ANA 25th Anniversary Quilt – an original work of art by Susan Gordon, former ANA director – made with t-shirts from ANA member organizations.

WAND is proudly part of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) network of 34 organizations representing the concerns of communities living downwind and downstream of nuclear weapons and radioactive facilities. ANA just held its 25th annual DC Days from April 14th-17th bringing activists from all over the country to Washington to speak to Members of Congress and the Administration about issues relating to nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and environmental effects of nuclear production and waste.

WAND’s Senior Public Policy Director, Kathy Crandall Robinson, is on the board of ANA and has been involved in the planning and implementation of multiple “DC Days.” This year WAND’s Public Policy Associate, Emily Charlap was also involved, bringing her knowledge as a former House of Representatives staffer to both the training and lobby meetings.

WAND Public Policy Associate, Emily Charlap and ANA Board Member Judith Mohling of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center with Congressman Mike Coffman (CO-06)

Georgia WAND is also a member group of ANA and brought a delegation of nine to this DC Days, including Georgia WAND Executive Director Bobbie Paul who received a special grassroots award “for her enduring commitment and unwavering support for the community she serves, and for her great heart that shines through all she does.” Additionally, Courtney Hanson, Georgia WAND Public Outreach Director served on ANA’s DC Days Planning Committee helping to prepare and coordinate DC Days events.

The first day of ANA’s DC Days is training for participants on all the issues surrounding the U.S. nuclear complex. Presentations were given specifically related to nuclear weapons programs and how they should be more closely scrutinized especially in light of the current debate about the budget and the national debt. Other presentations explained disarmament programs, nuclear waste disposal, and necessary clean up in specific communities around the country.

ANA participants partook in over 80 meetings with Members of the House, Senate, and Administration advocating for their communities and for the nation as a whole hoping to convince Congress that now is the time to act to keep citizens secure by recommitting to a world free of nuclear weapons and to a safe and clean future for our children.

A feature of ANA DC Days is a Capitol Hill awards reception. For the 25th anniversary DC Days reception, honorees included Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden – a book about the Rocky Flats nuclear facility in Colorado, Kathleen Sullivan, nuclear educator and film maker , and Diane Curran, environmental lawyer and two special grassroots awards to Bobbie Paul of Georgia WAND and Judith Mohling of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.

Time for a New Budget Tune

The current proposed Ryan budget is another verse in a fiscal opera that brutally attacks social safety net programs, earned benefits and needed investments in a range of programs from education, health care, road, bridges, energy and science research and much more. The one category of spending that is untouched by fiscal austerity is Pentagon and war spending.

This out of tune approach is hitting women and children especially hard. Women are losing more jobs, domestic violence shelters and advocacy programs are being closed down, and access to healthcare is being limited. Our nation’s children are denied educational opportunities and we are even cutting food support programs like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) funding.

All of these cuts will further impact state and local budgets that are already squeezed by a slow economic recovery. Shortages in state and local budget coffers will mean more cuts to education, basic services and jobs. All of this could put our economy in serious jeopardy.

While the Ryan budget is willing to see more children starve, more jobs lost,  and our economic stability put at risk, it is unwilling to cut  weapons systems that are out-dated, over-budget and irrelevant to 21^st Century security needs.

For example, we are slated to spend some $640 billion in the next decade on Cold War-era nuclear weapons and related spending, even though military leaders like Gen. Colin Powell, and Gen. James Cartwright, the retired vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have dismissed this excessive spending as outdated and unnecessary.

Military leaders agree that we need to apply fiscal discipline to reshape the defense budget to support our troops, veterans and military families and also  provide the security that we need for the 21^st Century.

It’s time to demand a different budget song. We deserve a budget that promotes America’s security and prosperity and reflects our values.  The Congressional Progressive Caucus’ “Back to Work Budget,” proves that the Ryan budget is not our only option. It makes sensible cuts to excessive Pentagon spending while also investing in programs that strengthen our nation and economy for generations to come. It also reduces unemployment and the deficit. Now that is a budget that is good for women and good for all of America!

