Nuclear Weapons are THE CRIMES!
Three U.S.
Pacifists Jailed
as “Violent Terrorists” for
Anti-Nuclear Protest
Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, a married carpenter who has a college age daughter, is an Army veteran and lives at a Catholic Worker house in Duluth Minnesota. Sr. Megan Rice, 82, has been a Catholic sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus for over sixty years. Michael Walli, 63, a two-term Vietnam veteran turned peacemaker, lives at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington DC.
Their “Crime”
They entered the grounds of the U.S. nuclear weapons production facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, called the Fort Knox of the nuclear weapons industry, where the U.S. stores hundreds of metric tons of highly enriched uranium and works on every single one ($7.2 trillion dollars worth) of the thousands of nuclear weapons maintained by the U.S. Describing themselves as the Transform Now Plowshares, the three acted to symbolically disarm the weapons. Their intent was to follow the words of Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” They cut through three fences, hung up peace banners, spray-painted peace slogans on the exterior of a nuclear weapons building, prayed, sang songs and waited peacefully to be arrested.
Originally charged with trespass, the U.S. government kept expanding the charges to eventually include “intending to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of the United States and willful damage of national security premises in violation of 18 US Code 2155, punishable with up to 20 years in prison.” The peace activists were prohibited from presenting any evidence regarding the illegality of nuclear weapons, the immorality of nuclear weapons, international law, or religious, moral or political beliefs regarding nuclear weapons, the Nuremberg principles developed after WWII, First Amendment protections, necessity or US policy regarding nuclear weapons. The three peace activists were convicted in early May in a Knoxville courtroom and are in jail awaiting sentencing Sept. 23, 2013. For more information on this case see http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/15-7
What has become of the U.S.?
Have U.S. citizens become like WWII “Good Germans” supporting “the Fatherland” and jailing those who protest the crimes of their government?
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone(808) 966-7622. Emailja@malu-aina.org http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (May 17, 2013– 608th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
