This Memorial Day, Monday, 5/29, PeaceWorks KC holds its 13th annual witness against the making of parts for nuclear weapons in KC MO. We gather on Memorial Day to recall hundreds of lives lost at the old site for making the nuke parts, Bannister Federal Complex. Some 154 families told NBC Action News, Channel 41, in 2011 that their relative(s) had died from the contaminants at the complex related to the nuke-parts production. And 250-some families named a family member sick from the toxins. Workers at the old plant said the numbers from the NBC report barely scratched the surface of deaths/illnesses from toxins at the old site.
Kimmy Igla, a PeaceWorks Board member and the emcee on 5/29, explains, “The nuclear weapons industry has cost us human lives. It’s important to remember them, say their names, and learn more about what we can do to prevent further attacks on our lives and resources.” She hold out hope: “There is a nuclear-weapons-free path forward, and I think this Memorial Day rally will fuel curiosity towards action.”
This Memorial Day, 5/29, we meet at 11 am at Prospect and Mo. Hwy. 150, south of Grandview. We walk a mile to the new site for nuke production, the National Security Campus, 14520 Botts Rd., just north of Mo. Hwy. 150. We rally, hold a die-in, and have a line-crossing (some may be choose to be arrested, others may not). Then we will picnic (vegetarian potluck) at Minor Park, Shelter 1.
The speakers include: Ted John from Veterans for Peace, Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn from Physicians for Social Responsibility, poet Elena Stephenson from Poetic Underground KC, Breanna Crawford (an Indigenous leader with PeaceWorks), Father Terry Bruce (reflecting on the pro-peace, anti-nuke writings of Santa Fe, NM, Archbishop John Wester), poet Ron Faust, Bennette Dibben (with flags from 60+ countries that have signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons), and PeaceWorks Board member Charles Carney.
For info, contact PeaceWorks Board member Henry Stoever at henrystoever@sbcglobal.net or 913-375-0045.