Tell Congress that now, more than ever, it’s time to wash our hands of Trident.

On April 4, 2018, seven anti-nuclear activists, known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered the Kings Bay Naval Base in Camden County in Georgia to protest the nuclear weapons based there.

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 carried out their act of resistance on the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to highlight King’s warnings against the evils of racism, militarism and extreme materialism.

Two years later, these Catholic activists face years in prison. Father Steve Kelly still sits in a Glynn County Georgia jail cell as they await sentencing.

On March 23, the Tribune & Georgian announced the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Camden County. That same day, the U.S. Navy announced it had awarded a contract for up to $592.3 million to prepare the Kings Bay Naval Base for new Trident nuclear submarines.

The plan to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal is projected to cost as much as $2 trillion. Meanwhile, we are failing to keep people healthy and safe during the Covid-19 crisis.

Clearly, our priorities have to change.

Please take the time today to personally call or write your members of Congress.

You can find their contacts by entering your zip code here. https://whoismyrepresentative.com/

Urge them to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and stop the modernization of the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

You can include some of these talking points:

• We need to be saving lives instead of building new weapons that threaten all life on earth. The human health, environmental and economic repercussions of using nuclear weapons will make the current crisis look like a walk in the park.

• For the $35.1 billion the U.S. spent on nuclear weapons in 2019, we could pay for 300,000 beds in intensive care units, 35,000 ventilators, and the salaries of 150,000 U.S. nurses and 75,000 U.S. doctors.

• Our resources should be used to help us get through this crisis and prepare for the next one. We can’t bomb the coronavirus.

• At this time, when people all over the world are sacrificing for the good of everyone, it is even more unthinkable that we should continue to move towards mutually assured destruction.

• Our people need help to meet their needs during this economic and public health crisis; the last thing we need is new nuclear weapons.

• How can we spend $1 – $2 trillion for new bombs when our hospitals don’t have enough ventilators or medical personnel to take care of Covid-19 sufferers or supplies to keep our doctors and nurses healthy?

• Why would we spend valuable resources towards building new bombs when we are completely unprepared to deal with the real threat to our security – pandemic disease?

• If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is that we are truly all in this together.

These points can also be made in letters to the editor responding to articles about covid-19 in your local paper.

Thank you for acting today. Please ask your friends and family to act as well.

 

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