Nuclear Heartland and an End to Land-Based Missiles: Book Talk by John LaForge, Nukewatch WI, Busboys@Takoma, March 14, 7pm
February 5, 2016
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The cover of Nuclear Heartland, showing a flooded nuclear missile silo near Minot, ND. Photo by John LaForge, 2011.Nuclear Heartland and an End to Land-Based Missiles

[John LaForge has shared his power point presentation from his book talk. See it here.]

John LaForge, longtime staffer at Nukewatch, regular contributor to CounterPunch, and Co-editor of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles of the United States (see photo, left), will discuss this new book from Nukewatch, at Busboys & Poets @ Takoma, in the Nicolás Guillén Room, Monday, March 14, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Busboys @ Takoma is located at 235 Carroll St NW, Washington, DC 20012, right on the border with the Nuclear-Free Zone of Takoma Park, MD (the Takoma Metro Rail Station, on the Red line, is a short couple blocks walk away).

This event is co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear, Council for a Livable World, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the Nuclear-Free Takoma Park Committee, Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and School of the Americas Watch.

About the Book

LaForge and a partner visited all 1,000 U.S. land-based missiles in 1988 to document their locations for the original Nuclear Heartland. They are the only people ever to see all 1,000 missile silos.

In a foreword, Matthew Rothschild, former Editor of The Progressive magazine, writes, “Becoming aware of these hideous weapons in our midst is the first step toward arousing people to take another run at nuclear disarmament, and that’s why Nuclear Heartland is so vitally important today,” Rothschild writes. “It shows us where the weapons are, and how they’ve almost become a part of the landscape.”

Come hear about what Dr. Helen Caldicott (Beyond Nuclear's Founding President) calls “one of the most frightening books I have ever read.” With high-level military and civilian officials calling for the complete elimination of the country’s ICBMs, the message of Nuclear Heartland could not be timelier. 

Nukewatch has a website section devoted to Nuclear Heartland.

About the Editor     

John LaForge, 59, has worked on the staff of Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, since 1992 and edits its Quarterly newsletter. He and Barb Katt visited all 1,000 U.S. land-based missiles to document their locations, and an account of their journey is published in both the 1988 and 2015 editions of Nuclear Heartland. His articles on nuclear weapons, reactors, radioactive waste and militarism have appeared in The Progressive, New Internationalist, Z Magazine, Earth Island Journal, the opinion pages of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and elsewhere. He is a regular contributor to Counterpunch, Peacevoice, and the Duluth, Minn., Reader Weekly. He has testified before British and Dutch parliamentarians on the outlaw status of depleted uranium weapons used widely by the United States. He’s been a member of anti-war Plowshares Land Trust near Luck, Wis. for 27 years, and has served over four years in jail and prison for nonviolent protests, and was a 2004 recipient of the Peace and Justice Studies Association's Social Courage Award.

John LaForge can be contacted at: 715-472-4185; www.nukewatchinfo.org.

Update on March 10, 2016 by Registered Commenteradmin

If you are not able to make the book talk on Monday evening, March 14th, here is another opportunity to hear John in Washington, D.C.:

Nuclear Heartland and an End to Land-Based Missiles       
Speaker: John La Forge

 
Date: Friday,  March 11, 2016 @ 7:30 p.m.
 
Place: Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW, Washington, D.C. 20010
 

 
John LaForge is Co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles in the United States, will discuss the new book, its detailed maps of the three nuclear missile fields, recent high-level recommendations for their elimination, anti-nuclear protests that were inspired in part by the original "Nuclear Heartland" and the series of frightening blunders committed by the bored, distracted, and accident-prone “missileers" who still stand ready to launch the uncontrollable weapons on a moment's notice. As Lt. Gen. James Kowalski said in 2014, it isn't Russia or China but, "The greatest threat to my force is an accident. The greatest risk to my force is doing something stupid."
 
Come hear about what Dr. Helen Caldicott calls "one of the most frightening books I have ever read."
 
Please join us!
For more information contact Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 202-882-9649, artlaffin@hotmail.com  

Update on March 14, 2016 by Registered Commenteradmin

 

Global Zero, which attended LaForge's "Nuclear Heartland" book talk, announced:

 

Rally for Zero

Nuclear weapons ≠ security

 

On March 31 & April 1, world leaders are convening right here in DC to talk nuclear security. Not on the agenda: nuclear weapons.

 

That has to change. There are 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, thousands ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Nuclear weapons jeopardize global security - not strengthen it.

 

Join us as we rally to show world leaders that 15,000 nuclear weapons ≠ security. It’s time they take action for zero.

 

Who: Global Zero, the international movement to eliminate nuclear weapons, and you!

 

What: A rally featuring a life-size inflated nuclear missile and Global Zero movement leaders

 

When: Friday, April 1st, 12:00pm

 

Where: McPherson Square

 

RSVP at: http://www.globalzero.org/protest

 

Email ldaigle@globalzero.org for more information.

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).
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