Moving to the sound of drums and chants and led by Buddhist peace walkers, two dozen individuals, including moms with small children, Chumash and other Native American leaders, and county activists are dedicating 16 days of their time and shoe leather to a marathon walk that began at the gates of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant October 22 and will finish November 6 at a sacred Native American site in Vallejo. It's co-sponsored by SLO's Mothers for Peace to raise new awareness about nuclear power and its risks, specifically operations at Diablo Canyon and San Onofre.
Elders of tribes nationwide want to draw attention to native lands, which have been been repeatedly contaminated and degraded by uranium mining and rad-waste disposal, while sacred sites, such as Diablo Canyon, considered a portal of souls by the Chumash, have been defiled.
Megu Iwate at Peace Walk
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Megu Iwate of Japan recently did a peace walk in her native land to honor the people of Fukushima. On this peace walk from Native American sacred sites in SLO to Vallejo, she hopes to make Californians more aware of the many parallels between Diablo Canyon and Fukushima. |
Linda Seeley, head of the Mothers for Peace intervenors, remarks, "Our group appreciates the workers at Diablo—they keep us safe. However, nearly five million pounds of highly radioactive waste is now stored on-site, most in open-air pools. The amount grows daily, with no solution in sight."
Some of the peacewalkers are from Japan, fresh from the disaster at Fukushima. Nuclear energy can never be made
wholly safe, they assert, especially nuclear facilities like Diablo that should never have been sited near earthquake and tsunami-prone zones.
Adds Seeley, "We're walking in support and solidarity with the people of Fukushima. What happened at Fukushima, happens here, too---we are all connected."
The general public is warmly invited to take part in the peace walk. Volunteers may elect to walk for an hour, a day, or the entire walk. On Tuesday, October 25, the walk will travel from Paso Robles to Mission San Miguel, then on to Salinas, Watsonville, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Livermore National Weapons Lab, and the East Bay. Routes, schedules, and details at Mothers for Peace.org and at CA Nuclear Walk.
San-ji and Jun-san Yasuda, the Nichiren Japanese nun. Her order walks and prays for peace. She and San-ji are pictured playing the prayer drums. The man to the left is carrying the flag of the American Indian movement. Outside the gates of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and before the walk, a cleansing ceremony was held for the sacred Chumash site located within the lands where the power plant sits.
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San-ji with the two small children on the peace walk. They are Maya and baby Jaffi, children of Doug and Yukiko Beacom of San Diego, who are dedicated peacewalkers and no-nuke activists.
 Doug Beacom
The closeup picture in Doug's hands is of his "talk nukes" portable theatre. In Japan, it is called kamishibai. He takes it to speak to groups, using a bicycle, as it is done in Japan.
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San-ji, the Japanese Buddhist priest from Bainbridge Island, WA. He has done peace walks around the world and with Jun-san (the Buddhist nun) is leading this one.
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