Peace Vigil at Naval Magazine Indian Island

In 2024, we vigil in solidarity with the people in current wars, students experiencing suspension and arrest for Palestinian-style tent camps on campus, petitioning their universities to divest from corporations profiting from wars, and with people fired for speaking out about the Israeli/U.S. Genocide of Palestinians.

For eight years local activists have had a Father’s Day vigil at Naval Magazine Indian Island, the West Coast’s conventional weapons transfer depot, serving all branches of our military, & allies, including Israel.

At the 2023 vigil participants had different experiences in non-violent civil disobedience:

• Being a witness, safe from arrest, watching from across the highway,
• Trespassing onto the base, walking to the gate, participating in a Quaker-style meditation, in the presence of armed guards, and going back to the park without being arrested.
• Choosing arrest, receiving a citation requiring a future trip to court, then going back to the park.

The guards told me they viewed our action as an exercise of the Constitutional right “of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

At the gate, we vigil, focusing on our government’s military industrial financial political foreign policy impacts on our lives, community and the world. Quaker style we “mind the light.” Gandhi called active listening Satyagraha, a potent viable source of energy that belongs to all individuals, though few are aware of it. Sharing silence, listening to each other’s insights.

from Doug Millholand, Port Townsend Friends Meeting (6/14/2024)