On June 12, 1982 I was living in Orlando, Florida watching C-SPAN TV coverage of the one million person march in New York City opposing nuclear weapons. This event was timed to coincide with the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament.
It was the largest protest in American history.
After C-SPAN coverage of the disarmament march concluded they switched
to a right-wing conference where President Ronald Reagan's head of Star
Wars (Strategic Defense Initiative) Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham was
speaking. During the question period after his talk he was asked by one
participant, "Gen. Graham they say there were almost a million people
marching in NYC today against nuclear weapons. Aren't you worried?"
Graham responded, "No, I think it's great. They are out there
protesting against nuclear weapons and we are moving into space. They
don't have a clue. Let them keep doing what they are doing."
I was stunned and my first thought was the cowboy movies I had watched
as a kid. The phrase "Head them off at the pass" flashed through my
mind. Here I was living in Central Florida, literally just less than an hour from Cape Canaveral, and I indeed had no clue. I decided in that
moment to start learning about the militarization of space.
It was the next year in 1983 that I became the state coordinator for the
Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (FCPJ). In that job I repeatedly
organized protest events at the space center against military satellite
launches, launches of missiles, launches of nuclear powered space probes
and more.
In 1987 over 5,000 people attended a rally and march the FCPJ organized (with huge help from National Mobilization for Survival) to protest the first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile from the Cape. We called it 'Cancel the Countdown'.
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| Famous baby doctor and peace activist Dr. Benjamin Spock joined our 1987 protest at the space center in Florida. He was the first to climb over the base gate in protest of the planned launch. Well over 200 were arrested. |
In 1997 we had over 1,000 people join us again at the Cape to protest the launch of the deep space Cassini mission that carried 72 pounds of deadly plutonium-238 into space. In between I organized many other protests at the space center.
At a 1990 event at the space center a man approached me and opened a bag and pulled out a NASA flight suit and invited me to put it on as I got our rally going. So I did. I announced to the crowd that I had applied for a new NASA program called the 'First Activist in Space' and had been selected to ride on the space shuttle. Many in the crowd took me seriously and shouted Nooooooooo! Then I told them there was just one problem....NASA was only going to give me a one-way ticket. By then they caught the joke and laughed.
Out of those actions, along with the Colorado Springs-based
group Citizens for Peace in Space (and journalist Karl Grossman), we created the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space in 1992.
So June 12, 1982 is a date I'll never forget.
As we now face Trump's proposal for the Golden Dome missile shield (a repeat of Reagan's SDI) I can connect the dots back many years.
Our peace in space work is more important than ever.
Bruce
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