Abolition Flame to Join Peace Walk from Tennessee to the United Nations Begins in Oak Ridge
Saturday, Feburary 13
The International Peace Walk Towards a Nuclear Free Future, which is organized by Footprints for Peace will begin a journey of more than 700 miles, stepping off from the Scarboro Road gate of the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Saturday, February 13 at 9:00am. Over the next three months, walkers will follow a route through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, arriving at the United Nations in New York City on May 1, 2010.
The Abolition Flame, which travelled with the Global March for Peace and Non Violence will continue its journey to the Nuclear Nonprolferation Treaty review conference with people from around the globe who will converge at the Y-12 Complex in Oak Ridge on Saturday morning. Y12 enriched the uranium that was used in the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945 and is currently upgrading and refurbishing the United States nuclear arsenal. Footprints for Peace, an Ohio based organization, has drawn together people from Australia, Japan and Europe, along with people from across the United States including Indigenous peoples, religious leaders, Buddhist monks, students, artists and families—all who are joining in the Walk to demonstrate their commitment to a nuclear free world for future generations.
The Peace Walk will travel to the United Nations carrying a letter from Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima and Director of Mayors for Peace endorsing the walk and encouraging mayors along the walk’s route to become a part of Mayors for Peace campaign and join the effort to create a nuclear weapons free world.
Footprints for Peace Australian organizer Marcus Atkinson: “While nuclear disarmament is something the world must achieve, we can only do it if we all work together to demand our leaders fulfil the promises made decades ago in the Nonproliferation Treaty. We also need to use this time to look at the whole cycle of the nuclear industry. Nuclear weapons are the final product of an industry that has destroyed Indigenous people’s lands throughout the world, caused the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people and left whole cities uninhabitable. There is no “Peaceful Use” of nuclear power, as the process from the very beginning of the cycle is so destructive. This walk will bring attention to all aspects of the nuclear industry and will be demanding progress on negotiations to create a nuclear weapons free world, while also creating debate on the nuclear industry as a whole.”
Footprints for Peace will be holding public meetings along their three-month walk to the United Nations and are encouraging all those who believe in a nuclear free world to come out and walk with them for an hour a day or the entire walk. The Walk will arrive in New York City for the opening of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference that will begin on the 2nd of May at the United Nations.
OREPA’s Ralph Hutchison said, “Our leaders are incapable of building a world without nuclear weapons. It won’t happen without pressure being put on them by all of us. It is our responsibility to create a peaceful world for future generations, and if we are unwilling to take a stand, we can be sure our leaders won’t.”
Additional information
A benefit circus and potluck dinner will be held in support of the Walk Toward a Nuclear Free Future on Friday, February 12 at the Birdhouse, 800 N. Fourth St, Knoxville, TN. Potluck dinner to start at 6:30; circus at 8:00pm. Donations will be accepted to support the Walk.
For more information
Marcus Atkinson
e: marcus (at) footprintsforpeace (dot) net
w: www.footprintsforpeace.net
AbolitionFlame.org 
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