They came to stop a crime

Instead, seven Catholic peacemakers were convicted and now await sentencing By Jack Cohen-Joppa, The Nuclear Resister “…You are the hope you have arrived to find.” So ended a brief message that Fr. Steve Kelly wrote from jail last month to be read to more than 100 friends and supporters. We had travelled from across the United States for a Festival of Hope on the eve of the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares in coastal Brunswick, Georgia. While many of us hoped for their acquittal, Steve reminded us that hope in the nuclear age comes first from building community, and hope […]

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No war should be called ‘good’

By David Swanson Originally published in the Kitsap Sun, July 27, 2019 The nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years ago this August 6th and 9th did not save lives. They took lives, possibly 200,000 of them. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that, “… certainly prior to 31 December, 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.” One dissenter who had […]

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Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?

The following essay by Howard Zinn urges us all to rethink Memorial Day, who we honor, and what resources we prioritize. It was published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe and republished in The Zinn Reader with the brief introduction below. With great thanks to the Zinn Education Project. Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance […]

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FAITH AND DISARMAMENT*

On June 12, 1981 Seattle’s Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen spoke to a gathering at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and gave what has come to be known as the “Faith and Disarmament” speech. Frank Fromherz, who wrote “A Disarming Spirit: the Life of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen,” called Hunthausen’s message that day, “a prayerful invitation to examine personal and collective conscience on great moral questions regarding nuclear arms.” In his speech, Hunthausen referred to the Trident nuclear weapon system at the Bangor naval base just 20 miles west of Seattle as “the Auschwitz of Puget Sound.” In reflecting back on […]

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Sign Petition to Dismiss Charges against KB Plowshares

Sign Global Petition to Dismiss Charges Against Anti-Nuclear Plowshares Activists Facing 25 Years This is an urgent request that you join distinguished citizens of the world including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, other Nobel laureates and many others by signing our global petition to dismiss all charges against the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (KBP7). They face 25 years in prison for exposing illegal and immoral nuclear weapons that threaten all life on Earth. The seven nonviolently and symbolically disarmed the Trident nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay, GA on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, […]

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