 And he said, appropriate technology is technology that doesn't kill people. And that's a good starting point for talking about uses of science and what's involved with the trident and nuclear weapons. We're going to be hearing from people who were sentenced in October 2019 for their nonviolent and symbolic disarmament action at the Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia. They're sent seeing scheduled for May 28th and 29th. And after we hear from those six folks, because one of them is currently in jail, Steve Kelly has been there for two years. After we hear from those six folks, we'll also be hearing from three guest speakers, Cornel West, Medea Benjamin, Jeremy Skahill. So right now we're going to start first by hearing from Mark Colville. Hi. Thank you. I'm honored to be here. And I just want to say that whenever I talk about Code Pink, I think of Code Pink as a national treasure. And I deeply appreciate not only this opportunity, but all of the action that you're doing on a daily basis. And I feel very much in solidarity with you. So thank you for that. I was asked to start out and give a little overview for those who may be unfamiliar with the Kings Bay, Cloudshare 7. This is a community that formed around an action at Kings Bay, Naval Base in Southern Georgia on April 4th of 2018. Others will talk about some of the significance of that date. A Cloudshare's action is basically a movement that started in the early 80s. And it seeks to inflesh one of the prophecies of the great Hebrew prophet Isaiah of nations hammering swords into cloud shares and spears into pruning hooks and not teaching or learning war anymore. The Cloudshare's movement infletches that by taking the symbols of hammers and household blood, I mean, our own blood and household hammers to these sites where nuclear weapons are hidden and stored and deployed. And we do a symbolic enactment of the prophecy of Isaiah chapter two verse four. So we did this in Kings Bay, as I said, in April of 2018. Since then, it's been quite a long journey of legal wrangling, trial, pre-trial, trial. And now we're at a point where we've all been found guilty of three felonies and a misdemeanor. And we're awaiting sentencing, which which very well may happen is scheduled for the end of May 28th and 29th. And we'll get into that a little more later. Two, I want to mention two things that that the seven of us all have in common. And this is not common to all Cloudshare's actions, but first of all, we're steeped in a in the rich tradition of Catholic social teaching. It has informed all of our consciences and in many ways pushed us to go down to Georgia. And secondly, all of us come from decades of walking with poor people, victims, as the Bible would use the word, the Anouim of God, you know, that we've all in various ways been walking with people who are the victims of these policies and the victims of empire and tried to live in solidarity with them. And so when personally, I've always felt a real strong responsibility to make a connection between the the Catholic worker table that I live at in New Haven, Connecticut, Amistad Catholic worker. We've been here since 1994. So to make a connection between our common table and and Kings Bay, when I'm when I'm asked to describe what a Cloudshare's action is, I say it's to me, it's an unmasking of the demon of militarism that every day lays waste to my neighborhood. That these weapons are built and developed and used without without even being launched, they're being used every day in a war against neighborhoods. All over the country. It's it's interesting to me. And I think that the the covid pandemic here has really it's almost like a plowshare is actually in the sense of this unmasking of the demon of militarism. As a culture, we so internalized war. That we've essentially lost our capacity to conceive of any kind of national or collective unity that doesn't express itself as a war. A war on something and these wars always as as really the Bible and the Catholic social teaching tells us that war is always the first and the last victims of war are always the poor and our neighborhoods have been the victims of of our war making. And I'm thinking, well, particularly the most obvious one to be the war on drugs, you know, or the war on crime. You know, we we we take up these things as war wars and wars create victims, they demand victims. So plowshare is actions unmasked that here in Connecticut, it's we're actually in New Haven, kind of in a an interesting place because you've got, first of all, the electric boat in Groton is is now undertaking the new Columbia class development of the Columbia class submarines. In other words, all of the Trident submarines, which I don't have time to explain what they are, but the others will explain the destructive capacity of them. They're all being replaced as part of an Obama administration plan to upgrade the nuclear arsenal at the cost of over a trillion dollars over the next 20 years. Each of the Trident submarines are going to be placed by a Columbia class submarine and that work is taking place now. The governor of Connecticut has declared that electric boat is an essential operation and so it has not been closed during the pandemic. The production of these submarines, the Columbia class has been ramped up. In fact, a year ago, it was supposed to start in twenty twenty one, but the Trump administration has pushed that schedule up. So it's it's actually booting up now. And of course, people are getting temporary jobs there and risking their lives to go develop these these submarines. Forty four billion dollars in the current military budget for nuclear weapons. We now have an annual nuclear an annual military budget of three quarters of a trillion dollars on this. It represents the absolute theft from the poor, as all the folks have said. I know I'm running out of time here, but and I'll just end it by saying that the crowning image to me of this of this holy experience of being locked down and all has been this week, there was this military flyover with with bomber jets flying over the cities. And to me, it just it's like the crown of ineptness that our government is expressing. They're I mean, here are billions and billions of dollars. You know, in in PPE, you know, or in in protection for hospital workers that that is flying over our cities, almost mocking us. It's it's just the crowning achievement, the