by Jane Stoever, PeaceWorks, Kansas City
Carl Kabat, 80, a priest in the Order of Mary Immaculate, splashed paint on the huge entry sign at the National Security Campus at 10 a.m. on July 4. He then sat by the sign, awaiting arrest.
This was Kabat’s fourth July “interdependence action” in successive years at the so-called campus, the new home for the Kansas City Plant (in Kansas City, Missouri), where the National Nuclear Security Administration now makes and procures non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons.
In a phone call to friends at 10:03 a.m., Kabat said, “This damned plant has got to be closed somehow, some way.” He chose red paint to signify blood, he said, and “sloshed” the paint from plastic baby bottles instead of paint cans to avoid being charged with using a tin can as a weapon.
The new $687 million facility replaces the Kansas City Plant at Bannister Federal Complex, also in Kansas City, Missouri, where the federal government has documented about 900 toxins – the legacy from radioactive and other substances used at the old plant. The Kansas City Plant makes parts such as wiring, fuses, guidance systems, security devices, and the trigger for nuclear weapons.
Kabat was released from the Kansas City Police Department holding cell on July 5. He was ordered to appear in Municipal Court, 1101 Locust, Kansas City, Missouri, at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 for a hearing.
About noon on July 4, lawyer Henry Stoever took pictures of Carl’s handiwork, but by 6 p.m., when Jane Stoever went for more pictures, the sign was under cover. Both Stoevers were warned to leave or be charged with trespass.
In a statement Carl prepared before an earlier July 4 resistance action, the priest said, “One of our Minuteman III’s could kill approximately three million of our sisters and brothers. … We have perfected the ‘art’ of killing and burning. … Four Minuteman III’s could kill 12 million of our sisters and brothers. … The opinion of the International Court in 1995 states that nuclear weapons are a Crime Against Humanity!”
In 1980, Kabat took part in the first Plowshares action, following Isaiah’s mandate to “beat swords into plowshares.” He has spent about 17 years in prison for resisting nuclear weapons. In his short phone call this July 4, Carl signed off, “God bless! Peace on you!”