- Kathy Crandall Robinson, Senior Public Policy Director

Read more here:

Budget Priorities Statements from Key Women in Congress

What’s Next for Title I Schools Under the Ryan Budget – Cutting Fridays? by Amy Qualliotine, Outreach Associate, National Women's Law Center

Why I Like Paul Ryan, But Not His Budget by Randi Schmidt, Director of Economic Empowerment Policy, YWCA USA

This Is Not a Joke. by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director, MomsRising.org

A Single Mother With a Childcare Subsidy Writes to Paul Ryan by Nan Mooney

Americans Want a Fair Budget Now! We Demand Congress Stop Giving Tax Breaks to the Richest 2% by Linda Meric, Executive Director, 9to5, National Association of Working Women

“Ryan Budget” Is Bad for Women, Bad for Me by Riana Goren, AAUW Public Policy Intern

Ryan budget would defund health care, undo protections by Amy Allina, Program and Policy Director, National Women's Health Network

Top 5 Things to Know About New Budget Proposals in Congress by Mattea Kramer, Director of Research, National Priorities Project

16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL. Site of a bombing that killed four young girls in September 1963.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of taking part in the Civil Rights Heritage tour organized by SCLC W.O.M.E.N. (Women's Organizational, Movement for Equity Now), Inc., the women’s branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  It's a two-day bus tour through Alabama that visits sites significant to the civil rights movement, exploring some of the happenings key to securing voting rights for African-Americans in the South.

The tour was started in 1987 by Evelyn Gibson Lowery, a civil/human rights activist with a long legacy of working for positive change in the U.S. and elsewhere. Now in its 26^th year, the tour is as popular as ever: nearly 300 people went on the trip this year, and they were young and old, black and white, and they came from places as far away as Oregon and New Jersey.

Voting Rights Mural, Selma, AL.

As a twenty-something, the Civil Rights movement often feels like a part of the distant past. In school, we learn about events that happened 40, 50, even 60 years or more ago and it’s hard to understand a society that would deny people basic constitutional rights. Even living in the South, it’s hard to imagine a truly segregated society. But on the tour last weekend, I didn’t have to just imagine the kind of society or country that denied rights to its citizens; I got to hear about that society from the people who worked so hard and nearly gave their lives to destroy it and rebuild something better.

What I loved most about the tour – aside from visiting the places where history happened and hearing details and anecdotes often left out of school textbooks – was hearing the history from those who lived it. There are several people who attend the tour every year, serving as guides, sharing their stories and their personal reflections. The personal accounts were profound and moving. More than anything, it made me grateful for the women and men whose courage guaranteed me a society where I don’t have to worry about not being able to exercise my constitutional rights.

Freedom Wall, Marion, AL

The bus ride was long and sometimes tiring, but from time to time, the guides would direct our attention to some building or marker along the road and share tidbits about the history that happened there or answer questions from the bus riders. The guides were truly invaluable. Throughout the two-day tour, local police escorted the three buses along the roads and highways. Ironically, the police departments who provided security and guaranteed the safety of the attendees of the Civil Rights Heritage tour were the same police departments who decades ago enforced the laws that denied so many those rights. As my dad would say, “We’ve come a long way.”

At one of the last stops of the tour, the Viola Liuzzo Memorial, several of the dozens of children on the tour got a chance to share with the group what they had learned over the weekend and what the tour meant to them. The recurring theme of their reflections was gratitude, for the people that fought for civil rights and for the chance to learn about the movement. I definitely felt the same way.

The tour culminated in a march of thousands led by U.S. Rep. John Lewis (GA-5), U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-7), Vice President Joe Biden, Martin Luther King III, Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Lowery, and others across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in honor of the “Bloody Sunday” march in March 1965. And at a time when the necessity of the Voting Rights Act is being questioned, I am especially thankful for the women and men who take the time each year to remind us how long and how hard people fought, how many people risked everything and even gave their lives to have the right to vote.

As Rev. Al Sharpton said in Selma last Sunday, “We are not here for a commemoration. We are here for a continuation.” The fight for justice and civil rights is not a relic of the past, but a struggle that must continue until economic, racial, and social equality are truly reality.

Marching Across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, AL

-Adzi Vokhiwa, WiLL President's Associate

President Obama focused mostly on economic issues in his speech, describing how he plans to reduce the deficit while investing in programs that will make our nation stronger. Over six million jobs were created during Obama’s first term, but recent figures have shown that a full-time worker paid the minimum wage earns below the poverty line. Plans have been set to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.50 to $9.00 an hour to combat this problem.  President Obama set his sights on this higher wage coming into effect in 2015. This increase could drastically improve the economic outlook for working families in a positive way and help them meet basic needs ranging from being able to afford groceries to avoiding eviction with more income for rent.