crowning image of the ineptness, the dysfunction and the bankruptcy of this government to do anything functional because we have sold our souls to the military industrial complex. We don't know how to do anything else with war. I'll leave it there for the moment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. And now we're going to hear from Patrick O'Neill from the father Charlie Mulhall and Catholic worker in Garner, North Carolina. Morning, everybody. Well, good afternoon, everybody. I want to give a plug to the war resistors. Thank you to see my shirt there. One of the organizations in New York that really helped to introduce me to working for peace and justice and remembering all the wonderful people. I worked with there over the years. As as all of you know, our action happened in what is referred to as the Deep South and in the Deep South, we're right on the Florida border on the on the eastern shore of Georgia. There's a real remnant of slavery and the legacy of oppression. Chattel, it's it's still there. It's it's it's still there. And it's still very much alive and active there. So we went to this place where for 35 years tried in submarines were floating in the harbor in St. Mary's, Georgia. And for the first time in 35 years, intruders came on this navy base. And it is it has absolutely been shocking to the people there. It's really very rare that I come across anybody down in South Georgia who who really has a understanding politically or theologically of what the seven of us did and why we did it. And it's important to realize that. What are you on? At first, I'm sort of frustrated that that see all I'm frustrated that we're not getting a lot of support. But then I realized, well, that's the reason we need to be there. We need to be there because people aren't thinking or caring about this issue. I'd like to tell one story. When the eight of us, when the seven of us were in the in the first year we were in, when we were only facing state charges, someone asked the local priest in St. Mary's, Georgia, from the one Catholic church in that town to come see us in jail. So we had to segregate by gender. But the four of us, the men, Carmen, Mark, Steve and I met this priest. He had a he had a little Eucharistic service, gave us Holy Communion, prayed with us. And then I kind of thought, well, maybe he's just going to leave now, because I'd heard from one of the members of his parish that he'd already preached against us, having not met us or and so. But the thing was, he was curious and he said to us, you know, your action has caused me some problems at my parish, because people ask me, how can seven Catholics break into the sub base and destroy government property and claim to be doing it in the name of Jesus? And he said, I don't know what to tell them. And that was the fascinating part. He didn't know what to tell them. But the good thing was for 30 minutes, he listened to us. And Steve, a theologian, Steve Kelly kind of spoke in his, his, his language, his theological language. And for 30 minutes, he just listened to us. The only disclaimer he had was in the middle of the whole thing. He just said, I don't even believe in guns. But he listened very carefully and remarkably 30 minutes later, he completely understood us theologically and politically, not that he necessarily joined our support group or anything like that. In fact, we never heard from him again. I sent him emails and didn't hear from him. But the point was that he did get it. But of course, we don't have time to speak to all the people in South Georgia and elsewhere about, about the motivations of our action. A lot of people won't listen. But the thing that struck me was this man lived in a rectory that literally overlooked the Kings Bay inlet and he possibly could see Trident submarines floating by, if not very close by. He knew they were there. And it never had occurred to him that the entire livelihood and economic well-being of the city where he was a shepherd was predicated on the end of the world. That's what Trident is. Trident is the end of the world. The Trident system can end life as we know it on planet Earth. And this is the case in all countries that are nuclear countries. Their governments tell the citizens the same thing. Don't worry, mutually assured, destruction will save us. So basically what citizens are being told in South Georgia and all through the United States and Canada and Russia and all the other countries that have nuclear arms is, don't worry, mutually assured destruction will last in perpetuity. And essentially our nuclear weapons are just props. No one would use them because they know the dangers of that. And of course, this argument that the policy of mad can save us has really stuck. People believe this. People have now gotten to a point where living on 24 seven alert for total devastation of our planet has become normal. Nobody seems to want to resist that. And I'm thinking, you know, that in June 12th, 1982, many people were in New York when seven hundred thousand people marched against nuclear weapons on the United Nations. There was an awareness that we don't have now. For some reason, we have been lulled into some sense of buying into this huge line that these weapons can save us or at least keep us safe. Our job, you know, as as as workers for peace, to end to end the climate. The climate change to work to change life as we know it on the planet so that we can survive and go on. So there'll be a life for my eight children and my two grandchildren. And we have twenty two children among us, the seven Kings Bay plowshares, is that we can somehow reach people who believe that nuclear weapons are a normal part of life and also get people to sort of look at the military industrial complex with a critical eye. When Mark talks about this one trillion dollars to make a whole new series of tried and submarines, where's the outrage? You don't hear anybody clamoring against this and people have bought into this. And so how do we develop mass resistance to this? And I guess maybe I'm hoping something can come out of the coronavirus that will wake people up to the fact that as a global family, we have to work together to resolve our problems. And there's no room for war. There's no room for killing. There's no room for nuclear weapons. And none of those things have a right to exist and we have to do away with them. So my hope is that that we're beginning