Washington, Thursday, April 12, 2007

Speech of
the Honorable Fortney Pete Stark
In The House Of Representatives
Thursday, April 12, 2007

MR. STARK, Madame Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Peace Action's 50th Anniversary. Peace Action has been a seminal part of the peace movement. On the evening of April 12, 2007 at Madison's at the Lake Merritt Hotel in Oakland, California, Peace Action West, a regional organization of Peace Action, will celebrate their work during the last 50 years as well as their recent victories.

The evening celebration will include reminiscences by peace activist Norman Cousins' daughters, Candis Cousins and Shigeko Sasamori. Norman Cousins was an eminent activist and founder of SANE. As a child, Shigeko survived the Hiroshima atomic blast, and later was unofficially adopted by the Cousins family. From her experience at the very center and origin of the nonprolfieration movement, her lifetime of peace activism is an inspiration to us all. Together they will speak to the memory of their father's work and ideals, which find new expression in this generation of peace organizers.

In 1957, motivated by the realization that nuclear weapons could put an end to human life on the planet, the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy was born. SANE, as the organization came to be known, later merged with the Nuclear Freeze movement and became Peace Action. For 50 years Peace Action has galvanized a voice for a world where the threat of nuclear weapons is eliminated and where foreign policy is based on international cooperation and respect for human rights. Peace Action West has grown into a regional organization nearly 50,000 members strong.
 
I join the community in celebrating Peace Action's milestone 50 years of waging peace. I thank the members of Peace Action West for their exemplary efforts and deep commitment to peace and human rights and I applaud their five decades of accomplishment.