 And also I would add to several places in this world where American violence has left dead and maimed to whom she has ministered and for whom she has cried out. Cathy. Well thank you Stephen very much for bringing us together and I want to start with a quote from 2014 the World Day of Peace when Pope Francis says our world is marked by a globalization of indifference which makes us slowly inured to the suffering of others and closed in on ourselves. Mark and Luz you and your community have been the inverse of what the Pope was worried about. You have steadily opened up to the needs of others. You literally opened your doors year in and year out. You constantly care when people suffer. You are the people always trying to make a difference. And I was very happy also to think of you when I read an essay Mary Yellenick circulated by a woman named Robin Kimmerer and Robin was talking about an anthropologist who encountered a hunter in the Brazilian rainforest and the hunter had had a very successful expedition. Came home with more meat than he and his family could possibly consume and so instead of putting some away for a perhaps leaner time the hunter threw a massive feast and every morsel was consumed. So the anthropologist why did you eat at all? Why didn't you save something? And the hunter immediately said I stored my meat in my neighbor's belly. I store my meat in my neighbor's belly. Today is Daniel Ellsberg's birthday and in a way he has stored his wisdom in our hearts and minds for a long time but he's very alarmed and he has said we're on the Titanic. We are going full steam ahead in the darkness and it says though you know with the metaphor of the Trident the iceberg under the water is the Trident nuclear missile and now Ellsberg's alerting us that the iceberg if you will under the ground is the new round of nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missiles being installed in the missile silos in the Midwest in the belly of the Midwest. We're storing our grotesque and hideous nuclear fire power so yes it seems in some ways like the doors are closing like the minutes are ticking. And Mark we know that in some days a door is going to close behind you and we pledge we will do our best to listen where the sound of those doors closing that's our job as support we'll do our best to try to sense the heaviness of loneliness and desperation in the air that you'll be breathing but you've given us reason both of you again and again to really believe that when that door closes behind you Mark you will not close in on yourself. Both of you are unlikely to close down and so we thank you really from the Departs Corps for storing your resources in your neighbor's bellies and in ours. Thank you. Thank you Kathy. Beth Brockman is a lover of Haiku who lives in North Carolina. She's been a part of the Kings Bay plowshare 7 support team for three years but I can only introduce her properly by Haiku. Her love of Haiku lets bright Beth Brockman pursue stillables a few. Beth? Thank you so much Stephen. I knew that I knew you would come for it with a Haiku for me. You owe me. I know I know I know. So for the last couple of weeks actually I've been mulling over what gives me hope and it's actually felt a little bit like a spiritual practice. Today as I was driving home from New York City I heard some interesting research on the radio. It was out of the University of Virginia and it was about social support. They found in their research that participants accompanied by a friend estimated a hill to be less deep when compared to participants who are alone. And similarly participants who thought of a close friend during an imagery task saw the hill is less deep than participants who thought of just a neutral person or someone they disliked. And the study defined a close friend as someone who has seen you at your best and at your worst. So there are a lot of friends who have seen me at my best or at least trying to be my best but only a handful have seen me at my worst and I count Mark and Louis Coville in the handful of people who have certainly seen me at my worst and I hope at my best. In May 2009 Mark and I were part of a Catholic Worker Peace team that traveled to Egypt, Palestine, and Israel several months after Operation Castlet, a 22-day assault on Gaza by Israel. And yes I did have one of my worst moments on that trip. I'm not going to share that. There's another moment that stands out to me that's actually related to this University of Virginia research. We went to the Dehesha refugee camp just south of Bethlehem and we spoke to some refugees there. When we asked them what we could do to help them and other Palestinians, one man replied go home and get to know, really know your neighbors. I've thought a lot about that statement over the years. The powers and the principalities would not have us know one another. Empires seeks to separate us, divide us from one another to make us believe that we're not connected, that we don't belong to one another. And certainly we know that our friends that are in prison now, Steve, Carmen, Martha, Patrick, and Claire are certainly very separated from us. Standing in the midst of empire