Faith and Disarmament
Posted on March 23, 2011 by Disarm Now PlowsharesOn June 12, 1981, Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen gave a prophetic speech to the Pacific Northwest Synod of the Lutheran Church of America. Taking up our cross with Christ in the nuclear age, he proclaimed, means unilateral disarmament. Furthermore, he suggested that “our paralyzed political process” needs a catalyst and that catalyst is tax resistance.
Hunthausen’s statement was received enthusiastically by religious leaders and followers of nonviolence across the country. His words remain urgent and relevant to us today, as we continue to struggle with the question of how to build peace in this nuclear empire.Faith and Disarmament
I am grateful for having been invited to speak to you on disarmament because it forces me to a kind of personal disarmament. This is a subject I have thought about and prayed over for many years. I can recall vividly hearing the news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. I was deeply shocked. I could not then put into words the shock I felt from the news that a city of hundreds of thousands of people had been devastated by a single bomb. Hiroshima challenged my faith as a Christian in a way I am only now beginning to understand. That awful event and its successor at Nagasaki sank into my soul, as they have in fact sunk into the souls of all of us, whether we recognize it or not. Read more »
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Trident Submarines, Trident nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament, nuclear weapons, abolish nuclear weapons, nonviolent action, nuclear abolition, Archbhishop Raymond Hunthausen, disarmament, resistance, war tax resistance, cross, Christ | Leave a Comment »
Still Unrepentant After All These Years
Posted on March 18, 2011 by Disarm Now PlowsharesFriends,
Bix sat down with “The News Chick” – that’s what they call KIRO Radio’s Linda Thomas – for an interview the other day. As usual Bix spoke truth, and she allowed him to pour it out. At the end of the interview Linda asked Bix if he had any regrets or remorse for what he did (at Bangor), and whether he would do it again. Bix replied, “You might say I’m unrepentant.” Yes, one might say that about Bix!!!
Perhaps those who truly need to repent are the ones dutifully dismantling and re-assembling the W-76 nuclear warheads that, after being refurbished, will be returned to the Bangor base where they will be attached to their missiles and deployed on the Trident submarines. Perhaps those who cruise silently beneath the sea, prepared to dutifully “press the buttons that will initiate the great festival of destruction…” (to quote Thomas Merton) need repentance. And perhaps it is those who dutifully work in laboratories further developing and refining the technologies that prepare for the end of the world in dire need of repentance.
Read the full interview below, and click here for the original article where you can also listen to the interview.
Bless you Bix,
Leonard
****************
Nuke-protesting priest will not repent
The fear of nuclear meltdowns because of damage done to reactors in Japan, is bolstering some opponents of nuclear energy in our country.
“We have so many other avenues. We have solar power, we have geothermic power, we have wind power. There’s just so many different ways we can go, if we have a will to do that,” says Rev. Bill Bischel, a Catholic, Jesuit priest from Tacoma.
Bischel is also an opponent of nuclear weapons, and he’ll be sentenced later this month for crimes committed while standing up for his beliefs. He makes no apologies, as he details what he did at the Navy submarine base in Bangor on November 2, 2009.
“We went up to the base at 2 o’clock in the morning. There were five of us,” he says as he begins to describe what happened.
The five of them – 82 year old Bischel (far right in the picture ); Rev. Stephen Kelly, 60-year-old priest from California; Sister Anne Montgomery, an 84 year old nun also from California; Susan Crane, a retired teacher from Baltimore; and Lynne Greenwald, a 60-year-old social worker from Bremerton – all determined to break into the sub base for a demonstration, using Google maps to guide them in.
“We thought we’d have to be restricted to going through brush and rough terrain, but we were able to stick to roads,” he says. “All the while we were going quite slowly and then finally we came to a road that lead us to where the SWFPAC is. Swift Pac is an acronym for Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific. That’s where the nuclear weapons are stored.”
They were behind the perimeter fence line for over four hours before they cut through the final fence, triggering a response from military personnel.
