Potluck Picnic to Welcome the Golden Rule to the DC-Baltimore Region Sunday, April 2, 2023 Noon - 4:00 pm
Event set for Fort Hunt Park, Alexandria, VA
Sailing for nuclear sanity - Saluting indigenous culture
March 15, 2023
DC Organizing Committee for the Golden Rule
Illustration of the Golden Rule by Albert S. Bigelow (1906-1993). He was an artist, architect, former Navy commander, and Quaker. He served as captain of the Golden Rule which he and colleagues attempted to sail into the Eniwetok Proving Grounds, the U.S. nuclear test site in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific in February 1958.
We invite you to join us as we gather to welcome the Golden Rule to the Potomac River and to celebrate the indigenous people who are the original stewards of this watershed.
At our picnic we will hear from Helen Jaccard (VFP Project Manager), Gerry Condon (Former president of VFP), members of the crew, and antinuclear, environmental and indigenous rights leaders. More details will follow. We’ll gather at Public Area D-1 Fort Hunt Park, Alexandria, VA
Fort Hunt Park is located at 8999 Fort Hunt Road Alexandria, VA 22308 on the George Washington Memorial Parkway between Alexandria, Virginia and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The Huntington Metro stop is 5 miles away.
For the pot-luck lunch, we ask you to bring your own reusable dish ware, cutlery and cup. We also ask that guests bring cloth napkins and/or dish towels to eliminate the need for paper products. If you can, try to bring an American Indian food item to serve at least two people. We’ll pass the hat at the event to cover the cost of the rental of the park and farm-raised oysters and fish.
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On April 2, 2023 the 39-foot, anti-nuclear sailing ship Golden Rule will be arriving in the Greater Washington DC area as part of the two-year “Great Loop” voyage it is making around the eastern half of the United States.
The ship is currently in North Carolina and will be sailing up the U.S. east coast. You can find its current location on this tracker.
The Golden Rule is historic in the anti-nuclear movement. In 1958 it was commissioned by a group of anti-nuclear activists who wanted to sail it in to the area around the Marshall Islands where the U.S. military was planning the largest atmospheric nuclear tests ever seen. Its captain, Albert Bigelow, later wrote a very moving account of that voyage. Bigelow did the sketches shown here.
On that voyage, the Golden Rule sailed as far as Hawai’i before its crew members were arrested… But their activism certainly strengthened the world anti-nuclear movement and helped end the super-harmful practice of atmospheric nuclear testing. In 1963, a treaty was signed in Moscow in which the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union all agreed to give up atmospheric testing, though many countries continued to do underground testing.
Now, after seven years of west coast and Hawaii educational events, the small crew of four, and two supporting the mission on shore, hope to draw attention to radioactive contamination along the shorelines of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. This is part of an 11,000 mile, 15-month voyage where over 100 cities and towns are welcoming the Golden Rule. The ship will make brief stops in Washington, DC, Alexandria, VA, Indian Head, MD, Dahlgren, VA, St. Mary’s City, MD, Solomons, MD, Chesapeake Beach, MD, Annapolis, MD, and Baltimore, MD. See the VFP Golden Rule Project.
Email pelder@militarypoisons.org if you have questions or you need a ride.