Campaign Nonviolence National Conference - Panel Discussion Nuclear Weapons Los Alamos and Nonviolence
Jay Coughlan, NukeWatch New Mexico, lays out the startling facts on the current state of the United States nuclear arsenal and current modernization plans which are leading to what some people are calling the “Second Nuclear Age”. Bud Ryan, filmmaker of The Forgotten Bomb, relates the personal story of traveling to Hiroshima with his Japanese-American wife, and the galvanizing effect the trip had on him. Marian Naranjo, founder and director of Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), and a potter and organizer from Santa Clara Pueblo, opened with a prayer and asked everyone to remember whose homelands the conference was taking place on. Marian also asked all participants to take action with the pueblo, including writing letters to tribal officials. Beata Tsosie-Peña from Santa Clara Pueblo offered remarks and a beautiful, evocative, and eye-opening poem. The panel concluded with Rev James Lawson’s clear eloquence on his personal experience of the atomic bomb as a high schooler in 1945. Rev. Lawson went on to discuss the connections of nuclear weapons to many forms of injustice and domination perpetrated by the United States.
Bud Ryan
Bud Ryan is an anti-nuclear activist, filmmaker and organizer with Pax Christi for the annual Hiroshima peace vigils at Los Alamos. Originally from New York City, Bud and his wife Tomoko moved to rural New Mexico in 1991 and built a solar house in an off-grid community. His first visit to Hiroshima in 1991 started him on his path as an anti-nuclear activist. After working for years with Pax Christi New Mexico to help organize the annual peace vigils, he decided to make a film about nuclear weapons. Along with Stuart Overbey, he spent four years making and producing “The Forgotten Bomb,” a powerful documentary about nuclear weapons which went into distribution and was seen at many film festivals. It won Best Feature Length Documentary at the Irvine International Film Festival in California. He lives near Madrid, New Mexico.
