Ann’s travels for peace & justice

By Jane Stoever

Ann Suellentrop, MSRN, says she has always had an insatiable appetite for peace and justice issues. She recently completed two phenomenal journeys and plans on a third one soon. She will be sharing her stories and some treasures from her travels Nov. 12.

Ann visited Japan in early October to attend two conferences. They were held in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the first use of atomic bombings in war. The first conference was in Nagasaki with the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War. Ann joined doctors from around the world to hear about medical research on nuclear victims and presentations on worldwide nuclear abolition efforts. Ann never holds back, right? The second conference in Hiroshima was a gathering of Nuclear Victims from around the world. People shared about the great harm done, especially to children, by uranium mining, nuclear bomb testing, the Fukushima disaster, the use of depleted uranium bombs in the Iraq war and the ongoing medical problems of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Ann continued her search to learn about peace and justice by joining 33 Kansas Citians on a bus tour of US civil rights sites in the South. The pilgrimage went to places such as the home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.  Ann went on this week-long trip in mid-October. If you know Ann, you’re not surprised, right?

Come hear Ann’s reflections, from around the world and around the southern US. She’ll share with us Wed., Nov. 12, starting at 7pm, at Cherith Brook Catholic Worker, 3226 E. 12^th St., KC MO. For the record, Ann is vice chair of PeaceWorks KC and serves on the national Board of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), which is part of IPPNW.

A retired Pediatric nurse, Ann will attend the American Public Health Association conference Nov. 2-5 in Washington, DC. She will give a presentation at the conference Monday morning about the Kansas City National Security Campus.  This is our hometown factory that makes 80% of the parts for US nuclear weapons.  On Nov. 5, following the conference, a “Rally for America’s Health” will be held on the National Mall, ending with a march to the Department of Health and Human Services. The marchers, dressed in their scrubs and lab coats, will then hold a press conference and present 250 bankers’ boxes filled with petitions, demanding:

–Remove Robert Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary.

–Reverse the harmful changes Kennedy has made to America’s critical public health institutions, including adhering to the best available science in policy decisions, restoring federal public health data collection, and resuming funding for science and health.

Come join us Nov. 12 and see what Ann challenges us to do next.

© 2025, Ann Suellentrop & Jane Stoever, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International License.