The Golden Rule Peace Boat arrived in Cuba TODAY with Love and Solidarity
December 31, 2022 - January 10, 2023
The Golden Rule at Marina Hemingway near Havana. Visible, left to right, are Captain James Akau, VFP Board Member Enya Anderson, and Captain Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa. Photo by Rodrigo Gonzalez of Proximity Cuba
The historic Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat arrived in Cuba December 31!
Veterans For Peace Calls for an End to US Blockade
The historic Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat arrived in Cuba this morning, December 31, 2022. The storied wooden boat, which was sailed toward the Marshall Islands in 1958 to interfere with US nuclear testing, set sail from Key West, Florida on Friday morning with a crew of five: Captain Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa, Captain Chris Appleton, Captain James Akau, Golden Rule President Gerry Condon, and VFP Board Member Enya Anderson. The 34-foot ketch belongs to Veterans For Peace, and implements its mission "to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons."
The crew will be joined by other Veterans For Peace members who are flying to Havana to participate in an educational Arts & Culture program coordinated by the Proximity Cuba tour agency. The Golden Rule group will also be visiting communities that suffered great damage from the recent Hurricane Ian, which destroyed thousands of homes in Pinar del Rio province in western Cuba. They are carrying humanitarian aid for people who lost their homes.
"We are on an educational and humanitarian mission," says Golden Rule Project Manager Helen Jaccard. "We are three-and-a-half months into a 15-month, 11,000 mile voyage around the 'Great Loop' of the midwestern, southern, and northeastern United States. When we saw we would be in Key West, Florida at the end of December, we said, 'Look, Cuba is only 90 miles away! And the world almost had a nuclear war over Cuba.'"
Sixty years ago, in October 1962, the world came perilously close to a civilization-ending nuclear war during a showdown between the US and the Soviet Union, which had placed nuclear missiles near each others borders, in Turkey and Cuba, respectively. The CIA had also organized an armed invasion of Cuba in a disastrous attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
"Sixty years later, the US still maintains a brutal economic blockade of Cuba, strangling Cuba's economic development and causing suffering for Cuban families," said Gerry Condon, former president of Veterans For Peace, and part of the crew that is sailing to Cuba. "The whole world opposes the US blockade of Cuba and it is time for it to end." This year only the US and Israel voted No on a UN resolution calling on the US government to end its blockade of Cuba.
"Now the US/Russia standoff over Ukraine has once again raised the specter of nuclear war," said Gerry Condon. "It was urgent diplomacy between US President John Kennedy and Russian leader Nikita Khruschev that resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis and spared the world a nuclear war," continued Condon. "That is the kind of diplomacy that we need today."
Veterans For Peace is calling for an end to the US blockade of Cuba, for a Ceasefire and Negotiations to End the War in Ukraine, and for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.
For more information about the Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat, go to www.vfpgoldenrule.org
For interviews, more information, or to request frequent updates, please contact Helen Jaccard at 206-992-6364 / vfpgoldenruleproject@gmail.com
There are many reasons why the Golden Rule, owned by Veterans For Peace, is visiting Cuba:
- Implement the missions of the Golden Rule Project and Veterans For Peace to "to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons."
- Educate the public about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which nearly caused a nuclear war. The lessons can help us all understand how to avoid such a fate in the future. (see below)
- Support ending the US blockade of Cuba. Veterans For Peace has long opposed the blockade, which is particularly harmful in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
- Contribute to the worldwide effort to help the people of Cuba to rebuild and recover from this disaster. We will hopefully visit the most impacted area, Pinar del Rio, and report back on the recovery efforts.
- Express our friendship and solidarity with the people of Cuba.
The Arts and Culture program is being coordinated by the Proximity Cuba tour agency.
Veterans For Peace and the Golden Rule Committee invite you to participate in this historic event by helping to cover the costs.
Unless you specify otherwise, all tax-deductible donations during December will be divided 50/50 between the Golden Rule's costs.
