An American politician once voiced what good political operatives have known for centuries: “All politics are local.” He meant that political decisions, no matter what the level, have an impact in your town, your neighborhood, your street and house. That’s what Jim, Dorothy, and Irving, her husband, believed as well. And when this trio heard about some government actions that they thought would have negative consequences in their community, they got together to see what they could do about it.

You see, in the 1960s, the US was still in the throes of the Cold War, and the testing of nuclear weapons was still conducted in parts of the US and in the Soviet Union (and elsewhere in the world, for that matter). The trio of concerned citizens were frustrated that the American military was going to detonate underground nuclear bombs off the coast of Alaska near where a deadly and powerful earthquake had happened some years earlier. So, they thought that they could organize a group that would protest against these tests, to let the federal government know that they were concerned over the possible environmental impact such tests could have.

The small group were all members of the Sierra Club, an environmental protection organization that had been founded decades earlier by Scottish-American environmentalist John Muir. Through the efforts of Muir and his fellow eco-warriors, thousands of acres of western natural habitat were preserved in the 1800s and later. Remember that the proposed tests were in the 1960s, and there was a strong revival and growing awareness of the impact of modern society on our fragile ecosystems. Young people were becoming more eco-conscious, and such slogans as “Flower Power” meant more than the anti-war movement; it also stood for a desire to protect the environment and to push for government policies that respected, protected, and considered the impact of those policies on Mother Earth.

But Jim, Dorothy, and Irving weren’t kids. In fact, Jim served in the military in World War 2, and he had seen the results of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. Dorothy had worked successfully in the American northeast to organize government workers to demand more pay. Her husband, Irving, was a Yale-educated attorney who worked mostly pro-bono on social justice issues. The married couple were so committed to the causes of peace and justice that they became Quakers, a religious group known for their pacifism and social activism. So, no, this small group wasn’t part of the “hippie” movement of the 1960s in the sense that they were kids. However, their senses of right and wrong, their devotion to the protection of the environment, all said that they shared the passion and dedication of the younger generation.

And, so, the group decided to meet in the basement of a local church to plan a strategy for protesting against the nuclear testing. The meeting drew a good crowd of people of all ages and backgrounds. It was decided at the meeting that the group would finance the purchase of boat that would go to Alaska and confront the government’s danger to the environment and the possible effect on the fragile seismology of the area. It was also at this meeting that the group decided to call itself the Don’t Make a Wave Committee, and that they would create publicity by confronting the engineers and military personnel involved in the testing off Alaska’s coast. The name was chosen because they wanted the test to not set off a seismic wave that could cause another earthquake and a possible tsunami.

Well, as you can imagine, the Sierra Club wanted no part of this. The club formally disavowed the group, so the group members quit the club over what they felt was a lack of true action against the environmental threat. And, to give you some resolution here, the confrontational action by the committee was successful. Publicity created by the group’s boat standing alone against the US Government made a powerful image that brought public opinion against the testing. The military agreed to stop testing in Alaska as a result.

You may be surprised that you’ve never heard of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee. Well, you have, actually. You see, it was one of the younger members of that group that met in the church that first night who saw that such a clunky name for the group wouldn’t resonate with the public. He said something to Dorothy about it, about how young people would be “turned off” by such a long and possibly confusing name. “All we want is peace,” Dorothy replied, flashing the two-fingered peace sign that the kids used.. The young man smiled at her. And his reply became the new name of the group.

“Then make it a green peace,” he said.