George (Haeseler)

The annual Hiroshima Remembrance Breakfast sponsored by BCPA will be held at the First Congregational Church, corner of Main and Front St. in Binghamton, on Monday, August 6th, at 7 AM. Mayor Matt Ryan will speak and officially sign the Mayors for Peace statement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. In so doing, Binghamton will join Syracuse and Rochester in NY State and 85 US cities.

Local organizations that have endorsed the mayor’s signing are:

Broome County Peace Action

Binghamton El Chacon Sister City Project

Justice and Peace Advisory Committee

Binghamton Area Friends Meeting

Broome County Veterans for Peace

Binghamton SOA Watch

St James Peace and Justice Committee

Zacchaeus House Catholic Worker

Teachers for Peace

Broome County Green Party

Social Justice Committee of the UU Cong. of Bing.

Citizen Action of NY

Working Families Party

Social Justice Network of the Wyoming Annual Conference of UMC

Please come and support this historic occasion, as well as enjoy the company of other local peace advocates. Parking space at the church is limited so use street parking or the rear of the adjacent Civic Center.

Following the breakfast and ringing of the Church bell some will drive and others will walk to Peace Park (confluence of rivers off Riverside Drive) to hear Frieda Jacques, Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, say a few words from a Native American perspective.

The event is free and open to the public but contributions will be encouraged to defray expenses. Your advance reservation will help in planning for the breakfast.

To reserve, call Pat Donohue ASAP at 722-0549.

On the 61st anniversary of the U.S. Government's bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and the Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War are sponsoring an event to begin at NOON, MST, on Sunday, August 6, 2006, convening at the Lockheed Martin Discovery Pavilion. This is at the foot of the world's largest military contractor's operations in Colorado, southwest of Denver, and also at the nexus of a 50 year, now documented history of contamination by radioactive and toxic wastes. Chronic environmental violations and public health threats from top-secret missile testing and production and uranium mining in the vicinity, just uphill and upgradient of metro Denver water supplies, now including the Chatfield Reservoir, have been documented.

At the event, speakers will include: Judith Mohling of RMPJC to invite solemn remembrance of the victims of Hiroshima and to discuss the global threat of nuclear weapons; Ken Seaman and Bill Strabala to discuss the imprisonment of Father Carl Kabat, a Catholic priest and longtime Plowshares activist, for his recent effort to "disarm" a nuclear missile; Adrienne Anderson, former University of Colorado Environmental Studies instructor and newly hired Coordinator of RMPJC's Nuclear Nexus Project, with Joan Jacobsen, a former Friendly Hills resident, who together for over 20 years have investigated ongoing pollution threats stemming from the Martin Marietta/Lockheed Martin complex and related cover-up by the Denver Water Board and other government agencies to protect the interests of the world's largest defense contractor rather than local citizens. Anderson and Jacobsen will reveal a nearby Hiroshima connection in Colorado, and continuing public health threat from a uranium mining site in the immediate vicinity, along the South Platte River and just upstream of water supplies currently being used in the Denver metro area.

Following the speakers' presentations at the Lockheed Martin Discovery Pavilion, those gathered will break bread together in remembrance of Hiroshima's victims, those who perished in the immediate nuclear devastation and also in the aftermath with the long-lived legacy of atomic weapons use by our own government. Anderson and Jacobsen - who also serves as a member of the Citizens Advisory Board* overseeing the Superfund clean-up activities at the Lockeed Martin site - will then lead a "Toxic Tour" of the radioactive and toxic contaminated area into Waterton Canyon, and further discuss actions by Martin Marietta/Lockheed Martin and the Denver Water Board to deny the toxic legacy of their illegal actions and failure over a half century to protect public health for area citizens, unwitting casualties of the nuclear weapons war machine here at home, in Colorado.

WHO: Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War
WHEN: Sunday, August 6, 2006 at 12:00 NOON, MST
WHERE: Lockheed Martin Discovery Pavilion, at the southwest corner of the Chatfield State Recreation Area. See map (attached, location marked by a white star), and directions are also posted below and at http://www.rmpjc.org/2006/HiroshimaRemembered/
WHY: Remembering Hiroshima and calling for an end to local hazards and the global threat posed by nuclear weapons

* (for identification purposes only)

At 5:30 p.m., the final event of the weekend is the third annual Peace Concert at Lake Harriet Bandshell, as part of the Lake Harriet Bandshell summer concert series. Kairos Intergenerational Dance Theatre will open the program, followed by Rabbi Sim Glaser and the Social Action Figures. This group performs rock and roll songs primarily from the 1960s. The final group on the program is Light of the Moon, led by Nick Jordan. This country and bluegrass group will have people dancing in the aisles.