First Leg of the 'Golden Rule' Voyage Making Waves in Hawai’i

Our new friend Captain Katie sent her crew and photographer Aj Traeger on her own boat and Katie skippered the Golden Rule in front of Diamond Head for a re-enactment of the classic 1958 photo of Golden Rule.

By Helen Jaccard
VFP Golden Rule Project Manager
December 10, 2019

After sailing for twenty days across the vast Pacific Ocean, the Golden Rule peace boat arrived back in Hawai’I on July 31, 1919, 61 years after her storied voyage to stop nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.

Veterans for Peace President Gerry Condon and Col. Ann Wright were among the cheering supporters as the Golden Rule came through the channel towards Wailoa Harbor in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Captain Milosz Kaczorowski, First Mate Tom Rogers and crew members Chris Mayer and Tate Furr were welcomed by Native Hawaiian Elders Keoloha Piscotta and Desmon Haumea at a press conference on August 2. It was a wonderful and moving occasion – several of us, including the Elders, were in tears.

Helen Jaccard, a member of the WILPF Disarm/End Wars Committee, read a Resolution from the Hawaii State Legislature welcoming the Golden Rule and crew to Hawaii. And so our 2019 Hawaii adventure began!

We’ve now been to all of the major islands – Hawai’i, Maui, Lana’i, Moloka’i, O’ahu, and Kaua’i. Each is different and special, and each has welcomed Golden Rule in wonderful, unique ways!

The message of the Golden Rule’s Pacific voyage, to “Challenge Nuclear Madness and Militarism,” resonates strongly in schools, Buddhist temples, Friends meetings, community centers, Rotary Clubs, and peace & justice groups. The Honolulu Friends Meeting and Veterans for Peace Chapter were particularly important in organizing amazing events for the Golden Rule Project.

With tensions running high between the US, North Korea, Russia, and China; the US withdrawing from arms control treaties; and a new nuclear arms race underway, this journey of the Golden Rule couldn’t come at a more important time.

The goals of the voyage to Hawai’i, the Marshall Islands, Guam, Okinawa, Korea, and Japan are to:
➢ Support the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
➢ Support steps to avert the possibility of nuclear war; and
➢ Raise awareness of the dangers of all nuclear activities and militarism to the environment and humanity.

Hawai’i is the perfect first leg of this journey, since it is a prime target for nuclear missiles coming from Asia. Hawaiians became very aware of this possibility with the false alarm of a nuclear attack last year. The Hawaiian Islands are also home to dozens of military facilities, some of them huge.

A longer article about why challenging nuclear madness and militarism begins in Hawai’i will appear in the next issue of Peace & Freedom.

ICAN Cities Campaign Makes Progress in Hawai’i

As a result of the Golden Rule Project, on November 6, 2019, the City and County of Honolulu joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons “Cities Campaign” in urging the US to ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the "Back from the Brink" framework.

Left: Golden Rule crew with Mauna hands. This gesture has become a symbol of support for Mauna Kea and the indigenous people fighting against TMT and their plan to build a telescope on this sacred mountain.

The grassroots “Back from the Brink” Call lays out common-sense steps that the United States should take to reform its nuclear policy, including: Declaring a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons; taking the ICBMs off hair-trigger alert; stopping the $1.7 trillion nuclear “modernization” program, taking away any US President’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear strike, and negotiating for a verifiable reduction and elimination of all nuclear weapons.

The same Honolulu resolution welcomes the Golden Rule to O’ahu! We also received welcomes and acknowledgment of the need to eliminate nuclear weapons from Maui County and Kaua’i County!

Press Coverage of the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat, a project of Veterans for Peace, was featured on the front page of the Sunday edition of Hawaii's largest newspaper, the Star Advertiser. Please see the post on the VFP Golden Rule website, with impressive photos of the front page spread. Here is the link on the Star Advertiser website (though you need to pay to read the full article). And here are a couple of videos: a short Star Advertiser video and a longer VFP video Making Waves: The Rebirth of the Golden Rule. Thanks to Ann Wright, who sent hundreds of emails to the press about the Golden Rule. Persistence pays off!

Above: The Golden Rule VFP ship in Hilo, Hawai’i.

Golden Rule was also featured in a two-minute television segment on Hawaii News Now!

Jon Letman, a supporter on the island of Kaua'i, wrote a great article "Do Unto Others" for Instick Media about the Golden Rule and her history.

We have received a lot of media on other Hawaiian islands, including Maui and the Big Island of Hawai'i. Helen Jaccard has been interviewed on radio several times. The statewide article in the Honolulu paper and the TV coverage are a big breakthrough!

Golden Rule and Phoenix Together Again

On June 30, 2019, Jessica Reynolds Renshaw visited the Golden Rule. Helen Jaccard read the correspondence for accepting the baton back from the Phoenix to represent both boats on this voyage.

Jessica and her family sailed the Phoenix of Hiroshima into Honolulu onto the same dock as Golden Rule in 1958. They took the baton and finished the voyage to the Marshall Islands while the crew of the Golden Rule were in jail. They represented both boats in 1958 in the attempt to stop nuclear bomb tests.

Both boats sank in 2010, and although Veterans or Peace, Quakers, and other old wooden boat lovers managed to restore Golden Rule, Phoenix of Hiroshima remains at the bottom of the Mokolumne River (Sacramento River Delta). The Reynolds family and the Phoenix's Board of Directors spent years trying to get the boat raised so she could be restored, but she is too far gone. With sadness, they had to give up on the dream of the two boats sailing together to the Marshall Islands and Japan next year.

The Phoenix Board of Directors donated $11,000 to help the Golden Rule and Jessica brought a nicely mounted piece of the Phoenix for the Golden Rule to carry. This time, Golden Rule will represent both boats in an effort to bring about global nuclear disarmament and end the possibility of nuclear war.

Thank you for your generosity!