For Marta Resink (67) from Eindhoven it is as if the clock is turned back. Years ago, she was regularly found at Volkel Air Base to protest against the American nuclear warheads that were said to be there. This Thursday she will be back to raise her voice peacefully against the arrival of the new F-35 fighter jets. “I have to do this and I will keep coming back.”
Marta Resink is not alone. She is part of a group of about thirty people who had already gathered in the morning at the Antonius Abtkerk in Volkel. Complete with banners and flags. And texts calling nuclear energy and nuclear weapons immoral and illegal.
Pastor John van de Laar gives them his blessing before they leave for the airbase in a silent journey.
It is and will remain peaceful, because according to Marta that is also the only way to protest against all the clatter of weapons. And especially against the nuclear weapons, which can be attached to the F-35, the successor to the F-16. Both devices are an eyesore for her.
“You can’t resist all weapons enough.”
“Those fighter-bombers don’t belong here. Not even anywhere. You cannot resist nuclear weapons strongly enough. It is very important to massively resist the threat, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons,” says Marta.
“Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction. And this should not be threatened, as Russian President Putin is already doing. That is just very bad for the world and very bad for the people. I am here to achieve world peace! enough resistance to nuclear weapons and to weapons in general.”
“I love life.”
Marta has been fighting for years against militarism and for a peaceful world: “I love life.” It is not for nothing that she has been involved with Omslag for almost thirty years, an organization for sustainable development in her hometown of Eindhoven. “We want to pass on a healthy world in order to offer the next generation a livable future.”
Is it not a fight against the beer quay after all these years? Marta is firm: “It always helps, you have to do something. You can’t stand by and watch. I cannot justify that with my conscience. I want to use everything I have in me as a human being in a non-violent and peaceful way to prevent bad things.”
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