{"id":145816,"date":"2019-10-21T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=145816"},"modified":"2019-10-28T10:38:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T10:38:47","slug":"taking-next-steps-toward-nuclear-abolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/10\/taking-next-steps-toward-nuclear-abolition\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Next Steps toward Nuclear Abolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

20 Oct 2019 – <\/em>My friend Marianne Goldscheider, who is 87, suffered a broken hip in July, 2018 and then, in June 2019, it happened again. When she broke her hip the first time, she was running, with her son, on a football field. After the second break, when she fell in her kitchen, she recalls her only desire as she was placed on a stretcher. \u201cI just wanted \u2018the right pill,\u2019\u201d she says. She wished she could end her life. Marianne says her Catholic friends, who live nearby in the New York Catholic Worker community, persuaded her not to give up. They\u2019ve long admired her tenacity, and over the years many have learned from her history as a survivor of the Nazi regime who was forced to flee Germany. Recalling her entry to the United States, Marianne jokes she may have been one of the only displaced persons who arrived in the United States carrying her skis. Yet she also carried deep anxieties, the \u201cangst,\u201d she says, of her generation. She still wonders about German people in the military and the aristocracy who knew Hitler was mad and, yet, didn\u2019t try to stop him. \u201cWhen and how,\u201d she wonders, \u201cdo human beings get beyond all reasoning?\u201d<\/p>\n

Marianne is deeply disturbed by the madness of maintaining nuclear weapons arsenals and believes such weapons threaten planetary survival. She worries that, similar to the 1930s, citizens of countries possessing nuclear weapons sleepwalk toward utter disaster.<\/p>\n

On April 4, 2018, several of Marianne\u2019s close friends from the New York Catholic Worker community became part of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7<\/a> by entering the U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine base in King\u2019s Bay, GA and performing a traditional Plowshares action. Guided by lines from Scripture<\/a> urging people to \u201cbeat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,\u201d they prayed, reflected and then symbolically disarmed the Trident nuclear submarine site. The Kings Bay is home port to six nuclear armed Trident ballistic missile submarines with the combined explosive power of over 1825 Hiroshima bombs. One of the banners\u00a0 they hung read \u201cThe Ultimate Logic of Trident is Omnicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 activists at oceanfront in Georgia. Photo credit: Kings Bay Plowshares<\/p><\/div>\n

Referring to this sign, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, said the banner \u201cis exactly right.\u201d In an October 18 endorsement, he called their actions \u201cnecessary to avert a much greater evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late September, the Catholic Bishops of Canada<\/a>, alarmed over the increasing danger nuclear weapons pose, urged the Government of Canada to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted at the UN in 2017. The Canadian bishops issued their statement on September 26, the United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. In it, they note the \u00a0Vatican has already signed and ratified the Treaty. \u201cThe ashes of World War I and the centenary of its armistice,\u201d wrote Pope Francis, \u201cshould teach us that future acts of aggression are not deterred by the law of fear, but rather by the power of calm reason that encourages dialogue and mutual understanding as a means of resolving differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seven defendants, in everyday life, practice nonviolence while serving people who are often the least cared for in our society. Like Marianne, I have known each defendant for close to four decades. They have risked their lives, safety and health in numerous actions of civil disobedience. When imprisoned, they write and speak of the cruel abuse of human beings and the racist, primitive nature of the United States prison-industrial complex. They\u2019ve also chosen to visit or live in war zones, providing witness on behalf of people trapped under bombardment. They live simply, share resources and strive to help build a better world.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, beginning Monday [21 Oct], they will face serious criminal charges and potentially harsh sentences for their action at Kings Bay.<\/p>\n

Marianne anxiously awaits their trial. \u201cWhy,\u201d she asks, \u201cisn\u2019t there more coverage?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the defendants, Rev. Steve Kelly, SJ, a Jesuit priest, referred to himself in a recent letter as \u201ca tenuous voice in the wilderness<\/em>.\u201d He further explained that he is among the wilderness of the incarcerated, \u201ctwo and a quarter million folks comprising the human warehouses in the empire<\/em>.\u201d Steve has been imprisoned in the Glynn County jail since April 4, 2018.<\/p>\n

His letter continues:<\/p>\n

And your presence today clearly demonstrates that while you can jail the resisters you cannot destroy the resistance. In this advent of our trial, we have a blue-ribbon legal team to whom I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll show your own gratitude.<\/em><\/p>\n

