All We are Saying is Give Peace a Chance
March 13, 2021 - Georgia Interfaith Power and Light’s coastal engagement associate, Hermina Glass-Hill, spoke to a crowd of onlookers gathered at the Sautee Nacoochee Cultural Center across the street from the Nacoochee Presbyterian Church where GIPL assisted with the installation of a solar panel through it Solar Wise program. As part of the Peace Pole dedication program in honor of local Nuclear Watch South anti-nuclear activist Joan King who passed away last year, Hermina was invited by the organization’s president Joanne Steele of Sautee Nacoochee and coordinator Glenn Carrol of Atlanta. From the North Georgia mountains to the Georgia Coast, GIPL is active in connecting with faith communities and caring for Creation through worship, education, and the stewardship of our natural resources.
This is the second time that Hermina has represented GIPL as well as the Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center at a Nuclear Watch South event. In January, she participated in the organization's peace vigil at the King’s Bay Naval Base in St. Marys, Georgia to celebrate the entry into force of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to bring awareness of the plight of the North Atlantic Right Whales which calve in the same waters where the U.S. Navy’s fleet of Trident nuclear-powered submarines are stored.
Before sharing a few words about the U.N. treaty, Hermina, a Christian minister of ecological harmony and healing, offered a libation in the African American tradition at the Tree of Peace. From a clay vessel she poured water into the earth in the four directions blessing the land, acknowledging its sacredness, humanity’s dependence upon her fruits, and the interconnectedness of all of nature and humankind.
Hermina's message follows:
“Greetings. I am filled with tremendous gratitude to be here today and to share in the experience of the Peace Pole dedication in honor of Joan King. While I did not have the honor of knowing her, I have heard her name spoken of so lovingly by my friends at Nuclear Watch South – Joanne Steele and Glenn Carroll – until it feels like she is here. There is an African proverb that says: ‘As long as we call their names, they will live forever.’
Earlier this year in January, January 21st through 24th a diverse group of us – diverse in race, gender, faith – we gathered at the other end of our beautiful state on the coast in St. Mary’s in Camden County near the Georgia-Florida line. We gathered for the love of our planet – our home, the environment, and the North Atlantic Right Whales. It was such a wonderful moment to be among such beautiful humans and celebrating the occasion on Friday, January 22, 2021 in which the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force, declaring nuclear weapons to be illegal in international law, prohibiting countries from testing, acquiring, or possessing or stockpiling nuclear weapons! Although the United States did not sign the treaty, the message was clear. We will not stand for these taboo weapons which cause so much destruction to us humans, the environment, and our common home Planet Earth.
There in St. Marys is the Naval Submarine Base King’s Bay in which the U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet has a massive arsenal in the Trident nuclear-powered submarines. It has 25% of U.S. nuclear weapons, and they are gearing up for a new arms race with newer, bigger and more deadlier submarines and nuclear weapons.
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations stated that “…nuclear weapons pose growing dangers and the world needs urgent action to ensure their elimination and prevent the catastrophic human and environmental consequences any uses of these weapons would cause. The elimination of nuclear weapons remains the highest disarmament priority to the U.N.”
On February 6, 1868, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stepped up to the pulpit at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. to warn against the use of nuclear weapons. He warned that if the U.S. used nuclear weapons in Vietnam, the Earth – our common home – would be transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not envision. He linked race – the color of skin with war. (Source: Nuclear Weapons and the Legacy of Dr. King by Vincent Intondi)
One year earlier, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “delivered a searing diagnosis of the nation’s health and he said “I suspect that we are now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from it very beginning: That is the sickness of racism, excessive materialism, and militarism.” He said,’ Every man, woman, and child lives not knowing if they shall see tomorrow’s sunrise.” He asked the poignant question: ‘What will be the ultimate value of having bestowed social justice (I might add racial justice, environmental justice, seed justice, economic and labor justice, and food justice) in the context where all people are merely free to face destruction by nuclear weapons.”
This is just skin. Everything else beneath our skin operates the same in every human. So, let’s commit to peace and save our home, our common home from any further destruction. All we are saying is Give Peace A Chance.
Thank You.
Amen.
Ashe.
Salaam.
Shalom.
All we are saying is Give Peace A Chance.
_____________________________________________________________________About the Author:
Hermina Glass-Hill, MHP is GIPL’s Coastal Engagement Associate, working with Georgia coastal faith communities to assist with greening their worship practices. She is a Creation Care steward, scholar activist, writer, and grassroots organizer in Coastal Georgia. Hermina is the founder of the Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization that links the history of chattel slavery to ecological destruction and promotes environmental education. Hermina studied at Spelman College and Georgia State University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in History with a concentration in African American Studies and Environmental Justice and a Master of Arts in Heritage Preservation.Learn more about Hermina.