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.
Beata Tsosie-Peña
Beata Tsosie-Peña is an activist from Santa Clara Pueblo, near Los Alamos, New Mexico. She is a mother, poet, farmer, musician, and certified in infant massage. She also serves as an educator and in permaculture design. She is a “Green For All Fellow” and has served on several local community boards near Espanola, New Mexico.
She is on the staff of Tewa Women United, a non-profit organization based in New Mexico, where she advocates for justice, a clean environment and health. She has lived all her life near the nuclear weapons complex at Los Alamos, and supports her Pueblo’s vision of peace. She believes in the practice and preservation of land-based knowledge, spirituality, language, seeds, family and the Earth. She has dedicated herself to the healing, wellness and sustainability of her community and the Earth for future generations.
Campaign Nonviolence National Conference - Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima Ashley Pond Los Alamos New Mexico
Nearly three hundred citizens from across the country and local New Mexico communities gathered at the birthplace of atomic bomb, Los Alamos, to meditate, march, and renew the commitment to peace, nonviolence, and nuclear disarmament. Father John Dear led the traditional Christian sackcloth and ashes ritual of repentance from violence and nuclear weapons. The line of marchers processed along Trinity Drive with signs and banners. They sat along the busy road in silent contemplation and vigil as they demonstrated for nuclear disarmament. Then, the citizens marched back to Ashley Pond, where speakers delivered remarks underneath the swaying strings of 70,000 Cranes for Peace folded by people from around the world. Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Beata Tsosie-Peña from Santa Clara Pueblo, Ken Butigan of Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence, and Rev. James Lawson.
Beata Tsosie-Peña
Beata Tsosie-Peña is an activist from Santa Clara Pueblo, near Los Alamos, New Mexico. She is a mother, poet, farmer, musician, and certified in infant massage. She also serves as an educator and in permaculture design. She is a “Green For All Fellow” and has served on several local community boards near Espanola, New Mexico.
She is on the staff of Tewa Women United, a non-profit organization based in New Mexico, where she advocates for justice, a clean environment and health. She has lived all her life near the nuclear weapons complex at Los Alamos, and supports her Pueblo’s vision of peace. She believes in the practice and preservation of land-based knowledge, spirituality, language, seeds, family and the Earth. She has dedicated herself to the healing, wellness and sustainability of her community and the Earth for future generations.
