DISARM AND DIVEST, Part 1
This webinar took place on May 9, 2020.

Watch six of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 joined by Cornel West, Jeremy Scahill of the Intercept, and Medea Benjamin of CodePink discuss their case and the broader issues are it. Norman Soloman facilitates Thanks to CodePink for hosting this webinar.

The KBP7 are: Carmen Trotta of NYC St. Joseph House Catholic Worker; Mark Colville of New Haven, CT Amistad C.W.; Clare Grady of Ithaca C.W.; Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. (held for the last two years in GA county jails); Martha Hennessy of NYC Maryhouse C.W. and a granddaughter of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement; Elizabeth (Liz) McAlister of Baltimore’s Jonah House and widow of Phil Berrigan, and Patrick O’Neill of Fr. Charlie Mulholland C.W. in Garner, N.C. The sentencing recommendations call for 18 months for Liz McAlister (already served 17 months), up to 45 months for Steve Kelly (served two years), and up to 27 months for the others. They are now scheduled for sentencing in June. See the website. www.kingsbayplowshares7.org for more info on sentencing dates.

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 are scheduled for sentencing for their nonviolent symbolic disarmament action at the largest nuclear sub-base in the world, on April 4th, 2018. Kings Bay is the Atlantic home port to a fleet of Trident submarines that contain one-quarter of the U.S. deployed nuclear weapons. Their action occurred on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s time to wash our hands of Trident, to demand that money should be directed towards health care for all, particularly during the COVID-19, for all future pandemics, for all human needs, and to cut funding for the military. The next generation of Trident submarines will cost $1.2 Trillion over the next ten years. The Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has pointed out that the U.S. spent $35.1 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019. This could have provided: 300,000 intensive care beds, 35,000 ventilators, and the salaries for 150,000 nurses and 75,000 doctors. Furthermore, if only a small portion of conventional weapons spending were redirected many more resources could be available to provide for the rest of the world’s survival needs rather than the endless wars our government pursues now. Our world would discover its real security lies in shared humanity, not in nationalist arrogance or domination.

TAKE ACTION

Letters to Judge Wood Although the defendants didn’t want supporters writing to the judge for leniency many people have wanted to write expressing solidarity with them and asking that they not be put in prison now with high risks from the virus in a confined, crowded place. If you know individual defendants you should attest to their character. Letters can be sent to:

Honorable Lisa Godbey Wood
U.S. District Court
Southern District of Georgia
801 Gloucester Street
Brunswick, GA 31520

A sample letter:

Dear Judge Wood:

I am writing to implore you to sentence all the Kings Bay nuclear weapons protesters to time served.

Such a decision would recognize not only that the government has already exacted a penalty of various levels of confinement over the last two years, but that imprisonment of the defendants in the time of Covid 19, is a penalty that far exceeds the normal weight of imprisonment in terms of its impact on the emotional and physical health of the defendants.

Indeed, imprisonment during this pandemic endangers the lives of the defendants, none of whom present a danger to the general public and all of whom have devoted their lives to serving others.

Should you believe you must impose further penalty on the defendants, I ask that you consider home confinement.

Thank you for considering my request.

Call Congress to redirect funding from the military, particularly Trident, towards human needs. More info here.

Call for Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, a 25 year-old black man who was killed by two white supremacists while out running in Brunswick, GA. Faith in Public Action is calling for a full federal investigation by the Department of Justice: People of Faith Demand Justice for Ahmaud Arbery

Beyond Trident of South Coastal, GA is the successor of the plowshares support effort. Its mission is to abolish nuclear weapons and power by focusing on the intersections between racism, militarism, and excessive materialism. On Facebook: Beyond Trident . Websitehttps://www.nonukesyall.org/Trident.html

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