The Nuclear Resister

On September 9, 1980, six men and two women walked into a G.E. factory in Pennsylvania and smashed re-entry cones for nuclear missile warheads with hammers and poured blood on blueprints. Thank you, Dean Hammer, Fr. Carl Kabat, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Elmer Maas, Sr. Anne Montgomery, Molly Rush and John Schuchardt – the Plowshares Eight – for your vision and participation in the inaugural plowshares action. Elmer, Phil and Anne, Presente!

from the book Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament (1987), edited by Art Laffin and Anne Montgomery

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES

by Daniel Berrigan, S.J.

September 27, 1980, marked my first visit to the monastery at Gethsemane, Kentucky since the death of Thomas Merton in 1968. I was asked to offer the homily at morning Mass; the text was from Matthew 11:25-30 (JB), for the feast of St. Vincent de Paul:

I bless you, Father of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and clever, and revealing them to the children…

Photo by Ralph Hutchison, August 7, 2015

From opendemocracy.net – Transformation: Where love meets social justice

by Michael Edwards

Three peace activists followed by openDemocracy have been released from jail, but their work against nuclear weapons goes on.

“Sabotage of the national defense.” That was Judge Amal Thapar’s ruling when three peace protestors entered the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and daubed biblical slogans on the walls. Thapar handed down his judgment in May of 2013, and sentenced Greg Boertje-Obed, Sister Megan Rice and Michael Walli to prison terms of three to five years each.

Sue Clark being arrested at the Albany Federal Building. Photo by Marcia Hopple

This is what Democracy looks like:  Albany rally and sit-in at the Federal Building to support the Nuclear Deal with Iran

from Waging Peace/Women Against War

by Mickie Lynn

On Wednesday, August 26, 2015, about 70 people gathered outside the Leo O’Brien Federal Building in Albany, New York as part of a nationwide series of vigils and rallies that happened at different times of that day in different cities. In most cases they were organized by a coalition of national groups (60 Days to End the War), supported by many members of local peace and justice groups.

by Joy First

Voices for Creative Nonviolence engaged with a number of Wisconsin peace groups to organize an 8-day 90-mile walk across southwest Wisconsin from August 18-25. The purpose of the walk was to call attention and make connections between the militarized police violence at home and the military using violence abroad through drone warfare and by other means. In both cases the victims are people of color, which forces us to reflect on the systemic racism of our society.

The walk began at the City/County/Jail complex in Madison on August 18. Dane County has one of the highest rates of racial disparity of any county in the country on many issues, including when it comes to incarceration – hence starting the walk at the jail. In fact, in order to make the prison population match the general population in Dane County, we would need to release 350 Black people. This is horrific, especially when we understand that so many people of color are in jail for nonviolent crimes and crimes of poverty that could better be solved by more positive interventions. It is up to all of us to stand up with our brothers and sisters and proclaim that “Black Lives Matter!”

Fr. John Dear

Bob Dylan and America’s 70-Year Nuclear Nightmare

from The World Post/Huffington Post

by John Dear

A few years ago, Bob Dylan gave a powerful interview to Rolling Stone. The editor asked about his recent music, but also about our political predicament and how we got into this global mess. Dylan seemed a bit cantankerous — forgive me, Bob! — and kept hemming and hawing.

“What gets in your blood?” the editor asked.

“The whole culture,” Dylan answered.

What do you mean? What are you saying? the editor asked. He kept pushing Dylan to explain where rock and roll came from.

Finally, when push came to shove, Bob Dylan gave the definitive answer.

Hiroshima.