Next, the President tackled education, announcing his desire to make education affordable for all Americans. He spoke about investing in early childhood education which will help boost graduation rates, lower teen pregnancy rates, and encourage teens to continue their education in college. Tuition continues to increase every year causing many students to go further into debt, but through tax credits, grants and better loans, President Obama has made college more affordable for students and middle class families. As a current college student, I appreciate the President’s commitment to making education more affordable.

Like WAND, President Obama is a strong believer in women’s equality and believes that women should be able to live our lives without violence or discrimination. President Obama praised the Senate for passing the Violence Against Women Act to protect victims from domestic violence and encouraged them to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act so that men and women receive equal pay for equal work.

President Obama stated his commitment to reducing waste in the Pentagon and war time spending. The end of the war in Afghanistan will make it possible for thousands of our troops to come home. President Obama also indicated that he intends to continue reducing our bloated nuclear arsenal, as he did with the ratification of New START in 2010.

We look forward to these kind of changes that will help build a better nation. As President Obama said, stronger families and stronger communities make us a stronger America.

-Sakinah Grant, WiLL/WAND Intern Georgia State University Class of 2013

As a student of Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies I was enraptured to hear the President mention “Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall” in his inaugural speech.  It was historical and the acknowledgment that equality is still something we strive for.  As much progress as was promised by the inaugural speech makes the upcoming State of the Union the place to outline specifics, otherwise we have all been charmed by the gifted orator Obama.

There is a possibility for carryover of themes from the inaugural speech. However the focus of the speech will most likely be job creation and the economy.  A necessary discussion, but a theme America has heard in the previous four State of the Unions.  Obama stated in his inaugural speech “economic recovery has begun,” and I expect to hear more specifics about this, but I do not expect to hear anything new proposed. It is possible Obama will utilize his bully pulpit, and call out Republicans for blocking all attempts to take the necessary steps to prevent the approaching sequestration on March 1st and the possible shut down of the government on March 27th because the budget for the Fiscal Year 2013 has yet to be completed.

Yet, these are all things we have come to expect in a State of the Union address; a strong stand on what the Obama administration’s main focuses will be,  but how about some follow-through on the theme of the inauguration, and some deeper analysis of the budget?

One particular area of interest for WAND is the anticipation that Obama will discuss “one of his signature national security objectives — drastically reducing nuclear arsenals around the world — after securing agreement in recent months with the United States military that the American nuclear force can be cut in size by roughly a third,” writes David Sanger for The New York Times.  Not only is this a move towards peace but will save the U.S. billions of dollars and put the Pentagon on a trend towards fiscal discipline that the Pentagon currently lacks with its bloated, seemingly unlimited budget.  But this is not enough.  In Obama’s inaugural address he called for a reformed tax code that closes loop holes for the wealthy and puts less pressure on the middle-class, “empowering” the middle-class to “reach higher.”

This is a call to action for Congress. A bipartisan effort is necessary. Republicans have to come to the hard realization that Obama won the presidential election.  Change and progress cannot be accomplished by one political party alone.  Voters spoke that women do NOT want their bodies regulated by government, people should have EQUAL ACCESS to healthcare, that the wealthy SHOULD pay their fair share, and that Pentagon spending is out of control.  There needs to be sincere action on the part of the people elected to represent the American citizens. This is the time for Obama to make a push for his progressive agenda, and not become a “lame duck.”  Hopefully, President Obama will play this hand, and show up with the same conviction and notions of equality, progress, and ideas of American citizenry that he spoke of in his inaugural speech.

-Cassie Anderson, WAND/WiLL intern – Georgia State University Class of 2013

When we spoke to him the other night after his book talk in Cambridge, he told us that as soon as the Times reviewed his book he was asked to come in by the Pentagon and the State Department.  He had just been speaking to the experts at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

The myths he presented to us are:

1. Nuclear bombs ended the war in Japan
2. Mass killing of civilians ends wars
3. Nuclear deterrence is reliable
4. Nuclear weapons have kept the peace
5. Nuclear weapons can’t be disinvented

It’s easy to start arguing with each of these. But wait before you begin and hear some of Wilson’s refreshingly irreverent opening comments:

“The arguments for nuclear weapons are preposterous--they are clumsy, much too big, it’s not a good idea to arm a bank guard with dynamite.”  Hiroshima was the first “miracle” on which the entire mythology of the importance of nuclear weapons has been based.

On the first myth, nuclear expert and author, Priscilla McMillan disputed Wilson, claiming there were other indications that Japan was pushed to surrender in part by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wilson said there is new proof that Japan ended the war because the Soviets came in but used the “miracle” weapon as way of explaining their surrender.