“We cut through the second fence, which had a lot of sensors on it,” says Bischel. “We got through. We were carrying banners with us that said ‘Disarm now.’ We carried some of our own blood to spill on the ground.”
Bischel and the others were arrested and charged, and late last year they were found guilty on all counts of conspiracy, trespassing and destruction of government property.
Their motivation for breaking into the base had no malicious intent, Bischel says. It was to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons, and make people aware of the nuclear warheads near Bremerton.
“It’s probably the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the United States that are there to arm eight Trident submarines, and there’s 24 missiles on each submarine, each missile carries weapons that are anywhere from six to 30 times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima,” he says. “It’s in our back yard. I couldn’t ignore that. It’s a big pile of death that is there.”
The group’s objective was not allowed to be entered in the federal court testimony, nor was Bischel’s justification for the property crimes.
“If you were going down the road and a house was burning and there’s a child or a person trapped in the upper story, you don’t ask if you can break down the door to get in. We certainly liken our action to that,” Bischel says.
Prosecutors say the protesters went too far when they broke into a secure area, endangering themselves and military guards. Bischel and the others will be sentenced at the end of this month – March 28th – and they each face up to 10 years in prison.
Bischel has no regrets and no remorse for what he did. He would do it again.
“You could say I’m unrepentant,” says Bischel.
Filed under: 2009 Plowshares Action, Ongoing Discussion, Peacemaking, Witness November 2009 | Tagged: abolish nuclear weapons, Bill Bichsel, court, Disarm Now Plowshares, illegal nuclear weapons, Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, nuclear abolition, Repentance, Sin, Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific, SWFPAC, Trident nuclear weapons, Trident Submarines | Leave a Comment »
We Choose Life!!!
Posted on March 16, 2011 by Disarm Now PlowsharesDear Friends,
Over the weekend of March 4th the Pacific Life Community (PLC) held its annual retreat in Menlo Park, California. Frida Berrigan delivered the keynote address. In the spirit of resistance the PLC Community held a vigil and nonviolent action at the Lockheed Martin plant in Sunnyvale. Among those arrested for trespassing were Disarm Now Plowshares members Susan Crane and Steve Kelly. Lynne Greenwald and Anne Montgomery were there vigiling and witnessing to the action.
Larry Purcell of the PLC wrote an opinion piece that he submitted to the San Jose Mercury News. It’s an indictment of Lockheed-Martin, builder of the Trident D-5 missile, and really poses a deeper underlying question: “Where is our treasure?”. The newspaper declined to print the piece; told Larry that it was “too much anti Lockheed rather than anti nuke and it would entail a lot of fact checking and demand a response piece from Lockheed.” Fact checking??? Here’s a fact that is irrefutable. If we ever start launching those Lockheed-built D-5 missiles bristling with nuclear warheads the radiation concerns currently on people’s minds – and which are serious – as a result of the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan will pale in comparison.
If the Mercury News won’t print Larry’s piece, WE WILL. I will not quibble over the “facts” of Larry’s article. The fact is that we are squandering out treasure while sewing the seeds of our own destruction, and that is morally reprehensible. Corporations like Lockheed-Martin are like parasitic, opportunistic organisms seeking to grow by consuming everything around them at any cost to the society that feeds them.
Please read Larry’s article, and then share it with as many people as you can, especially people who have not yet come to understand the harmful effects of war spending on our society and the world. We must help people see the truth beyond the lies if we are to move away from the culture of death and build a culture of life.
With Thanks to Larry and the Pacific Life Community,
Leonard
*******************
Opinion Piece written by Lawrence Purcell, and originally submitted to the San Jose Mercury News
Early this month a group of us went to Sunnyvale to protest at Lockheed/Martin Corp – the biggest military contractor in the world. It’s hard to imagine how big Lockheed/Martin is. According to William Hartung, “One of every 14 dollars doled out by the Pentagon” goes to Lockheed. Put another way, “that amounts to a ‘Lockheed/ Martin tax’ of $260 per tax paying household in the United States.” If congress wants to find money with which to balance the budget they should look to our military budget first since our military budget is, by far, the largest in the world.