that path. And I I have no idea if we are. Thank you. Thank you, Patrick. On a personal note, I want to mention that I heard the next speaker 48 years ago and belatedly thank you, Liz McAllister, for a very inspiring talk in 1972 in Portland that I and many of my friends were very moved by. And I still remember quite quite vividly. We're next going to hear from Liz McAllister, formerly of the Jonah House in Baltimore. Yeah. Well, I have served about 18 months in the county jail for my participation with the Kings Bay plowshares. I don't know if there's more to come, but if there is, we'll deal with it. And if there's not, that's fine, too. I want to share a couple of excerpts from our from the indictment that we brought to the base during the action because it talks about the ways investment in nuclear weapons is divestment from human needs. It steals the resources needed for for people. These weapons make us less prepared to meet challenges like the pandemic that we are now dealing with. Today, to our nonviolent action at Kings Bay, we indict the United States government, President Donald Trump and Kings Bay base commander, Brian Lapine. The whole nuclear tribe and specifically the Trident Nuclear Program. Whereas the United States is bound by the United Nations Charter, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and the Nuremberg Principles which prohibit war crimes and full-scale nuclear explosions. The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base refits and maintains submarines which carry Trident D5 submarine launch ballistic missiles. Six of the Navy's 14 Ohio class submarines have their home port at Kings Bay. Each submarine carries the capacity to cause devastation equivalent to 600 of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima in Japan. Thus, the six tribes at Kings Bay have the capacity equal to 3600 Hiroshima's. 3600 Hiroshima's. From the initial mineral mining, through testing, storage, and dumping, these weapons harm human beings, destroy the environment, and violate international and God's law. Moreover, each day, the environment, each day, the program steals from all of our nation and the world by its left of much needed resources. The ongoing building and maintenance of the Trident Submarines and ballistic missiles to the war crime that can and should be investigated and prosecuted by judicial authorities at all levels. As citizens, we are required by international law to denounce and resist known crimes. And these are known crimes. In this time of pandemic, it is more vital than ever to acknowledge the theft of resources needed for human life that these weapons represent. I'd like to close by mentioning the cost of war trade-offs resources from the National Priorities Project, where you combine the figures for the weapons costs and the essential services that we lack as a result of these weapons, and they just keep growing. We've got to stop it. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. Now we're going to hear from Martha Hennessey, who's from the Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City. Thank you all for being here. I'm addressing the W762 warheads that have recently been deployed out to our oceans on the Trident. And it's a very deceptive practice. Someone asked the question in the chat room about the illusion of safety. And I think that this little sequence that I'm going to share with you how this weapons buildup is just bringing us closer and closer to the brink. These weapons are designed to be more usable. They are very compatible with the U.S. First Strike policy. Each one of them carries five kilotons worth of power, a third of what was used in Hiroshima. Funding for this kind of warhead was blocked in 2003 because military personnel had some concerns about a president getting it into his head to use these kinds of weapons. We are looking at a 2021 budget of about $30 billion for nuclear upgrades. And of course, Congress is very supportive of this. To just give you a little bit of history of the timeline of how this all came to be with the launching of this warhead around Christmas time of this past year. I'll mention August of 2016. There were war games called Global Thunder 17. And of course, the target was Iran. And this was the beginnings of really thinking about making a nuclear war possible. March of 2017, there was a congressional hearing and General Hyten from Stratcom was glowing about how these flexible options are a very healthy thing for us. In February of 2018, we had the Nuclear Poster Review come out. And it was in this report that the W762 warheads were recommended to be added to the arsenal. And we presented this particular report in the courtroom in our pre-trial hearings. This system is touted as being cheap, quick and simple. And it's based on the premise of assuming that the Russians had this escalate to deescalate protocol in place, which has not been confirmed from our military speaking to the Russians. In February of 2019, the first warhead is completed at Pantax Plant. And Representative Davis, at that point, asked General Hyten whether he had consulted with Russia about whether we need to have this kind of weapon system in response to what they're planning. And he said, no, we haven't done that. In August of 2019, the USS Tennessee came back to Kings Bay. It was on its 88th deterrent patrol. And it was sent there in preparation for taking on this warhead. In August of 2019, that same month, it came into the dry dock for maintenance and for refitting. And in August of August 19th, there was a congressional hearings and the House Democrats pretty much caved into the funding of this particular project, you know, despite saying that the nuclear threshold is increased and being decreased and the danger is increasing. And by September of 2019, the warheads were delivered to the Navy. These war these weapons are under the Navy's auspices. And in October of 2019, the USS Tennessee undocked and we were put on trial October 20th. And at that point in time, they were sending out this weapon. And on December 4th, under Secretary of Defense, rude, one of the wolves or the hirelings of our military at a breakfast talked about how we really needed this sea launched D5 missile with this particular modified warhead. And then in late 2019, we think around Christmas time, Christian gift to the world. It was deployed. It was sent out into the oceans. And we now have