PORT TOWNSEND — Brenda McMillan isn’t sure if she will pay a $56 fine for trying to block the road with a 40-foot inflatable missile outside Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Monday, but she does plan to go to court to tell the judge why she did it.
“It just seems the only way to get any publicity about [nuclear weapons] is to make a nuisance of yourself,” said the 77-year-old Port Townsend resident Wednesday.
McMillan and three others were cited for “ walking in the street when we were told to leave,” she said.
Arrested with McMillan were the Rev. Anne Hall of Seattle; Betsy Lamb of Bend, Ore.; and Tom Rogers of Poulsbo.
Atomic bomb gathering
They were participating in a demonstration organized by Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo to commemorate the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by protesting at the New Main Gate entrance to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.
Eight Trident subs are based at Bangor, located in Kitsap County about 40 road miles south of Port Townsend and across Hood Canal from rural Jefferson County.
The subs carry 24 missiles. Each missile can carry eight nuclear warheads.
Trying to block traffic
The four who were arrested were “trying to pull [Ground Zero’s inflatable missile] across the road to block the traffic” during morning rush hour, when they were cited by the State Patrol and released, McMillan said.
They haven’t decided yet if they will pay the fine, but “we will go to court and tell them why we did it,” McMillan said.
No court date has been set; McMillan said she just sent in the request for a hearing in traffic court in Kitsap County.
Peace activists listened to U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio speak Sunday at Ground Zero, 6159 Clear Creek Road in Poulsbo, before protesting Monday.
It was Kucinich’s fifth visit to Washington state in recent months.
There is widespread speculation that the seven-term Ohio Democrat plans to run for Congress in Washington state after redistricting in Ohio is likely to put him among a sea of new Republican-dominated districts in that state.
Kucinich said Sunday he hadn’t made a decision.
Arrested many times
McMillan — who volunteers for the homeless shelter in Port Townsend and has served on the Jefferson Transit Advisory Committee — said she can’t remember how many times she’s been arrested.
She started protesting the use of nuclear weapons at the Nevada test site in the ’70s, she said.
She moved to Port Townsend 20 years ago and has participated in the Ground Zero protests at the Bangor base that are held on the anniversaries of the World War II atomic bombings of Japanense cities, on Martin Luther King Jr., Day and on Mother’s Day, she said.
“I am an anti-nuclear activist,” she explained.
“You get to the point where you don’t know what else to do.
“Writing letters to your representatives or writing letters to your president, trying to get other people to come down and protest — I don’t know,” she said, saying that demonstrating — “making a nuisance of yourself” — seems the only way to bring attention to an issue she feels is paramount.
Bangor, she pointed out, “is 40 miles from Seattle, which is a major city.
“Any big accident there would have major repercussions,” she said
“I’ve been arrested many times, and this is the first time in a long time that there has been any publicity,” she said.
For more information about Ground Zero, visit www.gzcenter.org.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.