As the cost of weapons skyrockets, there is a direct impact on our children’s education. For one elementary school in Redwood City, their entire supply budget for 2010-2011 is $7,000. Over half of that was taken to pay the maintenance contract for their copy machine. The rest would be divided up among 8 classrooms and the school’s administration. What a struggle!!!
On the other hand, Lockheed/Martin is so rich that in 2009 they spent $12 million on congressional lobbying and campaign contributions. They give to both Republicans and Democrats – whomever in the Senate and House are in a position to decide where our tax money goes. As our government tries to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Lockheed lobbyists have successfully pushed to USA to vastly increase expenditures on nuclear weapons this year.
Meanwhile, in Redwood City, our schools must decide between nurses & librarians or buses and student aides. In the school I’m familiar with, the 3rd grade class jumped from 20 students last year to 28 students this year. Two of those 28 children have special needs; but there is no money for a full time aide or even a part time aide.
Lockheed/Martin reportedly has 140,000 employees (probably an exaggeration) in about 46 states and in 2008 they received $36 BILLION from our taxes. Schools and hospitals would employ a lot more people with 36 billion dollars than Lockheed ever would or could.
Having said all of that about money & jobs & education, I was arrested at Lockheed for a to stop another form of insanity. Lockheed/Martin develops, tests and builds missiles for the Trident Nuclear Submarines. These missiles will carry nuclear warheads 4,000 miles and have an accuracy of 300 feet. We believe they are being produced to enable the USA to begin and end a nuclear war in a “pre-emptive first strike.” They will be used as a “shock & awe” that hopes to wipe out the so-called “enemy” completely. However, Nuclear Weapons threaten not only other people but also all people on earth. These weapons are so absurd at this point that a number of heavy weight politicians are finally calling for their total ABOLITION. Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nun, George Schultz, Mikhail Gorbachev and others have finally realized that these weapons profit no one except the arms dealers. Unfortunately, one thing these politicians have in common is that they are all retired—how sad.
As we protested and were arrested at Lockheed, there was very little press coverage. I guess the reporters were out checking Charlie Sheen or something else crucial to our species.
Every Democrat and Republican tells us “the future of our country depends on the education of our children.” Why don’t they put our money where their mouths are? The reason they keep wasting our money on nuclear weapons is that they have been bought (lock stock and barrel) by the gun lobby, which President Eisenhower called the “military industrial complex.” Feel free to join us and if you want more info go to www.pacificlifecommunity.wordpress.com.
Filed under: Peacemaking | Tagged: nuclear weapons, Military Spending, Lockheed Martin, Pacific Life Community, Larry Purcell, nonviolent civil resistance | Leave a Comment »
Walking the Road to Conversion
Posted on March 14, 2011 by Disarm Now PlowsharesReflection by Susan Crane
As the sentencing date approaches, I’m thinking about our walk onto the US Naval Base Bangor, and thinking about the nuclear weapons at the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific. Where do these warheads and missiles come from? Where are they made?
We know that the secondaries for the nuclear warheads are made at the Y-12 plant in Tennessee, and locally, both Bix and Jackie Hudson are both awaiting trial for walking onto the Y-12 property.
We know, from the discovery papers that the government gave us before the trial, that Lockheed Martin maintains the Reentry Bodies that carry the warheads from the D-5 missile to their target. The day we walked into SWFPAC, Lockheed Martin said that they couldn’t work on the re-entry bodies (RB lockheed martin) and the cost impact was $40,000 dollars that day.
We know that the D-5 missiles that hold the warheads are made at Lockheed Martin, in California. Consequently, the first weekend in March, the Pacific Life Community had their retreat near Sunnyvale, California, near the Lockheed Martin plant. I felt fortunate to be able to be at that retreat.
PLC vigil and action on March 7, 2011 (photo by Jim Haber)
This Lockheed Martin complex builds, among other things, D-5 Trident II missiles. Not the warheads, but the actual missiles that go on the Tridents and carry the warheads. Lockheed Martin is the biggest military contractor in the world, and in 2009, they spent $12 million on congressional lobbying and campaign contributions. The people of the US may want nuclear disarmament, but Lockheed lobbyists push the government to increase spending on nuclear weapons.
