[ Spring Action 2023, Holloman AFB]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2024
Media Contacts:
Scott Thompson, Veterans For Peace and Alamogordo Resident, (360) 305-2832, [email protected]
Ken Mayers, Veterans For Peace (Major USMCR, Ret’d), (505) 577-1975, [email protected]
Toby Blomé, CODEPINK, Veterans For Peace (510) 501-5412, [email protected]
Contacts on Day of Nonviolent Resistance,Wed, April 19:
Scott Thompson, Veterans For Peace and Alamogordo Resident, (360) 305-2832, [email protected]
Fred Bialy, CODEPINK and Ret’d Emergency Physician, (510) 541-6874, [email protected]
Ken Mayers, Veterans For Peace (Major USMCR, Ret’d), (505) 577-1975, [email protected]
Nonviolent Resistance Day of Action Planned For Shut Down Drone Warfare Coalition Week at Holloman Air Force Base
Otero County, New Mexico -- From Monday, April 22nd, 2023 through Friday, April 22nd, peace groups in the coalition, Shut Down Drone Warfare.org (SDDW), will start a focused week of nonviolent actions outside Holloman Air Force Base, a U.S. military drone base near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Why? Holloman AFB, on Hwy 70 in southern NM, has become the largest drone training program in the U.S., graduating over 700 pilots and operators annually. Activists from 4 different states in the region will be participating in the week’s protest.
Organizer, Toby Blomé, says: “In spite of 14 years of persistent opposition to the U.S. drone program and the terror it brings to vulnerable communities, the Pentagon and the drone industry profiteers are plowing forward, creating an ever more destabilized world of weaponized drones. We will not be silent while young recruits continue to be trained in these heinous acts of remotely controlled killing, ultimately becoming victims themselves due to the consequences of severe moral injury. This is not the world we want for our grandchildren, nor for the generations that follow them.”
SDDW will hold varied themed vigils daily during commute hours, M-F, (6:30-8:30am and 3:30-5:30pm). The week culminates in a day of nonviolent civil disobedience on Wed, April 19, during which they hope to peacefully interrupt “business as usual” for as long as possible by blocking the early am commute. Via thoughtful messaging participants hope to educate Air Force personnel about the full effects of U.S. globalized militarization, and in particular the failings of the U.S.drone program and to urge those training to reconsider their participation, which often leads to significant psychic trauma.
In addition to a focus on Air Force personnel at Holloman, members will do educational outreach in the local community of Alamogordo. Scott Thompson, Alamogordo resident and SDDW participant says, “Our government primarily serves an elite class that profits from wars and is unconcerned with the suffering we inflict on other humans. It is the duty of every good citizen to look beyond the headlines and understand the inhumane waste of resources making unconstitutional wars on others. Via public outreach and thoughtful actions we hope to get the attention of the misinformed.”
Wednesday, April 19th, Day of Nonviolent Resistance and Peaceful Civil Disobedience. Other spontaneous acts of resistance might also take place in the week. The late Martin Luther King Jr., said that acts of nonviolent direct action serve to “create and foster such a tension” as to demand a response. He wrote "nonviolent resistance was one of
the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their quest for social justice.”
FMI: www.ShutDownDroneWarfare.org
The week of action is co-sponsored by CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace and Ban Killer Drones.
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