a situation where the question is, are we thinking of targeting Russia or the battlefield? And it looks to be Iran. It might be Trump's decision to target Iran. And of course, another one of our high priests of doomsday Admiral Haney of Stratcom. I don't know if he's still in charge. He talked about if it's necessary for us to respond, we will at any time, any place with the decision being ours. And so we have the four aging senior military officers who did speak to Newsweek recently saying all four were concerned. They were very reluctant that there is a Donald Trump factor involved, that there is something about this president and the new weapons that makes contemplating crossing the nuclear threshold a unique danger. Thank you. Thank you, Martha. Our next speaker is Carmen Trotta and he's with the St. Joe's Catholic Worker in New York City. I am currently, people may want to know that I am at my father's house. I haven't been at the Catholic Worker in a couple of months, I think. And I'm sort of sad about that, but it's good to be with my aging father, who is not really capable of getting around on his own. And so we meet today in the context of this sort of voluntary quarantine. And I think in certain ways it gives us time to think and I will only go through some of the thoughts that are sort of on my mind. The primary one is that the global pandemic obviously does not discriminate and really does call or harken to all of us for a reestablishment of international law. My thoughts also tend to are sort of brooding in terms of our nation's denial of our our culture is a sort of level for level for cancer. I remember Clara Grady at one point saying that free market capitalism is like cancer. It's unrestricted growth. And I wonder about the unrestricted nature of that, whether it comes out of ignorance, a sort of cultivated ignorance, cultivated by nationalist propaganda, cultivated by corporate media, and by the majority really of churches and parishes. If you go to church in New York City at St. Patrick's, you will see that the front of the church is lined by police cars and they pray routinely that we not be the victims of domestic terrorism. But they never think to pray for an end to American terrorism. That thought never seems to pass. I then also think of whether or not we have, people are so addicted to a sort of culture, do they then bear no responsibility? Our rank and file Americans simply complicit, complicit in the provocation of climate change, complicit in leading us to a nation which is, according to the Bulletin of American Scientists, 100 minutes to midnight meaning closer to nuclear war than we have ever been. Unaware of all the various conflicts that we are in, including the recent coups from Honduras to Venezuela. So my hope is that we can begin to face the truth and that in a certain way the community that is gathering here before you today, including the guests that we'll see momentarily, are an alternative to a re-embracing of, of an America that actually cares about the wider world. Thank you. Thank you, Carmen. Our next speaker is Claire Grady with the Ithaca Catholic Worker in New York. Hi, Norman. Hi to everyone. Glad we're all together here today. I live in Ithaca, New York where it is snowing on and off in May. And this is Cayuga land in Haudenosaunee territory. In this time of COVID, there is a lot being revealed. And I truly believe that what is revealed can be healed. Another way of saying that is maybe the truth shall set us free. I was reminded by a friend's words yesterday that the truth is worth repeating. So I'll be repeating a few truths as I understand them. Truth. Trident is the most deadly weapon on the planet. My government possesses 14 of them. Six of them are home ported at Kings Bay. Truth. The Pentagon's vision for 2020 this year, written about 20 years ago, states clearly and unabashedly that the division between the haves and haves not have nots on this planet will be greater than it ever was. And to ensure that the U.S. IE corporate monied interests come out on top, we must ensure global dominance, i.e. a military dominance that includes space. Truth. The trident is the ultimate logic of this very sick vision and system. Truth. The trident is the ultimate logic of the colonial patriarchal project. It feeds on the giant triplets. That Martin Luther King identified of racism, militarism and extreme materialism. Truth. According to the bulletin of atomic scientists, we are 100 seconds to nuclear war to midnight. We might be less than that since Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal just a few days ago. Truth. Even if nuclear weapons are never launched again, they have already taken the lives of millions and that they, and they kill every day. All mining, refining, testing and dumping that is required for nuclear weapons are done on indigenous land. Indigenous people have always been on the front lines of empire's deadly force and waste. Truth. The trillions of dollars that we spend to maintain nuclear weapons is money that is stolen. Stolen from the people and our precious planet. Truth. Nuclear weapons are the biggest bully stick on the planet. They are the necessary piece in maintaining, enforcing global dominance that functions for the express purpose of extraction, i.e. stealing of other people's land, labor and lives. Truth. Nuclear weapons are like a cocked gun held to the head of the planet. When you hold a gun to someone's head, even if you never pull the trigger, you are using that gun. We have choices. As a first world white woman of privilege, I choose to join my friends in standing in and continuing a very long tradition of sacramental prophetic practice to take up nonviolent symbolic disarmament of trident, a weapon that enforces the violent systems that are killing the planet. And her people every day, I choose to disarm and live. