Anti-nuke ship and crew welcomed in Vallejo – Vallejo Times Herald

The anti-nuclear movement is alive and kicking, something obvious to anyone who happened to be at the Vallejo Yacht Club on Friday when the Golden Rule made a stopover here.

The Golden Rule Peace Boat, arriving on Thursday, was here as part of a 2017 campaign, its crew members said.

It was great, project manager Helen Jaccard said. The yacht club was very welcoming. We had a few minutes to talk, and got applause from everybody, and several people came up to me later and thanked us for being part of this mission and several took a tour of the boat, and I think some may even go online and make a donation. It was a very successful event. Im glad we did it.

The yacht club allowed the group to dock the peace boat overnight before it set sail again, she said.

Often times here Im preaching to the choir, she said. These people (at the Vallejo Yacht Club) are not activists, and when we speak to people like that, the further our message can get out.

That message is the urgent need to ensure the United States doesnt launch a nuclear strike without Congress first declaring war, as well as working toward a nuke-free planet, Jaccard said.

Its important to know the anti-nuclear movement isnt dead and in fact is having a big revival with (President Donald) Trump getting into office, she said. We aim to advance Veterans For Peace opposition to nuclear weapons and war, and to do so in a dramatic fashion.

The ocean-bound movements history goes back decades.

In 1958, four Quaker pacifists sailed the Golden Rule toward the Marshall Islands to interfere with nuclear bomb tests, organization members said.

She sank in 2010 in Humboldt Bay and Veterans For Peace (VFP), Quakers and others rescued and worked to restore her, they said.

Since 2015, the VFP Golden Rule Project has been sailing for a nuclear-free world and a peaceful, sustainable future, they said.

We have recovered and restored the original peace ship, the Golden Rule, that set sail in 1958 to stop nuclear testing in the atmosphere, and which inspired the many peace makers and peace ships that followed, they said.

This year theyre sailing the ship down the California coast to San Diego, and future planned voyages include ones to the Gulf Coast, the East Coast, all around the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi, organization members said.

Contact Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at (707) 553-6824.

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Anti-nuke ship and crew welcomed in Vallejo - Vallejo Times Herald