Anti-nuke Rally at Lab draws 1,200

Contra Costa Times
August 11, 2003
Anti-nuke rally at lab draws 1,200
Protest denounces Iraq war
By Sarah Krupp CONTRA COSTA TIMES
LIVERMORE - In what organizers touted as one of the
largest demonstrations against the Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory since the end of the Cold War, 1,200 people
gathered to protest against the development of nuclear
weapons.

The protesters said President Bush’s policies on Iraq
and the country’s nuclear weapons program were
responsible for the high turnout Sunday, which was
nearly three times as large as the same event last year.
This was the 20th annual protest at the lab
commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, according to organizers.
"We are trying to stop the spread of (nuclear weapons)
in the world, and the way to do that is for us to
develop new ones? It doesn’t make any sense," said John
Helding, 45, of San Francisco. The Bush administration
plans to study building a so-called nuclear "bunker
buster" bomb.

Two Dominican nuns and another woman were cited for
blocking a public road on East Avenue. Facing a row of
lab security officers, Sisters Marion Irvine and
Patricia Bruno and the other protester, Mary Keegan,
kneeled and sang in Latin, "Ubi Caritas," for several
minutes before they were arrested.
As Irvine walked up to the line, she said that it was
her duty as a nun to make a statement against nuclear
weapons.

"The greatest scourge on the earth is the proliferation
of nuclear weapons," she said.
The women were cited and released, said lab spokesman
David Schwoegler.
Many of the protesters have been fervently opposing the
Cold War for more than 20 years.
The only other time Al Bettles carried the five-foot
canvas banner proclaiming, "Let’s Go For It. Love Life.
Not Fear Death" that he held Sunday was in 1983, the
last time he protested at the lab. Then he was part of a
group of people who were arrested when they lay in the
street. He spent two weeks in jail.

"The people who are in control have decided they want
the United States to be an empire. They want me to be a
part of it. I want nothing to do with it, and I am going
to resist it in any way I can," said the 76-year-old
Oakland resident.
After listening to speakers at William Payne Park, the
protesters walked to the lab, lining its fence. A
Buddhist group held Tibetan prayer flags, and others
clutched links of paper hands. The hands had been sent
in by about 800 people who support the cause but
couldn’t attend the protest, said Marylia Kelley,
executive director of Tri-Valley Communities Against a
Radioactive Environment, an event organizer.
Western States Legal Foundation, the Livermore
Conversion Project and Veterans for Peace were among the
event’s organizers.

While Kelley expressed frustration over the government’s
nuclear policies, she said the outpouring of protesters
Sunday showed that a growing number of people are trying
to change the country’s direction.
"I think this is evidence of the vitality and growth in
the protest movement," Kelley said, "People understand
that Bush’s nuclear policies are making us less safe."
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