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Claire. And now we're going to hear from three guest speakers. All of them authors. And first one I believe he'll be on by telephone is the scholar activist and social critic, Dr. Cornell West. Can you hear me already? Yes. Well, let me just first say that it is more than a blessing to be here and to be able to salute my brothers and sisters, courageous, visionary, willing to put their bodies on the line for love and justice for each and every one of us. And what I wanted to do is just to give my offering in the form of a revolutionary prayer. And so if all of us are willing to bow, I will proceed. Dear God, we come with humble hearts and sense their souls in the midst of the decaying and declining American Empire drunk with greed, corruption, hatred, indifference, callousness. I want you to be with my precious comrades. Kings Bay, plow shares seven and all who support them to enable them to empower them to enhance their ability to do by wheel in the form of their sacramental prophetic tradition. That reminds us of what Martin Luther King, Jr. said when you said the choice is between non violence and non existence. To keep alive the memories of our dear sister Dorothy day. We know our dear sister Mars is directly related to our dear sister Dorothy day. I was blessed to see in New York, but all who build on their legacy, the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Fannie Lou Hamer, dear Lord, in such a grim and bleak time to know there are still some who decide to live in the world but not of it. To be true to thy kingdom intervening in such a moment of overwhelming darkness but to be a light, a light of love, a light of courage, a light of solidarity, that could look a financialized capitalism where Wall Street is in the driver's seat and say, no, we refuse to comply who can look in the face of a militarized nation state that internally could promote and enact the largest prison system in the history of the world, the mass incarceration regime and externally engaged in the dropping of drones on innocent peoples, keeping that 800 military units in place. The very militarism that Martin Luther King, Jr. Dorothy day and the others reminded us to keep track of to never allow it to become so routinized and normalized that we accept it as a given and then the commodification of our culture of every nook and cranny of everything and everybody being for sale that generates the spiritual emptiness and vacuity, the callousness, the indifference to the suffering of others that blinds us to the truth and the condition of truth is always to allow suffering to speak that blinds us to a quest for goodness. The thinking that in the face of evil we are impotent know what seems to be so feeble just like the cross can become a source of tremendous power just like resurrection Easter. Thank you Lord for the special ones who have decided in our midst to bear witness to go to jail to keep smiles on their face and love in their heart and justice in their souls. I ask this prayer in the name of Jesus. And for those who are anyway offended by Christian sensibility, I want to say in the name of God, we embrace all. But as Christians, Catholics, as Protestants, we connect the foot of the cross to the vision of these seven this day at this time. Amen. Thank you Cornell. Our next speaker is Medea Benjamin co-founder of Code Pink and activist for a very long time. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to be with you. I'm so moved by all of the talks that you gave and and so moved by your actions. I just was reading a CNN piece that came out that was about the US weapon sales that went to Yemen and the title of it was sold to an ally, the ally being Saudi Arabia and ended up in the hands of our enemies. And just to take that apart for a minute. It talked about how the poor, poor country of Yemen was littered with US tanks made by US workers that you could go into the marketplace where people could not afford enough food to feed themselves, but you could buy us made assault weapons. And that you could even buy Tomahawk missiles. So I just felt so disgusted by this, the scenes of these weapons made by the hands of US workers that are in a country where millions of people are starving because of our sale of these weapons to the Saudis. And you in the plow share seven, make it so clear to us that our enemies are not the Houthis who 99% of Americans have no idea who they are. Our enemies are not the Iranians. They're not the Venezuelans. They're not the Russians or the Chinese. Our enemies are this military industrial complex, but as you point out so well, it's also the ignorance and the apathy. But I want to take a moment to also look at who are our allies, because I think that sometimes becomes become so overwhelmed by this military industrial complex. And in looking at our allies, let's remind ourselves that tomorrow is Mother's Day, and that 140 years ago, a feminist Julia Ward Howe talked in the name of mothers all over the world, and said disarm, disarm, we will not allow our children to kill other mothers children. I think the majority of women around this world are our allies in this struggle. I also want to recall the beautiful ceasefire message that the UN Secretary General has put out saying that the folly of war has illustrated the fury of the virus has illustrated the folly of war and calls for the weapons to be silenced calls for an end to the air strikes. And this has had a tremendous repercussion around the world. Yes, there are nations who have signed up to it, but more important, I think is all the people who have been inspired by the UN Secretary General's call for a global ceasefire in the midst of this pandemic. And I think we can also recognize that our allies in the struggle are all the young people who are fighting for the Green New Deal, all the people that are pushing for Medicare for all, especially now, when we see how dysfunctional our, can't even call it a healthcare system is all the people who are fighting against the constant attacks on people of color every day that show the astounding racism that exists in our country and the mass incarceration that Professor Cornell West just spoke of our allies are the people who flock to the campaign of Bernie Sanders to say we need something totally different in this country. Our allies are the people of faith like yourselves and those who are part of the poor people's campaign that are gathering up people all over the country to say we must work together against militarism, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. Our allies are a small nation like Cuba that have shown us how a poor country can be such a beacon of hope by sending doctors and nurses and healthcare workers all over the world to fight coronavirus and showing how the US sends bombs, weapons, and the nation of Cuba sends doctors and nurses. So I want to end just by paying tribute to you of the plow share seven by showing