In the early 80′s, Dan Delaney from the Catholic Worker in Sacramento, Christine from Bartimaeus House, Larry Ferlazzo, a Catholic Worker from Santa Rosa, Redwood City Catholic Worker Larry Purcell went into the building where the D-5 missiles were being made, and poured their blood on those missile segments that would be put together to make the D-5.
Encouraged by their example, in 1995 Steve Kelly, SJ, and I walked into the plant through an open door, and walked around the hallways looking in various rooms until we found the room where the D-5 missiles were being made. The missile segments were about 4 feet high, and maybe 6 feet in diameter. We poured our blood on one of these segments, and used our household hammers to begin to hammer this modern day sword into something useful for human life.
At the PLC retreat, I was sitting in a room during one of the retreat sessions. The discussion was organized in a “fish bowl” manner, where several people who were going to cross the line, and walk into the Lockheed Martin complex were in the middle, and the rest of us sat around the outside, listening to their discussion about what they were going to do, and why.
It was an interesting way to run the dialogue. And I found that all I had to do was listen, with no expectation that I’d say anything, the people on the outside of the inner circle were observers.
The visual pictures of inside the building, the images of the missile, of our hammering on it, of the worker standing there, watching us, of us putting down our hammers and kneeling in prayer, of looking up and seeing all the workers standing in a circle around us, all these images came back to me.
And I’m remembering all these things, and thinking to myself, I need to join the others and return to Lockheed Martin. I have seen with my own eyes what is made there.
And so I joined the group in the middle of the room, and the next morning, walked with them onto the Lockheed Martin property to say…stop building these weapons that are flying ovens, stop building these deathdealing missiles, and lets use all your good skills for building things that enhance human life. We all know there’s a lot of work that could be done to reverse climate chaos, deal with our failing infrastructure, with world poverty and so on.
There were eleven of us who were charged with trespass: Anne Symens Bucher, Susan Crane, Ed Ehmke, Tensie Apel Hernandez, Steve Kelly, S.J., Mark Kelso, Robert Majors. Mary Jane Parrine, Larry Purcell, Rush Rehm and Jerry Zawada.
Larry Purcell writes “I was arrested at Lockheed for a to stop another form of insanity. Lockheed/Martin develops, tests and builds missiles for the Trident Nuclear Submarines. These missiles will carry nuclear warheads 4,000 miles and have an accuracy of 300 feet. We believe they are being produced to enable the USA to begin and end a nuclear war in a “pre-emptive first strike.” They will be used as a “shock & awe” that hopes to wipe out the so-called “enemy” completely. However, Nuclear Weapons threaten not only other people but also all people on earth. These weapons are so absurd at this point that a number of heavy weight politicians are finally calling for their total ABOLITION. Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nun, George Schultz, Mikhail Gorbachev and others have finally realized that these weapons profit no one except the arms dealers. Unfortunately, one thing these politicians have in common is that they are all retired—how sad.”
How clearly do we see the victims of this military spending, and the victims at the end of the weapons? The clearer that we see them, the more likely we will take a step out of our comfort zone and take a walk into one of these plants or bunker areas. It’s time to thank the engineers and physicists for the work they have done, and ask them to now help us clean up the military bases and the earth itself. It’s time to thank the Marines and Navy personnel for the work they have done, and ask them to use all their strength, intelligence and compassion for saving lives.
We can convert our hearts, we can convert our economy, and the deathdealing weapons–but we’ll have to get up and move and take a walk.
Filed under: 2009 Plowshares Action, Peacemaking | Tagged: Catholic Worker, D-5 Trident II missile, Dan Delaney, Larry Ferlazzo, Larry Purcell, Lockheed Martin, Pacific Life Community, Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific, US Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor | 1 Comment »
Have You Been To Jail For Justice?
Posted on March 11, 2011 by Disarm Now Plowshares
Thursday, 24 March 2011
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