Nuclear Threat Against Humanity Never Went Away

12/17/2019

Activists Continue to Sound the Alarm Against the Possibility of Omnicide

Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
December 12, 2019

An allied correspondent stands in a sea of rubble before the shell of a building that once was a movie theater in Hiroshima Sept. 8, 1945. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb instantly destroyed almost all of the houses and buildings in Hiroshima. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought about Japan's unconditional surrender. STANLEY TROUTMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

This week's column is on a topic I've never touched on before, and one our culture hardly mentions, with all the other global concerns. But it is big. And ominous, too, with reckless strongmen running things.

It is nuclear weapons. The world bristles with them.

In the 1980s, we were scared to death about an incoming Soviet bomb or missile. Then to everyone's relief, we got an international treaty, limiting their creation, acquisition and use. The Soviet empire collapsed. Now, U.S President Donald Trump withdraws from treaties. Who is noticing? We are not safer, for sure.

The nuclear "club" includes China, the U.S., the U.K., France and Russia. The accumulation is 4,000 warheads, enough to demolish the planet many times.

But small groups of conscientious objectors have always existed. In recent weeks I've seen word of an American resistance group, seven ordinary people, in this case, all Roman Catholics, acting out of their faith, who take inspiration from war resisters of the 1960s, who committed acts of "faithful civil disobedience" at the time of the Vietnam War.

Today, In St. Mary's, Georgia, in Kings Bay, there is a berth for six Trident submarines. The "Kings Bay Plowshares Seven," as they are called - in April 2018, while singing and praying, cut a hole in the security fence there, pounded a Tomahawk missile with a hammer, poured human blood on the seal of the base and left a copy of Daniel Ellsberg's 2019 book, "The Doomsday Machine."

Then they awaited arrest. Last Oct. 21, the seven were tried and convicted in Brunswick, Georgia of conspiracy, destruction of government property and trespassing.

The judge allowed no defence or witnesses based on faith; no theologian or nuclear war planner, although one defendant, Steve Kelly is a R.C. priest and another, Martha Hennessy, is the daughter of well-known New York peace activist, the late Dorothy Day. A third is Elizabeth McAllister, age 80, who took part in the non-violent actions against weapons in the '60s.

The Kings Bay Plowshares Seven await sentencing in January. Kelly chooses to stay in jail; the others are at home under curfew.

The defendants assert that they want to awaken the conscience of the nation and avert "omnicide." Considering the destruction such weapons could unleash, this seems not too strong a word.
Continue Reading >HERE<

You can purchase Positive Community directly from Rosemary Ganley at rganley209@gmail.com
or from >Amazon.com<

0 Comments