For immediate release
January 20, 2021
Contact: Ken Mayers, Veterans for Peace, kenmayers@vfp-santafe.org
Joni Arends, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, jarends@nuclearactive.org
Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, jay@nukewatch.org
NOON TO 1 PM EVENT AT ST. FRANCIS DRIVE & CERRILLOS ROAD
IN SANTA FE AND
2 PM TO 3 PM EVENT AT ASHLEY POND IN LOS ALAMOS
TO MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS:
LOCAL RESIDENTS CELEBRATE TREATY’S ENTRY INTO FORCE
January 22, 2021, will be a historic day for nuclear weapons. On that day, at midnight, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will enter into force, establishing in international law a categorical ban on nuclear weapons, seventy-five years after their development and first use.
The momentous occasion will be marked by actions, events, and celebrations around the globe and across the United States.
In Santa Fe, the members of Veterans For Peace, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS), and Nuclear Watch New Mexico will mark the historic day by holding banners at the weekly peaceful protest of the Veterans for Peace (since August 2002) at the corner of St. Francis Drive and Cerrillos Road from noon to 1 pm. Following the noon vigil, the groups will caravan to Los Alamos to vigil at Ashley Pond with celebratory banners.
“Right now, the Treaty does not legally apply to the United States,” said Ken Mayers, “because we have not signed or ratified it. But that does not mean we will not be feeling the moral force of the Treaty. All nuclear weapons, including the 3,900 in the US stockpile, have been declared unlawful by the international community.”
These events are just two of many events happening around the country. At nuclear weapons production sites in Tennessee, Kansas City, New Mexico and California, banners declaring NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE ILLEGAL will be hung on fences at the plant entrances. Letters will be delivered to members of Congress. University campuses that are engaged in support activities for weapons production will be asked to reconsider their activities. Churches will ring their bells.
“The entry into force of the Treaty is a turning point,” said Joni Arends, of CCNS. “On the one hand, it is the end of a long process to outlaw nuclear weapons. On the other hand, it is just the beginning of a new movement to confront nuclear weapons states and demand they lift the dark shadow of nuclear annihilation that has loomed over the world for the last seventy-five years.”
Jay Coghlan, of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said, “Nuclear weapons are now internationally illegal! The U.S. was among the last major countries to abolish slavery but did so in the end. To modify MLK’s famous quote: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards [the] justice” of abolishing nuclear weapons. This ban treaty is the beginning of that end and should be celebrated as such.”
For more information on other activities, see the Facebook page Nuclear Ban Treaty EIF and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) events page at www.icanw.org/events.
For more information on local activities, contact:
Ken Mayers, Veterans for Peace, kenmayers@vfp-santafe.org
Joni Arends, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, jarends@nuclearactive.org
Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, jay@nukewatch.org