This trial and the preliminary process represents the second phase of our witness. It is the Kings Bay Plowshares\u2019 attempt to continue\u00a0with\u00a0what began in nonviolence\u00a0\u2013 and\u00a0hopefully without arrogance \u2013 to convert the judiciary according to Prophet Isaiah 2:4.\u00a0As these judges historically legitimize the nuclear idols, we anticipate the government\u2019s presentation of and the judge\u2019s likely approval of motions\u00a0preventing the jury from\u00a0hearing our defense. The mechanism is\u00a0an\u00a0in limine\u00a0\u2013 you\u2019ll hear more about that if you don\u2019t know already, but essentially it is,\u00a0in the words of the late Phil Berrigan,\u00a0a gag order.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Late in the afternoon of October 18, Judge Woods issued her long-awaited orders regarding testimony allowed in court. She will not allow testimony about the illegality of nuclear weapons, the necessity of civil disobedience, or individual motivations and \u00a0personal faith. Fortunately, the many dozens of people filling the Brunswick, GA courtroom on October 21 will help communicate the essential evidence that won\u2019t be shared within the court. In alternative settings, such as over meals, during a Festival of Hope, and as part of a Citizens Tribunal, they\u2019ll discuss and eventually share reasons that motivated our friends to perform the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 action.<\/p>\n

A recent op-ed in the New York Times<\/a> suggests the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 message is entering public discourse. The defendants have clarified that the U.S. nuclear weapon arsenal robs resources desperately needed for food, shelter, health care and education. The New York Times notes if we could reach a total nuclear weapons ban, we could save roughly $43 billion each year on weapons, delivery systems and upgrades. \u201cThat\u2019s roughly the same amount we\u2019ve allocated in federal hurricane aid for Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marianne laments the madness which considers nuclear weapons a modern idol deserving of great sacrifice. She is rightfully wary of social and cultural developments that consider such madness normal.<\/p>\n

She and I commiserate about recovering from hip fractures, (I\u2019ve been on the mend for the past month), but we both know that Steve Kelly\u2019s invitation deserves our greatest attention.<\/p>\n

Tiny postcards are the only means of correspondence allowed to or from the Glynn County jail. On one of these, \u00a0Steve wrote a message to a large gathering in New York celebrating the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 action. \u201cI am encouraged by your presence,\u201d he wrote, \u201cto ask that this small effort of ours not be the last word in nuclear abolition.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Kathy Kelly is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>,<\/em> an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of <\/em>Voices in the Wilderness, and currently a co-coordinator <\/em>Voices for Creative Nonviolence<\/a>. <\/em>Three times since 2000, she has been nominated for the <\/em>Nobel Peace Prize. As part of peace teamwork in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. Her recent travel has focused on Afghanistan and Gaza, along with domestic protests against U.S. drone policy. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of U.S. prisons. She lives in Chicago.<\/em> Kathy@vcnv.org<\/em><\/a> – info@vcnv.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 4, 2018, several of Marianne\u2019s close friends from the New York Catholic Worker community became part of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 by entering the U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine base in King\u2019s Bay, GA and performing a traditional Plowshares action. Beginning Monday [21 Oct], they will face serious criminal charges and potentially harsh sentences for their action at Kings Bay. Marianne anxiously awaits their trial. \u201cWhy,\u201d she asks, \u201cisn\u2019t there more coverage?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":145817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,68,65,57,180,45,139],"tags":[229,536,547,239,232,686,120,794,331,354,401,1268,267,739,993,487,866,504,651,541,234,291,1200,444,1476,429,450,119,109,287,103,985,380,292,70,126,118,172,75],"class_list":["post-145816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nonviolence","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction","category-anglo-america","category-militarism","category-brics","category-activism","category-justice","tag-activism","tag-amazonia","tag-brazil","tag-brics","tag-capitalism","tag-climate-change","tag-conflict","tag-deforestation","tag-development","tag-economics","tag-environment","tag-european-union","tag-geopolitics","tag-germany","tag-global-warming","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-international-relations","tag-justice","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-media","tag-military","tag-natures-rights","tag-nonviolence","tag-nuclear-abolition","tag-nuclear-ban-treaty","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-peace","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-racism","tag-social-justice","tag-solutions","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-west","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}