Golden Rule sails for peace to Burlington: 'If we do nothing, we go nowhere'

A group of about 20 southeast Iowa residents and city officials gathered Thursday near the Port of Burlington to welcome the Golden Rule and its crew, as well as recognize the importance of activism and kindness.

The refurbished, 64-year-old, 34-foot wooden sailboat has been navigating the shallowing waters of the Upper Mississippi River for the past month to spread a message of peaceful activism. It is carrying on its mission of worldwide nuclear disarmament that began in 1958, when a group of Quakers set sail from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands in protest of the nuclear weapons testing that was taking place there.

The sailboat never made it there, and the crew were arrested while en route.

Their mission and arrests spurred an attempt to sail a 50-foot boat there by Earle Reynolds, a doctor who was investigating the effects of ionizing material on the children of Hiroshima.

"So (Reynolds and his family) sailed down there and this guy got arrested. So between the two trials, his trial and the Golden Rule trial, there was enough national press to reach the president’s attention, and in the year that his family sailed, the president stopped testing under the provision that the USSR would stop testing. And so eventually things carried on and it ended up with John F. Kennedy signing the test ban treaty," first mate Stephen Buck told The Hawk Eye from inside the cabin while holding a copy of Reynolds' book, "The Forbidden Voyage."

More:Sailboat navigates Mississippi River with a mission: Worldwide nuclear disarmament

While the trials received much attention, the Golden Rule itself did not. It wasn't until it sunk in Northern California's Humbolt Bay in 2010 that its mission was resumed by Veterans for Peace, who were instrumental in the five-year effort to refurbish the ketch.

"We’re carrying on the original mission, which was an urgent need to stop bomb testing in the Pacific, above ground, in the air. And they were sending significant pollution of radioactive material to people who populated the Pacific, poisoning the land, poisoning the food, and those people are still here," Buck said.

Buck and others on the crew were humbled to meet some of the 800 Marshallese refugees living in Dubuque when the Golden Rule docked there earlier this month. Buck said some refugees still are experiencing health problems from the original bomb testing.

"The mission has kind of extended to stop owning and developing nuclear weapons," Buck said. "The Veterans for Peace would like the nine nuclear powers to get rid of their weapons. And so that’s the main mission, but we’re also about recognizing climate change and education."

Bob Mueller of Mount Pleasant is a Vietnam War veteran and a member of the Iowa City chapter of Veterans for Peace, his membership made possible by COVID-19-induced Zoom meetings.

Mueller said he was fortunate to have been assigned to work as a computer operator when he served from 1967-'69.

"I saw the guys in the field, and I was like 'oh, my God, that's got to be a mental stress beyond belief,'" he said.

When Mueller returned to the U.S. after his service, he was told he couldn't join the Veterans of Foreign War because the Vietnam War "wasn't a war," so he joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. When he retired and moved to Iowa from Illinois six years ago, there was no VVAW nearby, so he found Veterans for Peace.

He said he was excited to be a part of bringing the Golden Rule to Burlington and believes its mission is of growing importance amid increasing nuclear threats among world powers. He was born in 1946, just after the U.S. unleashed the world's first nuclear weapons on Japan.

"It's getting scary again, and you sure would hope that kids wouldn't have to grow up with this kind of threat," Mueller said. "If we do nothing, we go nowhere."

That was a recurring theme among the welcome ceremony's speakers in Burlington.

Sally Willoughby's father, George, was among the crew who were arrested on the Golden Rule in 1958, and her mother, Lillian, had been arrested while protesting at a nuclear test site in Nevada. Willoughby was 12 years old when her father was arrested.

"They had no idea when they went on this trip what would happen in the future. And that to me was the stone that fell in the water, and here we are, the ripples," she said. "They had no idea that the Veterans for Peace were going to find the boat and fix it up and continue their mission of trying to stop atomic war and the making of armaments, and that it's important to always know whether you know what the ripples are going to be, to take that action and to do something. ... Not to wax poetic, but we could all be the stones and the ripples at the same time, and that's what I like to do is, we are the movement."

Captain Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa noted the progress made on lessening the number of nuclear weapons and nuclear testing, but said the problem has not gone away.

"The last few years, all the bigger countries are bragging about, oh, we've got a bigger, more destructive (weapons) and we're going to use it, so it's time to pay attention again," he said, noting that progress can be made through activism, such as with the Golden Rule, as well as on an individual level. "If we all continuously try to be the kind of people who treat every other person kindly, that grows into communities and countries likewise, and that is how you eliminate the root causes of war, so both are important."

Once the speakers had finished, those in attendance were invited to tour the sailboat that serves as the sleeping quarters to a four-person crew.

In addition to Johnston-Kitazawa and Buck are Mary Ann Van Cura, a retired librarian from Minnesota; and Gina Miranda, a modern Mayan daykeeper and author who joined the crew both to help spread the Golden Rule's message and to further explore the Mayan influence along the Mississippi River.

"I read about it and I thought it was an amazing boat, historical and the first environmentally friendly boat that was trying to change this kind of madness that we have against the planet. And I’m Native American, Mayan, so that kind of got to me," Miranda said, noting that she cannot stay for the length of the 11,000-mile journey as she has exhibits in the works with some museums. "I’m learning all the history, the connections to the Mississippi River. That’s one of the reasons that I came, too, because the Maya came here 2,000 years ago and influenced the Mississippian culture."

Miranda has plenty of time to take it all in. Friday's journey from Burlington to Keokuk was expected to take about 10 hours, but for Johnston-Kitazawa, it's a good thing.

"There’s something to be said for that. You see what’s going by," he said. "(Iowa) lacks for nothing in natural beauty as well as the kindness of the people. And I come from someplace where people say it's beautiful and the people are nice, so I'm qualified to say that."

The Golden Rule's progress can be followed by visiting share.garmin.com/goldenrule, and those wishing to join its crew for a day or longer can apply by visiting vfpgoldenrule.org/crew-application/.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Golden Rule sailboat brings nuclear disarmament message to Burlington