The wind snapped the red sail of the Golden Rule as it departed New London harbor Saturday afternoon. We waved from City Pier where several dozen of us stood behind banners with messages like: “Nuclear Weapons are Illegal” and “Veterans for Peace.” The 34-foot ketch, which first set sail 65 years ago, headed into the channel and was soon passing the almost mile-long shoreline complex of Electric Boat. Its three-foot high peace sign was dwarfed by the giant buildings along the waterfront.

A piece of history was leaving New London, headed to Providence and on through the rest of the “Great Loop” voyage through the rest of this year. In all, the Golden Rule will sail about 6,000 miles through the navigable waters of the Midwest and East Coast with its message of nuclear abolition, peace and diplomacy.

But this is not the Golden Rule’s first voyage. In 1958, as people throughout the world worried about atmospheric nuclear weapons testing being carried out by the U.S. and the USSR, the Golden Rule embarked on its first adventure. Her small crew of anti-nuclear activists wanted to stop nuclear testing and so set sail from San Pedro Island on their way to the Marshall Islands, planning to interrupt or stall testing.

The Golden Rule’s Captain was a man named Albert Bigelow. He had served 33 years in the Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander, but resigned his post just a month before he would have received full pension, in opposition to U.S. nuclear policy. Bigelow became a Quaker and spent the rest of his life working for nuclear disarmament and an end to war. The story of Bigelow, the Golden Rule and the Veterans for Peace who have resurrected the Golden Rule for this current voyage is told in a 25-minute movie called “Making Waves.” The film is available for free download from the Golden Rule’s website.

Fast forward to 2023 here in New London, the Golden Rule’s visit allowed us to reflect on the work ahead. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is now international law, making nuclear weapons research, production, testing, deployment, threatening and use all illegal. The United States and the other acknowledged (and unacknowledged) nuclear powers are not signatories to this historic treaty.

So, we need to work for a groundswell of public opinion against these weapons with the power to destroy the world many times over. The current war raging in Ukraine, with Russia as the nuclear-armed invading force and the United States as the nuclear-armed supplier of weapons to the Ukrainian defenders, puts nuclear dangers in stark relief. This dangerous, nuclear-tinged war led the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to make the unprecedented decision in January to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to nuclear midnight … the closest it has ever stood.

Presidents come and go, the dominant political party changes, but U.S. nuclear policy has remained depressingly consistent. A 2019 Congressional Budget Office report estimated that the United States plans to spend $494 billion on its nuclear forces, or about $50 billion a year, over the next 10 years.

Locally, these investments are fueling a building boom and wave of gentrification, as the Navy forks over nearly $10 billion in federal tax dollars to start building the lead Columbia-class submarine and for advanced work on a second. A submarine and a half? A quarter for almost $10 billion? That is not sustainable. That is not the way to build our local economy.

The Golden Rule with its simple message of peace, nuclear abolition, nonviolence and environmental sustainability reminds us that there is another way. We just have to catch the wave.

Frida Berrigan of New London, is a member of the CT Committee for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.