Popular Peace Action Group Moves from Newton Green to Zoom

New Jersey Peace Action -NJPA meets the challenge of strong vocal leadership. Some of its key leadership resides in both Sparta and Hopatcong along with active members in other neighboring municipalities. For decades they have been a devoted movement in Sussex County to opt on the side of peace. They gather on Newton’s Green to call out the current global weapons of war practiced on our planet. They have educated us and petitioned against these weapons hostile to humankind especially nuclear weapons. In the past few years it takes even greater tenacity from people like Judith Arnold and Litsa Binder to raise the banner on the side of peace for all which often counters some far right’s voices found in downtown Newton.

The concluding months of 2020 has heaped distressing party-political narratives to followers on both sides during this pandemic. However, during this COVID-19 time of strife and chaos, the NJPA has found some hopeful pivotal turnarounds. October 25th had promising news. The United Nations announced 50 countries had ratified a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons initiating its entry into force in 90 days. Currently, it remains opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres commended the 50 signatory states that enabled the treaty’s entry into power on January 22, 2021. He stated it is a treaty "to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons" and "is a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this treaty" This announcement made many who stood on Newton’s Green for peace feel that all was not hopeless in 2020.

The pandemic brought an interesting upside to NJPA who invested in live Zoom internet - conferencing to comply with the state law on safe distancing. Many of its long-time members were young activists in the late 60’s and 70’s that got to oppose the Viet Nam War and the draft. These passionate members are still ageless in mind to their causes but now have mobility issues. Executive director of New Jersey Peace Action – Jeff Hoey has hosted some intellectual discussions on the current affairs of war-torn regions this spring/summer of 2020. The attendance to these Zoom invites has exceeded expectations.

NPA’s Annual Fall Peace Gathering fundraiser was on November 7th online via Zoom. Traditionally this event would be a dinner at a hotel conference center with an award-winning journalists or author as guest speaker. It took a lot of advance technical team work to change the format and not to deter the importance of the message to supporters or the importance of the event to NJPA as a grassroots peace organization. They managed to pull this off seamlessly.

This year’s guest speaker was Andrew Bacevich, president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is a 1969 West Point graduate who served in Vietnam from the summer of 1970 to the summer of 1971. He continued through with a military career and in the early 1990s retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. The guest presentation was his Reflections on the Election. Still in suspense on the outcome of our presidential election, it became an engaging subject to talk about and discuss. Bacevich came prepared with new perspectives from his latest book The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory, that runs through our moments of seemingly ultimate victory after the Cold War to the age of Trump.

NJPA organization welcomes new members, community partners and supporters who believe that peace is the answer and connects a global solution state of mind through local actions. Visit their webpage https://www.njpeaceaction.org