Once again, a federal court has plainly identified itself as another hall of the Pentagon by turning a blind eye to the criminal and murderous enterprise from which the Pentagon has repeatedly refused to desist for the past 73 years. According to international and constitutional law, both of which are binding and superceding law in all U.S. jurisdictions, the building and possession of first-strike nuclear weapons is a crime. Yet, apparently the U.S. District Court in Brunswick is content to let impunity and immunity reign supreme for those who would hold all of humanity hostage by terroristic threat, choosing instead to criminalize the right and duty of nonviolent resistance.

The destructive capacity of the D-5 missiles fitted for the six Trident submarines home-ported at Kings Bay is enough to kill an estimate of more than six billion people.* What the U.S. Attorney’s office asserts by the charges it brings today, and the charges it fails to bring, is that the genocide unleashed by the launching of those weapons will be a legally sanctioned event.

As a conscientious citizen of this planet, I refuse to accept the legitimacy of such a court, and I am proud to stand accused by it. In a spirit of hope and solidarity, then, I invite all who dare to dream with us of a future without a nuclear gun held to the heads of all our children, to stand in vigil with the Kings Bay Plowshares.

* data provided by nukewatchinfo.org/