For the second, he had charts to show how Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the most destructive of all our bombings--in which over 60 Japanese cities had already been destroyed. “No war has ever been won by simply killing civilians.”

He said that when smaller wars showed that countries without nuclear weapons could fight nuclear-armed countries, nuclear deterrence took one of several crushing blows.

How do we know they have “kept the peace?’’ he asked.  Here, Wilson invoked “proof of absence“ as unreliable--we don’t depend on only one technology to prevent a disaster--we use as many as we think will work.

For the last myth, he listed other technologies that have been dropped because “they were not useful.”  Twelve countries have either given up their nuclear weapons or abandoned programs to make them.

Finally he returned to his most devastating argument: “they are dinosaurs--an evolutionary dead end.”  But unlike dinosaurs, they are still on earth--and very dangerous.  As he said, they may be symbols but their possessors are addicted to the power they (falsely) represent.

So Wilson comes full circle: nuclear weapons may be outmoded but they are still very much with us and need to be abolished. How do we use this new approach to strengthen WAND’s already powerful arguments: the exorbitant cost of nuclear weapons on which the U.S. continues to spend over 60 billion annually.  Their deadly environmental impact which Atlanta WAND members know at first hand. What about the  fear of extinction which adults remember from hiding under their desks and weighs so heavily on our culture? The news that in India today citizens are being told to build bomb shelters and stockpile food?

Watch for more “fall-out” from Ward Wilson’s book and make of any renewed attention to the abolishment campaign. Buy the book (published by Houghton-Mifflin and under ten dollars at Amazon) or order it at your library. Help get this necessary conversation started.

-Sayre Sheldon, WAND Board Member

These words of our forefathers, although written decades ago, remain integral to the preservation of our freedoms, to ensure that our collective wealth is spent wisely, that we engage our entire population, both men and women, as vital agents in the security of our nation, and that we protect ourselves from the threat of nuclear weapons. As members of WAND we should strive to embody these freedoms.

As Americans, we have gradually recognized that we must find creative solutions to address the new challenges of our time. President Obama encourages us to combine our efforts to educate our future generations, to invest in our infrastructure, and to provide for our infirmed and less fortunate. How can we answer this call when Pentagon spending comprises 56% of our nation’s discretionary budget? We should redirect this funding to more lasting endeavors such as care for our veterans, education, and healthcare.

Yet, what makes us American is our shared opportunity for greatness, no matter our profession, educational background, race, religion, or gender. We need to treat women as full equals in our society and incorporate them as active participants in establishing a stable and secure nation. What makes us American is “when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own” (President’s 2013 Inaugural Address as recorded by The Washington Post).

And we should remember the words of our Declaration of Independence, that our country was built on the notion that all citizens have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  At odds with this is the continuing existential threat posed by nuclear weapons. Despite the end of the Cold War decades ago, the United States will spend hundreds of billions in the coming decade to maintain a nuclear weapons arsenal that could wipe out the planet.

President Obama ends with a reminder, a call to action of sorts. We, as citizens, hold the power to influence our country’s rise and fall as a great nation. We have the voice, the pen, the sheer dedication to craft what we will stand for as such an influential country. Therefore, it is essential that we use our talents to make America a place where we can execute those self – evident truths and set an example for the rest of the international community. We at WAND will embrace this call and ensure that the words of our President become reality.

-Hannah Wheeler, Communications and Development Intern – Boston College Class of 2012

But hang on for the ride – there will be a few more fiscal “cliffs,” “curbs,” “mudslides,” “berms,” or whatever bumpy metaphor you might like to use. Decisions about spending cuts of the so-called “sequestration” were not part of this deal. Instead they were passed off to the next Congress being sworn in on January 3, 2012 to figure out with a new March 1 deadline. And by the way, the budget for Fiscal Year 2013 was never completed. Instead Congress passed a stop-gap Continuing Resolution funding the government until March 27. We need a deal by then to keep the government running. In addition, we are reaching the debt ceiling. Without congressional agreement to raise the debt ceiling, we risk government shutdown, defaulting on loans and economic disasters.

Ready for more? In the midst of this roller coaster start to 2013, there will be plenty of need to raise the issue of budget priorities. We cannot afford to make cuts to everything else while letting the bloated Pentagon budget escape fiscal discipline. Fortunately, some new voices are starting to recognize this, too. Conservative leader of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, says that, “Serious conservatives need to declare that they, that taxpayers, are looking at the entire budget and saying, ‘where can we be more efficient and more effective?’ We have a rather large Pentagon budget, larger than most of the other countries in the world that have armies, navies, and air forces combined.”