us how beautiful it is to dedicate your life to saving lives to saving this planet to ending war and to know that the majority of people around the world are with you. Thank you. Thank you, Medea. And our next speaker is Jeremy Skahill, the journalist who co founded the intercept. Well, first I just I want to say that, you know, I just on a personal level, I, I feel humbled to be a participant in this discussion with some of the best people that I know. Carmen, Martha, Liz, Patrick, Claire, Mark, and of course Steve who is behind bars right now and all of us should hold up Steve for, for doing this tough time because of his principles and, you know, maybe there are some people who have joined this discussion today that have no familiarity with the plow shares movement or with the Catholic worker, you know, there was a recent piece making the rounds online about Catholic activism and there's a lot of debate about, you know, where is there a Catholic left. You're looking at people who have spent their entire lives rooted in a firm belief in what is called voluntary poverty. Who live their lives among the poor, the destitute, the forgotten the people that are now being disproportionately impacted by this pandemic and the response or lack of response from the state and the institutions in this country. But not people who are just about charity. They're not just working at soup kitchens or homeless shelters. In fact, they are people who believe that to truly walk the walk in this life with all of the dark forces at play all of the war and the poverty. It's not enough to just live among the poor and the destitute and the forgotten and enough to dedicate parts of your life to walking with those who are forgotten by society and providing food and shelter. Clothing, but to ask and confront a system that makes it so. Why, why do we have a right to do anything on this earth except fight against those who want to take from the earth. And to place others in positions of war or poverty or being targets of naturally occurring crises that are made infinitely worse by those in power. You know, there's a lot of talk about this election. And I think it's a stunning devastating commentary that the best that the institutional elite of the Democratic Party could come up with as a response to this authoritarian, this reckless grifter, who has sought to use the presidency for his personal benefit while threatening the annihilation of the world from his Twitter account that the best that the party could come up with that Barack Obama personally lobbied in secret behind the scenes to make the candidate is Joe Biden. A man whose entire career has been marked by legislating racism. Under the books by presiding over the smearing of Anita Anita Hill and facilitating the confirmation of a dangerous Clarence Thomas to be a Supreme Court justice. A man who has seldom met a war he didn't enthusiastically support a man who voted for the most disastrous and criminal war that the US has waged in the post 911 era that is the response to Donald Trump. A man who has two dozen allegations of sexual harassment misconduct assault and rape. The answer to him is to run a man who has eight women accusing him of misconduct and one woman accusing him of rape. We need to be able to talk honestly about what this institutional Democratic Party stands for. And also the best it offered in this campaign cycle Bernie Sanders supported sanctions against Iraq throughout the 1990s supported the so called no fly zone bombings was extremely hawkish in the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. That is the best that this party has to offer and it still has very little to say about actual war. Yes, Sanders talked to good game but we need to be honest here that the system in this country, the best it's capable of putting out is someone like Bernie Sanders. And yet Sanders throughout his career time and time again sided with the warmongers. When it mattered. Yeah, he stood up against the Iraq war, but he didn't stand with Barbara Lee when she stood up against the forever war. He stood up not to bash Bernie Sanders. I bring it up because the strength of the witness and the action of the people who are on this call the people that went on to that military base to non violently seek to disarm the most dangerous weapons systems humanity has ever produced is because what does resistance look like in the era of Trump. It's defined by Congress people fighting for scraps off the corporate table. It's defined by people who understand that all of these pieces of legislation, whatever scraps Nancy and Chuck get out of them. It doesn't mean a thing if we don't exist. We are at a greater threat of nuclear war now under this presidency, then we have been at any point in my lifetime. We see that passes as resistance. Democrats who support record breaking bloated military budgets. Democrats who give a man they call the most dangerous president in history, sweeping surveillance powers. What does it say? What does it say that even with Trump who is grifting out in open, who is assassinating foreign military commanders on the soil of third countries and threatening nuclear war on his Twitter feed. What does it say that Nancy Pelosi in the Democratic leadership vote to give him record military and surveillance powers. It says they don't believe their own rhetoric. It says that to them this is all a game to the folks who went and disarm the Trident system symbolically and also stopped business as usual even for a moment that these are the people. These are the people who see clearly the threat that we face today. And the final thing I'll say is that, you know, Carmen mentioned earlier that the virus doesn't discriminate and I think that's true we see now it's even coming from within the homes and workplaces of the president, the vice president, Jared and Ivanka's inner circle. But our failed state discriminates. And that's why you're seeing some states reporting 70% of the COVID deaths being African Americans. These communities in this country were treated as one nation, or one state they would they would have the third highest rate of COVID infections in this country. This is a failed state that we are living through right now and no amount of tinkering with it is going to solve any of these problems and, you know, I look at my own failures in life. I'm someone who believes in justice. And I reflect on the way that Carmen and