University professor
discovers toothsome
remains in Pakistan
Page 6
Oregon daily
emerald
Tuesday, August 9, 1983
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 14
Fast for Life
Hunger striker 'fights' nuclear risk
Society teaches young children to protect life by
going to war. Yet rarely do citizens risk their lives to
prevent war.
A 58 year-old Eugene native believes that people
who “fight" nonviolently for peace must be willing to
take the same risks a soldier takes on the battlefield.
Charles Gray and nine other peaceful warriors
worldwide have committed themselves to an in
definite fast until “significant progress” is made
towards nuclear arms control.
"Significant progress" includes the signing of a
comprehensive test ban treaty by the nuclear powers,
the halting of Cruise and Pershing II missile deploy
ment by the United States or NATO and the dismant
ling of Soviet SS-20 missiles.
Other "significant" measures include:
• “Concrete" actions by governments to insure
that the nuclear powers implement U.N. resolutions
calling for a multilateral or bilateral freeze;
• A moratorium by the nuclear powers on
development, testing, production and deployment of
nuclear weapon systems;
• Great Britain cancelling its Trident program;
• And a Congressional resolution favoring a
nuclear freeze, combined with a refusal to ap
propriate funds for military programs incompatible
with that resolution.
“Some people say we're asking for a miracle. But
if we’re asking for a miracle, we’re asking for what is
necessary to prevent this world from going down the
tube,” Gray said at a press conference Friday
morning.
“So many people have pointed out to us the
danger that we’re in, and yet it’s so easy day by day to
say ‘Well, somehow we’ll muddle through. I don’t
want to change my life too much. We can rely on our
leaders.’ We feel that if we continue along that line,
we could very well see our world destroyed — and
that is a morally intolerable thought,” Gray said.
By starving themselves, the tasters will model
themselves on Mahatma Gandhi, who believed
fasting was the most powerful nonvio'ent method for
bringing about social change.
Saturday evening Gray shared his last meal of
lentil soup, garden-fresh vegetables and homemade
bread with about 200 friends aid supporters of the
I
Fast For Life movement in the Central Presbyterian
church several blocks from campus.
Monday, Gray traveled to the U.S. fasting center
in Oakland, Calif., where his wife, Dorothy Granada,
52, and two foreign fasters will stay for the fast’s
duration. Gray and the other fasters acknowledge the
indefinite fast may lead to their deaths. Yet Gray said
the seriousness of the arms race warrants risking
death.
“I think there are times when we must be willing
to risk our lives for what we really believe is precious.
The very willingness to do that speaks to a lot of peo
ple in a very deep way, so it (fasting) can be a very ef
fective way to use your life,” Gray said in an interview
Friday morning just after his press conference.
“I’ve got children and grandchildren — the
world’s children. It (the nuclear arms race) has got to
stop. If I’m going to risk my life to stop that, I think
that’s a very good use of my life.”
And because of the depth of the nuclear crisis,
Gray said he was not the only one risking death.
“The entire planet is risking death. We may sym
bolize the vulnerability of the entire planet by our ac
tion. We’re not interested in dying. We love life, and
we want people to awaken and act — and we won’t
die. None of us will die.”
Gray conceived of the fast nearly four years ago
but did not inform the public of his idea until June
1982, at the U.N. Disarmament Conference in New
York City. The fast, which began Aug. 6, com
memorates the 38th anniversary of the Hiroshima
atomic bombing. Yet 1983 is also an “absolutely
critical year” in the arms race because 1983 may be
the world’s “last chance” to obtain a bilateral or
multilateral freeze on the nuclear arms “madness.”
Because of a “new generation" of nuclear hard
ware, the world may be facing a “point of no return,”
Gray said, referring to the deployment in Europe this
fall of weapons with ‘first-strike’ accuracy. Because
first-stike weapons could destroy another country’s
entire arsenal in one attack, they would undermine a
nation’s deterrent strength, which has prevented
nuclear war so far, Gray said.
Yet the fasters hope to alert people to more than
the threat of nuclear war.
By voluntarily starving themselves, the fasters
Photo by Mark Pynes
Charles Gray and eight others worldwide have vowed
to fast until “significant progress" is made towards a
nuclear freeze.
purposely draw a connection between the arms race
and the “victims of the arms race” — 40,000 children
who die of malnutrition each day.
“We’re in a sense joining those people as the
present victims of the arms race. We’re saying we,
too, will hunger jntil this madness is brought to an
end.”
This “silent holocaust" is due in part to the
billions spent on the arms race, which could go
toward feeding the world’s hungry, said Gray, who
taught sociology at Colorado State University and the
University of Colorado before becoming a full-time
Continued on Page 6
Candles for
Hiroshima
About 200 candles
floated in the Alton
Baker Park pond Satur
day evening, launched in
paper bags by the
several hundred people
who gathered in
rememberance of the
thousands who died in
the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima on August 6,
1945.
Between 60,000 and
300,000 people are
estimated to have perish
ed in the first of two
nuclear blasts detonated
in Japan within a three
day period 38 years ago.
Prior to the candle
floating, which has
become a worldwide
tradition, Charles Gray of
Fast for Life spoke to the
crowd.
Photo by Mark Pynes