by Kathy Kelly
October 25, 2019
On October 24, following
a three-day trial in Brunswick, GA, seven Catholic Workers who acted to disarm
a nuclear submarine base were convicted on three felony counts and one
misdemeanor. The defendants face 20 years in prison, yet they emerged from
their trial seeming quite ready for next steps in their ongoing witness. Steve
Kelly, a Jesuit priest who has already spent ten years in prison for protesting
nuclear weapons, returned, in shackles, to the local jail. Because of an
outstanding warrant, Steve has been locked up for over eighteen months, since
the day of the Kings
Bay Plowshares 7 action.
On that day, April 4,
2018, the group had entered a U.S. Navy Submarine base which is a home port for
the Trident nuclear missile fleet. Just one of those nuclear missiles, if
launched, would cause 1,825 times more damage than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The Plowshares activists aimed to expose illegal and immoral weapons that
threaten all life on earth.
They had spent two years
in prayerful preparation for their action. Two of them, Mark Colville and Liz
McAlister, spent most of the months before their trial began in the Glynn
County jail. Three others, Martha Hennessy, Carmen Trotta and Clare Grady wore
“ankle monitors” and were subject to strict curfews for many months while they
engaged in outreach and prepared for trial. Because federal law requires 60 –
90 days before sentencing, to allow for background checks, the seven probably
won’t be sentenced before late December.
My colleague Brian Terrell, who
attended all of the trial, described the chief prosecutor as a bully. In a
series of accusations, this prosecutor claimed that Clare
Grady and her co-defendants believed
themselves to be “a law unto themselves.” Clare calmly pointed out that “the
egregious use of weapons is bullying, not the painted peace messages.”
Emerging from the courthouse, the
defendants and their lawyers earnestly thanked the numerous supporters
who had filled the courtroom, the overflow court room and the sidewalks outside
the court. Bill Quigley, the main lawyer for the defense, thanked the
defendants for their efforts to save “all of our lives,” noting the jury was
not allowed to hear about weapons with enough power to destroy life on earth as
we know it. Liz McAlister, who with Phil Berrigan had helped found the
Plowshares movement, turned 79 years old while in jail. She thanked supporters
but also urged people to be active in opposing nuclear weapons and the abuses
of the U.S. prison system.
When I learned of the
jury’s verdict, I had just signed a post card to Steve Kelly. The Glynn County
jail only allows correspondence crammed into one side of a pre-stamped 3 x 5
post card. In tiny cursive, I told him about events in Kashmir where the Muslim
majority has engaged in 80 days of civil resistance to the Indian government’s
abrogation of two articles of the Indian constitution which allowed
Kashmiris a measure of autonomy. India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states,
have twice gone to war over control of Kashmir. It’s a deeply disconcerting
flashpoint representing the possibility of nuclear armed states triggering an
exchange of bombs which could cause a nuclear winter, mass starvation and
widespread, long-lasting environmental destruction.
Some years ago, Steve and
I had participated in a delegation to visit human rights advocates in Pakistan,
and I recall marveling at Steve’s grasp of the nuclear threat manifested in
conflict between India and Pakistan. Yet he and his companions have clearly
asserted that U.S. possession of nuclear weapons already robs the poorest
people on the planet of resources needed for food, shelter and housing.
After learning the
verdict I wrote a second card, telling Steve that we who love him long for his
release, but know we must also be guided by his choice to remain silent in the
court. Steve believes the U.S. nuclear weapon arsenal should be tried in the
court of public opinion. He says the U.S. legal system protects those who
maintain and build the criminal, deadly arsenal of nuclear weapons. Inside the
court, people didn’t hear Steve’s strong, clear voice. His friends can’t help
but imagine the sound of shackles hitting the floor of the Glynn County jail,
followed by heavy doors clanging as Steve and other prisoners are ordered into
their cells
In 1897, from England’s
Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde wrote a letter, entitled “De Profundis.” He was
serving the final four months of a two-year sentence to hard labor. One of his
main jailers was certain he would never survive the harsh conditions. Wilde
found himself transformed during the prison time, and he developed a profound
understanding of human suffering. “Where there is sorrow,” Wilde wrote, “there
is holy ground.”
The U.S. nuclear weapon
arsenal creates anguish, fear and futility worldwide. Yet “holy ground” exists
as activists work toward abolition of nuclear weapons.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center,
325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email:
mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment