Wars and Weapons Abound
Wars are threatened and wars continue. Weapons of mass destruction are
researched, tested, constructed, and deployed. Dual-purpose carriers of
weapons, both nuclear and conventional, are retained. New carriers and new
more-deadly weapons are being designed. The United States is the number one
military superpower of the world. The congregate mega tonnage capacity and
budgets of so-called rogue (or enemy) nations do not equal those of the
U.S. alone. The U.S. sells weapon systems, carriers and technology to ally
nations which supersedes sales of all other arms traders. The U.S. economic
welfare and system itself are directly and indirectly dependent on
the military industrial complex.
Poverty Abounds
According to international economic reports & emdash; two thirds of the
world is presently made poor. Yet the number of billionaires has increased
and their amount of billions of dollars has increased, along with
millionaires. However, the gap between these few and the majority of people
on Earth has widened leaving nations with unbearable debts and limited
basic necessities.
So who benefits from the arms race? Who is made rich from
its enterprises? Whose resources are protected? Whose vested interests are
defended and from whom?
I lay these general facts and questions out before us again
to acknowledge that little has changed, that nuclearism and
militarism remain the taproot of violence, that Mother Earth and all of
creation are caught up in the struggle between life and death, good and
evil, justice/peace and injustice/violence.
This has been the bloodiest century in history. It remains the most
urgent time, regardless of the millennium change, for us to continue our
resistance to weapons and war making. It is a decisive time to respond with
disarmed hearts to justice and nonviolence. It is evident that the American
Empire is decaying. We renew our commitment as peace communities to restore
the soul of the country with the love-force of Dorothy Day and Jesus
Christ, the truth-force of the women in black and Gandhi, and the
soul-force of Sojourner Truth and Martin Luther King. The consequences will
be harsh.
Our Gods of Metal Plowshare Action
On May 17th (30th anniversary of the Catonsville Nine burning of draft
files to sound the alarm regarding the Vietnam War), Fr. Larry Morlan of
Bloomington, Illinois; Fr. Frank Cordaro of Des Moines, Iowa; Kathy Shields
Boylan of Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C.; Carol Gilbert,
OP, and myself, Ardeth Platte, OP from Jonah House in Baltimore, Maryland,
entered the Pentagon's Joint Services and annual open house at Andrews Air
Force Base, Maryland. With hundreds of thousands of people present in the
two-day idolatry ritual and worship service of these weapons of mass
destruction, we disarmed the nuclear-capable B-52 bomber and transformed
it. We poured our blood upon it and hammered 30 times together on
the hatches and doors of the bomb bay area. We prayed the mantra, "Gods of
Metal into Plowshares" with each blow of the hammers and then proclaimed
our statement together: "Do not turn to idols and do not cast gods of metal
for yourselves." (Leviticus)
Plowshare History
There have been more than sixty direct and symbolic disarmament actions
enfleshing the biblical prophesies of Isaiah 2:4 and Micah4:3 since the
first one in 1980 & emdash; "They shall hammer their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks." Two hundred persons have participated
in these actions in Australia, Germany, Scotland, England, United States
and others. B-52's, Missile silos with Minuteman and MX missiles, Trident
Submarines and D5weapons, Aegis Attack Ships, ELF Communication lines, Los
Angeles Class Subs, Test Rocket Cylinders and G.E. nose cones & emdash; instruments
of mass murder have been nonviolently disarmed and converted using the
hammer which dismantles and builds, and blood which unmasks the reality of
people killed and symbolizes the bloodstream for life. The consequences of
these actions range from probation to 18 years in prison.
On August 6th the Minuteman III Plowshares action took place at missile
silo N-7 in Weld County, Colorado. On August 9th two more persons entered
the uranium mine in Jabiluka, Australia and carried out the third plowshare
action in this year.
Present Status of Gods of Metal Plowshares
We were arrested, jailed and released pending trial. Charges
were dropped from two felonies carrying 30 years of imprisonment to
one misdemeanor charge with a one year and/or $100,000 fine. On
September22nd and 23rd the trial was held in Greenbelt Federal District
Court, Maryland, before Judge Alexander Williams.
Each of the five plowshares gave personal testimony and related their
participation in the action under God's Law and International Law. We
interviewed one expert witness, Francis Boyle, who substantiated the right
of citizens to uphold International Law. The World Court opinion of July,
1996, was recorded in the 3 1/2 hour testimony. In the bench trial Judge
Williams did not concur with our understanding of the illegality of nuclear
weapons and found us guilty. We non-cooperated.
We were jailed and remain in jail until sentencing on January 4,1999.
We are grateful for every letter written to newspapers and politicians,
every demonstration and vigil, every nonviolence training session held,
every presence in war zones, all acts of nonviolent civil resistance and
counter-cultural lifestyles that unite us in assuring a future for the next
generation.