Martha and Liz and Claire and Patrick and Mark and Steve Kelly, how they've chosen to live their lives and I can't imagine a more just path than the one that they have chosen. I am inspired by their courage, but more than anything, by the clarity of vision that all of them have proven throughout their lives to understand what is important to make of your life while you're here walking this earth. When it is important to draw a line in the sand and say no resoundingly. And so I thank all of them for knowing when to say no, when to walk the walk, and when the moment for action has arrived. Thank you, Jeremy. And now I think Claire has a sign to hold up. It is a sign that let people know the website address where people can go for more information so Claire, as I understand it this point, you're going to hold up the sign on the screen. For the website Kings Bay plowshare 7.org for that web page Kings Bay plowshare 7.org. And as we're coming near the end of the hour. I want to make sure and get a few announcements in and then we have a question that has come in and maybe there'll be another one as well. That we could go a little over time in terms of answering the questions but want to make sure and get these announcements in this important timelines and events coming up that the people should know the sentencing dates are May 28 and May 29 the Thursday and Friday. It's assumed to be done remotely by video but we don't know that yet. The defendants may or may not be called to court in Brunswick, Georgia. Also it's in Brunswick, Georgia as it happened that Ahmed Arbery was jogging just outside the town when he was chased down shot and killed by as we understand it to white supremacists. And it's the strong position of the defendants, we must demand justice. Overwhelming public pressure, Gregory and Travis McMichael have been arrested but the point being that our work isn't done there's a third suspect William Brian has not yet as it have now been arrested. We must bring hate crime charges against the two men in all parts of the trial process should be moved outside of Glen County in this case, due to the suspects deep ties to the community and its leadership I guess we'd say so called leadership for details and the petition and to join what's being called the safe distance run go to I hashtag run with mod and I assume that's on on Twitter for actions this weekend and a reminder to explore the website and you can get involved. It's the Kings Bay plowshares seven dot org website, a couple of more items to mention. One is about joining what's known as I can the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons which is a, it's a coalition of NGOs non governmental organizations promoting implementation of the UN's nuclear weapon ban treaty. We have 36 countries that have ratified the treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons, and that's getting close to the 50 countries ratifying that it would take and will take to make it international law. Also, I mentioned that there are campaigns to divest pension fund very important. You join that in your city your state your union university to divest from nuclear weapons and redirect the funds for human needs especially very glaringly needed now during this coven 19 emergency. New York City divested at $62 billion pension fund from all nuclear weapons companies so it can be done. Lastly in the announcements you're invited next Saturday so that Saturday makes May 16 at 12 noon Eastern time, the Kings Bay plowshares defendants will have their last zoom YouTube gathering before their sentencing in two weeks. So I think at this point, we're going to go to one to the questions that have come in and you have spoken today don't hesitate to jump in with an answer question is how to mobilize support for the upcoming sentencing, and also who are the attorneys representing the defendants. Somebody want to respond to that. The attorneys are Matthew delisio bill quickly. Stephanie and me. Joe Cosgrove with support from Vern Walker, and perhaps I'm overlooking others names. We ask for your prayers as part of the effort. Mark here. So we're sort of in discussions with the court about how sentencing is going to happen. Many of us have have expressed that we have no intention or desire to travel to Georgia under current conditions. Georgia, as everybody may know is one of the one of the states that has really hastily reopened. You know, I mean, according to a I understand the science. They're therefore due for another spike in infections and deaths and it probably becoming. I would say probably by the end of May into June so I for one have no intention of traveling there. We've been in negotiations with the court about the possibility of doing sentencing by video conference. And the tentative word is that that that that can happen. The details of that are are being worked out. But I just, I meant in my earlier comments I kind of rambled on a bit but I was I was going to mention the absurdity of this, you know, in other words, it's not safe. It's not safe for us to be in a courtroom to be sentenced, but somehow it's, it's okay to be sentenced by video conference to federal prison. In fact, the prosecution has denied our request are actually they're going to argue against any request for alternatives alternatives to prison like home confinement and stuff like that. So it really it goes right back to the, to the heart of this issue from our perspective how you know, you know, we're, we're, it's kind of a blessing for us in many ways to be caught up in the same system that victimizes the people that we walk with every day. It's kind of a rare experience, particularly for a white male. You know, to be to be thrown into that bin, you know. And so, you know, given who we are and where we're coming from I think it's a, you know, we consider it in many ways a blessing to be able to see the world from that perspective, but it's the whole. This is just a sign of the, of the overall attitude towards prisoners in this country. I mean, their prison now is a place where people are dying. In many cases for nonviolent, you know, convictions and stuff, because the, because they're not being released. And so we're going to be sentenced. Possibly at the end of this month, possibly by a video and, you know, quite probably to federal prison. We don't know if that if the execution of a sentence would to prison would be delayed. We don't know. It's