Nevertheless we know well that the defense industry lobbyists are ready to make the case for more nuclear weapons, more F-35s, maybe even more bayonets and a cavalry, too.

We hope you are as ready as those lobbyists – ready to make the case for budget priorities that will lead us to safety, strength and prosperity, even if we have to make it through a few bumps and spins to get there.

For more than 30 years, WAND has worked “to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.”  WAND believes that increasing women’s political participation as decision-makers, leaders and agents of change can help lead the United States, and our global partners, towards establishing sustainable and just peace through this vision of true security. Based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR1325), the U.S. NAP recognizes that women possess half the world’s intelligence, creativity, capabilities and wisdom, and that women and girls uniquely experience war and conflict. Excluding women is no longer a viable way to achieve peace and security in our increasingly integrated and complicated world.

In contemporary conflicts, as much as 90 percent of casualties are among civilians. Of the 39 conflicts in the last decade, 31 represent repeated cycles of violence with a disproportionate impact on women and children. Women are the first to be affected by infrastructure breakdown as they struggle to keep families together, care for the wounded and rebuild their communities. Women and girls face devastating forms of gender based and sexual violence that are increasingly deployed systematically to achieve military or political objectives. Despite the uniquely gendered impacts of war, women represented less than eight percent of the participants in key peace negotiations, and less than three percent of the signatories of the resulting accords, in the past two decades. More concerning is that only 16 percent of agreements during this period mention women at all.

Historically peace agreements are negotiated between warring factions, and focus only on ending the fighting. Frequently such agreements do not address the critical tasks necessary to sustain peace, such as ensuring stability and provision of basic services, building trust amongst opposing parties, fostering institutions that can uphold the rule of law, and promoting legitimately-elected leadership. Yet, when included as meaningful participants, women broaden the scope of agreements to include matters of ‘human security’.

Evidence from around the world and across cultures shows that when women participate in peace processes they focus discussion on issues like human rights, transitional justice, governance, reconstruction and economic renewal that are critical to making and sustaining peace. From Northern Ireland to Guatemala to Darfur, women have acted as mediators to bring about compromise, built coalitions across ethnic and sectarian lines, and stood up to protect minority rights and marginalized groups. Most recently, fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan illustrated how empowering women as agents of change can advance fundamental progress in this modern era. Despite suffering a vicious attack by Taliban gunman who boarded her school bus and shot her in the head, Malala issued a global call to protect the human rights of women and girls everywhere. Read about WAND’s effort to name  Malala 2012 TIME Person of the Year here, and read about her second place finish here.

So today, on the important first Anniversary of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, WAND asserts our commitment to advancing the rights and status of women everywhere, and ensuring that women are well-positioned to influence vital matters of security and foreign policy.

-Tanya Henderson, Public Policy Director

Receiving undisputed backing in the U.S. Senate, the Afghan Women and Girls Security Promotion Act, (S. 3646, is an essential part of efforts to secure the long-term protection of women’s human rights in Afghanistan, and to ensure sustainable peace of all Afghans. As stated in the Letter of Support sent to bill co-sponsors Casey and Hutchison, “If enacted, the Act would require the Department of Defense to develop a three-part strategy to promote and support the security of Afghan women and girls during and after the security transition process.”

Recognizing its commitments under the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP) that “the engagement and protection of women as agents of peace and stability will be central to the United States efforts to promote security, the Act states “addressing the security vulnerabilities of Afghan women and girls during the period of security transition is an essential step toward long-term stability.” Cosponsors to the measure include Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Lisa Murkowski (I-AK), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

We are also celebrating an overwhelming positive vote (62-33) approving Senator Jeff Merkley’s and Senator Rand Paul’s non-binding amendment calling for an accelerated end to the war and expedited transition of governance responsibility to the Afghan government by mid-2013, a full eighteen months before the current proposed full transition date of December 2014. While this amendment will certainly face pushback from the House Armed Services Committee Republican leadership, and the Pentagon is likely to push the Obama Administration to maintain a security presence in Afghanistan much longer than proposed, the 62-33 Senate vote is a strong statement that it truly is time for this endless war to end.

The two amendments combined reflect WAND’s long standing position that drawdown of U.S. security forces must be tied to a commitment to ensure the empowerment and protection of Afghan women.

 -Tanya Henderson, Public Policy Director