposing war and violence. Plus, the March for our Lives movement is challenging the violent status quo in the United States, and changing deeply rooted and prejudicial thinking. Mind boggling.
I was reminded of Toni Morrison, “Forcing a nation to use force is easy when the citizenry is rife with discontent, experiencing feelings of a powerlessness that can be easily soothed by violence.”
This weekend we are celebrating the year-long effort by peace activists 40 years ago to stop plutonium pit production for nuclear weapons at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant eight miles south of Boulder—lengthy, passionate peace activism versus perhaps the ultimate AK-47’s—nuclear weapons. They camped in order to make a round-the-clock demonstration and blocked trains from leaving or entering the complex.
“The Rocky Flats Truth Force was a grass-roots non-violent, anti-nuclear group formed during protests at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant. Demonstrations and railroad track blockages at the Rocky Flats Plant in 1978 resulted in multiple arrests of the protesters. The Rocky Flats Plant was a US nuclear weapons complex which operated from 1952 until 1992, creating considerable radioactive contamination.” Wikipedia
It is also the fortieth anniversary of KGNU Radio, an independent, noncommercial, community radio station “for Boulder, Denver and beyond.” And, we’re celebrating the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, born to carry on the spirit of non-violent resistance.
There is the opening tonight of Facing Rocky Flats at the Boulder Public Library. It is a group exhibit preceding the planned public opening of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge using art and oral history to explore the past, present, and future of the contentious site.
A day of panel presentations follows on Saturday at Unity Spiritual Center, Folsom and Valmont, with three food trucks gathering at noon, capped off by a live Skype interactive talk with Dan Ellsberg in the evening. Look for films at the library and attend a Joanna Macy influenced workshop Sunday at Naropa. RMPJC.org
