Peace. Everyone says he wants it. But we still have war and rumors of war.
Since 1981, a dedicated woman named Concepcion Picciotto has carried on a lonely vigil in Lafayette Park, directly across from the White House. In a small white tent, Concepcion has witnessed for Peace. Signs next to her tent show the horrors of war such as the sickness and death from radiation when the United States dropped the first two, and so far, the only two atomic bombs used in the war against Japan. President Harry S. Truman decided to use the two bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force the Japanese to surrender.
It worked. The bombs did their job. But many people — men, women, children — were burned into ashes by the blast, and many more were horribly sickened by radiation from the bombs. It is hard to know how many people died, or had shortened lives, or carried birth defects into future generations, because of President Truman’s decision.
Picciotto is native to Western Spain. She came to the United States at age 18 and worked as a secretary for the Spanish consulate in New York City. After marriage, divorce and a custody battle, she came to Washington, DC seeking justice. She protested in Lafayette Park and wrote letters to many government officials. While protesting, she met William Thomas, a peace activist. They joined forces and stayed together until Thomas died. Concepcion continued the peace vigil herself, handing out literature to tourists about the evils of war and sitting in her little white tent across from the big White House.
In an article published in Toledo Magazine in 1988, Concepcion thanked the many kind people who helped her and urged the government of the United States to “stop building nuclear weapons.
“Let’s use the money to eliminate poverty,” she said, “I have seen people freeze to death in that park, right across from the house of the most powerful man in the world.”
Some of Concepcion’s friends and fellow peace activists are trying to make her tent a national historic site. If you would like to volunteer for a shift at the Peace Tent, or help make the Peace Tent into a national site, send an email to Charles Holsopple. His email address is
[email protected]. You can also visit these websites: www.whitehousepeacevigil.org, www.change.org, and www.prop1.org/conchita
Thanks for helping us work for Peace.
