POSTPONED
Walk for Life… Walk for Water… Walk for Mother Earth
Nuclear Free Future – 2020 United Nations Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference (NPT)
Walking from Buffalo to New York City April 3, – April 26, 2020
250 mile walk
Suffering: The walk will visit areas where nuclear waste dumps exist on Indigenous People territories like the Six Nations Territories in New York State. Historically and currently, native communities have been targeted with nuclear weapons waste dumps and nuclear power plants, which were labeled “National Sacrifice Zones.” These communities bear a disproportionate burden of risk from the nuclear fuel cycle. These nuclear waste areas permanently impair our environment, create damage, and continue to burden our climate. They sacrifice our future and endangers many generations to come. The Tuscarora Nation is affected by the Niagra Falls Storage Sites, and the Seneca Nation is affected by the West Valley Site. West Valley is a complex radioactive waste site located 30 miles south of Buffalo. The site has high levels, so-called low level, transuranic and mixed (radioactive and hazardous) waste buried, stored, and leaking. Geologically the site is in a bedrock valley that is expected to erode into the Great Lakes in centuries to come. Still, the nuclear waste buried at the site will remain dangerously radioactive much longer than the projected erosion rate. Also, the Oswego reactor, the oldest reactor in the United States (similar to the Fukushima plant in Japan) located in the Onondaga Territory, affect the quality of drinking water and the fish in Lake Ontario, New York State and Canada.
The Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)’s objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. The unfinished task before the 2020 NPT Review Conference, which is scheduled to begin April 27, 2020, is to help pave the way to a world without the threat of nuclear weapons. Today, we have a more effective tool to achieve a Nuclear Weapon Free World with the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted on July 7, 2017. The Treaty will enter into legal force once fifty nations have signed and ratified it. As of today, the number of nations who have ratified the Treaty is 34. As we witness the escalation of tension between the US and Iran, we urge the world to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Pope Francis – Message at Nagasaki, Japan 11/24/2019
“The arms race wastes precious resources that could be better used to benefit the integral development of peoples and to protect the natural environment. In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered in the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance, and sale of ever more destructive weapons, are an affront crying out to heaven. A world of peace, free from nuclear weapons, is the aspiration of millions of men and women
everywhere. To make this ideal a reality calls for involvement on the part of all: individuals, religious communities, civil society,
countries that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not, the military and private sectors, and international organizations. Our response to the threat of nuclear weapons must be joint and concerted, inspired by the arduous yet constant effort to build mutual trust and thus surmount the current climate of distrust.”
Contact information: National Organizer (for walk) Jun Yasuda
Nipponzan Myohoji – Grafton Peace Pagoda
Call: only available before Peace Walk April 2, 2020
Call between 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM only (518) 658 – 9301
During walk call cell phone (518) 466 – 8819 no Text Messages!
(April 3 – 26, 2020)
Walk Schedule – April 3, – April 26, 2020
03 Apr 2020 Friday AmtrakTrain from NYC to Buffalo (N.Y.C. 7:15 AM arrive Buffalo 3:14 PM)
04 Apr 2020 Saturday Welcome ceremony at Tonawanda-Seneca Nation. Car to Allegany IndianNation walk
around Salamanca area.
05 Apr 2020 Sunday Sunrise ceremony at West Valley. Then walk from West Valley to Mortons Corners.
06 Apr 2020 Monday Morton’s Corners – Mikey’s Gas Smoke shop (Cattaraugus Indian Nation)
07 Apr 2020 Tuesday Walk from Mikey’s Gas Smoke Shop to Seneca Beach
08 Apr 2020 Wednesday Niagara Falls – Tuscarora Nation Afternoon walk to Nuclear dumpsite near Youngston
local training area (NY army National Guard)
09 Apr 2020 Thursday Sunrise Ceremony @ Niagara Falls. Then take Train to Syracuse (12:17 – 3:18 PM)
10 Apr 2020 Friday Good Friday walk around Syracuse areas and to Onondaga Nation
11 Apr 2020 Saturday Onondaga Nation – Onondaga Lake
12 Apr 2020 Sunday Tully – Cortland
13 Apr 2020 Monday Cortland – Dryden
14 Apr 2020 Tuesday Dryden – Ithaca
15 Apr 2020 Wednesday Take train from Syracuse to Albany. (11:23 AM – 2:31 PM) Then Walk from Albany to
Colonie, N.Y. Deplete Uranium dump site.
16 Apr 2020 Thursday Albany – Knoll’s Atomic Lab
17 Apr 2020 Friday Niskayuna – Troy
18 Apr 2020 Saturday Rest Day (Grafton Peace Pagoda)
19 Apr 2020 Sunday Grafton Peace Pagoda – Stony Point by car
20 Apr 2020 Monday Stony Point – Ramapough Lenape Nation Campsite
21 Apr 2020 Tuesday Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant Closing date. Walking and Gathering
22 Apr 2020 Wednesday Ridgewood – Port Lee (will be update)
23 Apr 2020 Thursday GW bridge from NY side to UN
24 Apr 2020 Friday Peace Vigil in front of UN
25 Apr 2020 Saturday Peace Vigil in front of UN
26 Apr 2020 Sunday N.G.O. Peace Walk
Local Organizer Contacts:
Buffalo Area: Agnes Williams (716) 949 – 2619 nyawehskanoh@gmail.com
Maria MayBee (716) 200 – 8320 mariamaybee96@gmail.com
Syracuse to Ithaca Area: Hil Coppola (315) 200 – 2634 hilcoppola@gmail.com
Tom Joyce (607) 277 – 7426\ tomjoyce51@aim.com
Albany to Grafton Area: Jun Yasuda (518) 658 – 9301 Grafton Peace Pagoda (no internet)
Stony Point to NYC: George-cho (646) 784 – 7616 gchojr@mac.com
No drugs, no alcohol. We plan to walk 10 – 15 miles per day.
During the walk we will have a cell phone contact.
Please join us by walking for an hour, a day, or for the entirety. You can support us by organizing a community potluck, a sharing circle, a visit to your mayor, a place for our work is to sleep, or coverage by the local media. Also please keep this walk in your thoughts and prayer.
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