May 9th Webinar: Disarm & Divest During COVID-19
Watch recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PoFkIMISHI
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Speak with Guests Before May 28-29 Sentencing
Moderated by Norman Solomon, RootsAction co-founder, author, & political columnist
* Medea Benjamin, Code Pink co-founder, author, and global activist
* Dr. Cornel West, Harvard Divinity School, author, activist, and social critic
* Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept co-founder, investigative journalist, and author
The panel will be discussing the need for civil resistance disarmament actions such as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, the continued build-up of militarism, and the destitute condition of our world before and during the pandemic. They will also speak on divesting military funding to serve human needs during COVID-19 and beyond.
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 47 months for Steve Kelly (served two years) and up to 27 months for the others. We do not know at this time if the sentencing will take place in person in a courtroom or remotely.
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 are scheduled for sentencing on May 28 and 29 in Brunswick, GA 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 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.
May 9 is on Mother’s Day weekend, historically a day to call for peace and also the late Fr. Dan Berrigan’s birthday. Let’s celebrate resistance together!
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