Connecticut Welcomes the Golden Rule Peace Boat to End Nuclear Weapons

Across Connecticut, sailing from port to port, the peace boat Golden Rule sparked learning, discussion and renewed commitment for a “nuclear free world and a peaceful, sustainable future.”.

The peace boat's year long loop journey began down the Mississippi River and is now sailing up the East Coast, visiting dozens of ports. Sponsored by Veterans for Peace, the project highlights the grave and present danger of nuclear war and urgently calls on the United States to stop nuclear proliferation and join other nations in the UN Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The restored historical peace boat originally set sail in 1958 to stop planned nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands. The crew was stopped and arrested attracting international attention.

Captain Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa, a boat builder, is dedicated to this education project because in his hometown of Hilo, Hawaii “probably over 40 percent of the people there when I was a kid were of Japanese descent...so they got word back pretty quick, what it's like to be under a nuclear bomb,” after the destruction of Hiroshima.

Arriving in Norwalk on Memorial Day, the crew was greeted by local Veterans for Peace members who had just marched in a peace contingent in their local holiday parade.

Three days later, the Golden Rule sailed into Long Wharf Harbor in New Haven, escorted by a City fire boat. A busy three day schedule followed as the crew visited peace monuments, addressed public schools, and enjoyed a concert with speeches from peace and climate change activists t the pier.

Visiting the Peace Garden which designates New Haven as a United Nations Peace Messenger City, the crew received a proclamation from Mayor Justin Elicker.. Recognizing decades of organizing by the City of New Haven Peace Commission and the peace community, Elicker said to applause, “We need to spend more as a nation on social services than we do on military We need to invest more in our people than we do in arms.”

Arriving in Hartford, the Golden Rule crew received a Citation from Connecticut's General Assembly and a welcoming Resolution from Hartford's Mayor and Common Council in support of the treaty. In Middletown the crew met with the Mayor on their way to New London for two days filled with public dinners, concerts, and a rally against nuclear weapons at New London City Pier before leaving for points north.