Janet Benshoof, watchdog on Burmese military dictatorship's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons, presente!
January 22, 2018 Janet Benshoof, founder of the Global Justice Center and a longtime women's rights champion, passed on from cancer on Dec. 18, 2017. She was 70 years old.
Among a remarkable life's work of defending women's human rights here in the U.S. and internationally (see the New York Time's obituary, as well as the Washington Post's), Janet worked for decades on behalf of human rights in Burma. One part of that was watch-dogging efforts by the Burmese military dictatorship to acquire nuclear weaponry.
As shared by Alfred Meyer, Janet Benshoof's husband (and himself a national board of directors member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and a longtime friend and colleague of Beyond Nuclear and the anti-nuclear weapons and anti-nuclear power movements):
Here is a link to the video of the memorial service held for Janet Benshoof.
The program [linked here] provides a list of speakers.
January 21, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcQEMxHjawI
Among the attendees at the memorial/celebration were Dr. Arjun and Annie Makhijani from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, MD.
Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, and members of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, watched the livestream webcase of the memorial/celebration provided by the Global Justice Center, in California.
The day before the memorial/celebration, the Global Justice Center that Janet founded organized a contingent in the Women's March in New York City, in her honor.
Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, who was in San Luis Obispo, CA to make a presentation about radioactive waste transportation risks at the invitation of SLO Mothers for Peace (who live in the shadows of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant), carried a sign in Janet's honor at the Women's March there. It read:
"Marching in honor of Janet Benshoof, 5/10/1947-12/18/2017, Founder of the Global Justice Center. She wanted to make the world a better place."
That's why our headline ended with "Presente!" For Janet marches on!
As the program at her memorial and life celebration read:
The departed whom we now remember have entered into the peace of life eternal.
They still live on earth in the acts of goodness they performed and in the hearts of those who cherish their memory.
May the beauty of their life abide among us as a loving benediction.
(Source: Union Prayerbook for Jewish Worship)