An anti-nuclear billboard recently erected at a Tacoma intersection is drawing attention from pedestrians, but reactions are mixed, KOMO News reports. The
billboard, a cartoon of a bewildered boy holding an ice cream cone and surrounded by nuclear missiles, reads, “Did you know that the most heavily deployed nuclear weapons in the world are just 34 miles from here? Let’s abolish them.” The billboard,
erected by the advocacy group Global Zero Centre for Nonviolence (GZCNA) at the intersection of 6th Avenue and Stevens Street in Tacoma, is targeting the nuclear missiles stationed at the Kitsap-Banger Naval Base in Hood Canal, 34 miles away.
“We have a responsibility to eliminate the nuclear weapons because there could be an accidental missile or nuclear warhead at Bangor Base, and if Bangor Base is targeted in a nuclear war, our residents would be killed,” GZCNA’s Glenn Milner told KOMO News.
But one resident said, “We have to use nuclear weapons to survive a nuclear war. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never worried about Bangor Base nuclear weapons.” Another resident said, “That’s ridiculous. It’s not fair that other people have nuclear weapons, and we don’t.”
On the other hand, some residents supported GZCNA, saying someone should have already put up an anti-nuclear message and that more billboards like this should be on Tacoma’s streets. The group put up its first billboard last year and added four more this year: Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Lake Forest Park.