The world-renowned anti-nuclear sailboat Golden Rule will arrive in Brewerton on Sunday, July 16, tying up in Riverfront Park. After a greeting and welcome from members of the Onondaga Nation the crew and participants will gather, a couple of blocks away, at the Brewerton Center for the Arts, 9660 Brewerton Road, for music by Colleen Kattau, food, and both local and national speakers.
From 5 to 6 p.m. all will gather at Brewerton Center for the Arts for children’s art activities, food; from 6 to 7 p.m. a welcoming ceremony will be held at Riverfront Park and from 7 to 9 p.m. music, food and speakers will be at the center for the arts.
The Golden Rule has a rich history. In 1958 four Quaker peace activists sailed the boat from Los Angeles towards the Marshall Islands, intending to interfere with U.S. nuclear bomb tests. The Coast Guard stopped the boat near Honolulu and arrested the crew, spurring worldwide protests and concern about the health risks from radiation spreading around the globe. The bold protest by the Golden Rule built international support for the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and inspired Greenpeace to purchase its first boat.
After many years and many different owners, the Golden Rule sank in northern California in 2010.  Over the following five years, Veterans For Peace, Quakers, and boat lovers restored the 39-foot wooden ketch, along with her original mission. Since 2015, the Golden Rule has sailed up and down the coast of California and to Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Mexico, and Hawai’i, holding hundreds of educational events.
“We are sailing for a nuclear-free world and a peaceful, sustainable future,” said Helen Jaccard, manager of the Golden Rule Project of Veterans For Peace, which owns the historic boat. “We must tell our political leaders to begin negotiations to eliminate all the world’s nuclear weapons,” said Jaccard. “We also need immediate measures to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear war, such as pledging No First Use of nuclear weapons and taking nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert.”