all we're in the dark about it. Maybe others want to chime in on that as well. Thanks. I didn't want to say that. Can everybody hear me okay, Patrick. Liz, Liz McGallister's husband Philip the late Philip arrogant spent 11 years of his life incarcerated for witnessing against nuclear weapons and when he was on 60 minutes and he was being questioned he said it was a small price to pay to go to prison for resisting nuclear weapons. And I asked him one time, how come he kept going back to the Pentagon and getting arrested because there was even a time when Phil and Liz got arrested together at the Pentagon and the Washington Post wrote nothing about it. And Phil said, we go to the Pentagon because we're their only access to the truth. And when Phil was asked by a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel, how long he and Liz had been separated by jail and prison. He told him about half their marriage and he said, we don't want to appear heroic. The sacrifices which people make for war every day are far more grievous than what we have done. All of us recognize Phil as a mentor and his courage inspires us as we go forward to sentencing. I, I want to chime in with two things. One, let's we forget Jason Clark who is the local lawyer maybe Jason is one of the lawyers that came forward on his own from Brunswick, who not only embraced us as a lawyer but as a Catholic who resonated with our Sacramento prophetic work. But his reputation stood on its own within the jail where I was in Glen County, the women who lived on the receiving end of that kind of justice, all spoke of Jason Clark and his wife Susan as being their best advocates always that it was a pro bono work if they didn't have any money and that he always helped them and love their babies as well as them. So Jason, I want to lift up Jason and Susan and their children and their little baby Randall who's still meeting our prayers. But also there are several people on this thread who are working diligently as we are to get prisoners out of prison now. COVID plus prison equal death and we know that but even more so so there's many local campaigns statewide campaigns and national campaigns and you simply need to Google it and there's so many ways that you can make a difference by making calls by supporting families, so on but I want to say for myself that taking up this work of holding myself accountable for the big crimes of killing and stealing on this big scale that's that's what I call crime. As I got older and and specifically as I was experiencing prison on the receiving end of it or inside the cell block. I realized wow everybody I've ever been in prison with is on the receiving end of that crime, and that when we hold ourselves accountable for the big crime will stop scapegoating those who we call criminals who are living right now 2.3 million US people in prison. And growing. So that's a really necessary complement to this conversation of setting prisoners free as a matter of justice as a matter of right relationship as a matter of reframing. Who is what is crime, and what is criminal and who are the criminals. Thank you. And the last question we had that did come in and really follows on with with that and it is a question about just how to push for compassionate release of people who are incarcerated and then the broader question of de-incarcerating if that's a word de-incarcerating the society. I wonder if somebody wants to address that. Prisons and jails are death traps and unfortunately governors all over the country where we have 2.3 million people under lock and key are basically refusing to let people out of these prisons and let this allowing the virus to spread. The vast majority of people in prison are there for nonviolent reasons. It would be very easy to reduce the prison populations. Never to a point where it would be safe to be in prison but where it would be basic humanity. It's very very clear when Jesus speaks about the outcast who they are. These people in prison are being left to die at the prison in North Carolina where I was expecting where I'm still expecting to be designated but near prison where Bernie Madoff is. The sixth death was of a man who was in on a marijuana distribution charge 73 years old with a pre-existing medical condition. This is happening all over. It's an absolute national shame and not getting much attention. Thank you. And I do want to mention that we're going glad to be going a few minutes over time and Cornel West has some words to say here from the telephone. Well, again, I'm just fired up by our coming together. I mean this kind of solidarity of such genuine love and service and willingness to sacrifice and for the seven who will be at the center of my own prayers and thoughts and and efforts to in some way be true to what you're being true to. I want to accent something my dear brother Jeremy said though in terms of the bipartisan support of the militarism internal external the inability of a decaying empire to generate any kind of prophetic or genuinely progressive response and even I say that I love my dear brother Bernie he certainly has been part too much of a consensus when it comes to militarism abroad. Or even sometimes we're voting for that crime bill when it comes to militarism internal. I think he was the best and that's why so many of us went with our dear brother. But Jeremy escape. But Jeremy's point is one in which it shows the ways in which the narrow ideological battles and the narrow political labels take us away from what it means to engage in genuine radical analysis genuine radical vision genuine radical calling of vocation and most importantly, radical love connected to radical struggle for freedom and justice. And the degree to which it's so rare. In so many ways, the high visibility of the kind of witness that our brothers and sisters here in acting is one in which I think all of us will acknowledge that it has to be made much more palpable much more available, given the corporate media, given the narrowness of our institutions and education, religion, and politics. So I leave on a high note. I leave on a note of revolutionary joy and revolutionary energy and revolutionary love. And for me again as a Christian and as so much to do with with the cross and what it means to to incarnate what you really are committed to in body, heart, soul, mind, and body of community and body of various folk coming together to struggle.