Nuclear weapon opponents will converge Monday to “Occupy Vandenberg” with a peace vigil from noon to 2 p.m. at the main gate, the culmination of a weekend retreat in Santa Barbara County.
Organizers expect 50 or more faith-based anti-nuclear protesters to attend the Pacific Life Community action.
“What we’re focusing on for this particular event is the testing of ICBMs,” said Occupy Vandenberg organizer Dennis Apel from Guadalupe Catholic Worker. “It pollutes the coastline here. It costs a ton of money and it pollutes the lagoon at the Kwajalein Atoll.”
Apel recently returned from an international trip that included six days on the Marshall Islands, which includes Kwajalein, and said he has talked with one woman who can’t return to her native island due to U.S. military actions there.
He traveled to one island where poverty is abundant, a stark contrast to the paradise setting for the island housing the U.S. Army’s facilities there.
Apel and other protesters contend that the treaty allowing the United States to use the area for a target has expired, pending completion of another environmental review which he claims the military will conduct. Marshall Islands residents want an independent review done, he added.
“It’s all very controversial for them,” he said.
The Pacific Life Community is a spiritual, nonviolent movement that works toward a peaceful world in harmony. The group sponsors regional and joint direct actions focused on ridding the world of nuclear weapons and war. Several organizations affiliated with the PLC include Catholic Worker, Nevada Desert Experience and Ground Zero.
Included in the weekend retreat is a public lecture titled “Your World: With or Without Nuclear Weapons” that begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery.
Speakers will be Joanna Macy, Ph.D., an eco-philosopher and activist for peace, justice and ecology; Santa Maria Valley resident Dennis Apel, a longtime community activist who has been arrested multiple times in protests at the base; and Paul Chappell, a West Point graduate, Iraq War veteran and peace leadership director for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Apel is no stranger to protests at the base. He was arrested in 2003 for throwing a plastic bottle of his own blood on the Vandenberg sign.
He missed last month’s protest at Vandenberg because he was in South Korea, lobbying against a military base. He and 10 others there for a peace conference were arrested for what he contends are false charges.
Monday’s protest at Vandenberg is the culmination of an annual gathering by the Pacific Life Community and comes more than two weeks after 15 people were arrested in a similar action at Vandenberg.
Read more: http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/military/vandenberg/peace-vigil-at-vandenberg-to-target-icbm-testing/article_95a36a26-69b2-11e1-bc18-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1oeT1BUcn
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