by Art Laffin
I'm writing to let you know that I, along with other Catholic Workers, will go on trial in Kansas City on Wednesday, September 28th for the May 2nd nonviolent peace witness at the new nuclear weapons facility that is being constructed in Kansas City. Below is a link to an article by NCR reporter Joshua McElwee about the witness and the new Bomb plant.
As I/we go to trial I am mindful of the following realities:
- The ultimate violence in our time is the existence and intent to use nuclear weapons which can destroy our sacred earth.
- The stated Pentagon policy is that the U.S. must be prepared to use whatever military means are necessary, including the use of nuclear weapons, to protect its national security interests and to make sure another rival superpower does not emerge to challenge U.S. interests.
- U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons are still on high alert and are on "launch on warning" status.
- Even though the U.S. and Russia plan on reducing the # of nuclear warheads from roughly 10,000 apiece to 1,555 over the next seven years, the U.S. plans to spend $65 billion over the next ten years to upgrade the existing nuclear arsenal.
- The Kansas City Nuclear Weapons plant is expected to cost over $670 million to construct and some $1.2 billion over the next two decades. This plant will make 85 percent of all non-nuclear components for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
- The new Census Bureau reports that one out of six Americans is living below the poverty line, including nearly 40 percent of African American children. Also nearly 50 million Americans are without health insurance.
Other friends arrested for this action who pleaded guilty back in July were given fines and community service. It is my sincere hope that in our trial, I/we will be able to continue the court witness conveying that nuclear weapons are immoral and illegal, and that the primary intent of our action was to uphold God's law and International law and not to commit a crime. We will again assert that nuclear weapons endangers God's holy creation, that they constitute a direct theft from the poor, and that these weapons must be abolished now! And that we were, in fact, engaging in an act of "crime prevention."
In the face of all the efforts by the local political and economic powers, in conjunction with the D.O.E. and Honeywell, to do whatever it takes to build this new Bomb plant, I am so deeply grateful to the Cherith Brook and Holy Family Catholic Worker communities and Peace Planters group for continuing their nonviolent campaign to close this new Bomb plant. They are a great light in the darkness!!!
Please pray for us, the judge and the prosecutor as we seek to bear witness to the truth. And please pray for friends imprisoned for the Disarm Now Plowshares action and the nonviolent resistance action last year at the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility at Oak Ridge, TN.
We keep our eyes on the prize and hold on!!!
With gratitude, Art
Art Laffin
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
503 Rock Creek Church Road, NW
Washington, D.C. 20010
Phone: 202.882.9649 or 202.829.7625
FIFTY ARRESTED PROTEST NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANT
No comments:
Post a Comment