alone looking up the hill, it certainly looks steep. It's 100 seconds to midnight on the doomsday clock. Violence against Asians increased 150% in 2020. So far this year, 12 trans and gender non-conforming people have been killed. The Atlantic right whale, which breed off the coast of Georgia and Florida, not far from the Kings Bay Naval base, are close to extinction with only 400 remaining. Yes, the hill seems very, very steep. But when I think of Mark and Luz and I think of Steve and Liz and Martha and Claire and Patrick and Carmen standing not only next to one another, but to us helping us to remember that we're connected to one another, that we belong to one another. If we can take the time to develop close relationships, to bear with one another and be with one another at our best and our worst, getting to know our neighbors, taking part in mutual aid efforts, direct action planting gardens, then the hill up ahead doesn't seem so steep. And that gives me hope. Thank you. Thank you so much, Beth. Jessica Stewart is a Catholic mother of five who believes that a just and peaceful world is possible. She believes seriously that the abolition of jails and prisons, the end of the military industrial complex, and the dismantling of colonialism and white supremacy is possible and urgent. Jessica. Thank you, Steve. And thank you to everyone for having me. I'm speaking from the unceded territory of the Wabanaki Confederacy. I recognize and honor the current tribes who comprise the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Penobscot Passamaquoddy, Malacete, and Micmac peoples who have stewarded this land throughout the generations. I respect the traditional values of these tribes and affirm their inherent sovereignty in this territory. I support their efforts for land and water protection and restoration and cultural healing, recovery, and thriving. I would like to begin by reading a short passage from The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen that I think characterizes the spirit of this action and of Mark's presence in our world. So I'll begin here. Humanity already knows everything that it needs to know to save itself without resorting to murder, beginning with what the most sympathetic Federico Garcia Lorca assassinated by the Spanish fascists once said. I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not allowed to enjoy even the nothing they have in peace. An empathetic principle that if followed with action, whether it is doing something or doing nothing, depending on the dialectical need of a situation, will never lead you in the wrong direction. Even if that direction is death, since so many people are committed to the exact opposite principle, to side with those who already have something and want everything. And if you are sane, you would side with them too. But revolution is always an act of insanity because revolution is not a revolution unless it is committed to the impossible. Although if this is too depressing and daunting, one needs to remember that only a few thousand years ago, it was beyond the human imagination that one could travel around the world in a day. An amazing feat that has brought the world together so that today, nowhere in the world is beyond the reach of intercontinental ballistic missiles, tourist inventors and missionaries, meaning that the infinite dialectic still swings back and forth between the impossible and the possible, between salvation and annihilation, between non-violence and violence, between our capacity to save ourselves and destroy ourselves. And the only real mystery is which part of us, our humanity or inhumanity, will triumph in the human species perpetual game of Russian roulette with itself. And you, yourself, human and inhuman, are demented enough to believe that if the human species does not self-destruct an if that should be capitalized, it is so big that one day the nobodies of the world with nothing to lose will finally have had enough of not having enough and realize they have more in common with the nobodies on the other side of the world or just the nearest border than they do with the somebodies of their own kind who care nothing about them. And when these nobodies with nothing finally do unite, stand up, take to the streets and claim their voices and their power, the only thing somebodies with nothing must do is nothing, realizing that their ideological state apparatus cannot stop all these people. Mart and the rest of the Kings Bay plow shares are committed to that empathetic principle of Lorca's point to the point of imprisonment and bodily risk, to the point of entering a shoot to kill zone. They and I hope all of us are committed to living Lorca's principle and swinging the dialectic toward salvation and away from annihilation, towards nonviolence and away from violence and toward the impossible, to shift the impossible to the possible, the urgent and the imperative to be possible attarians. Mark said such an amazing example of how to do this, how to live that principle with humility, grace, and unswerving commitment to be a humble, graceful possible attarian, to take the work seriously, but himself lightly. Sometimes I do in the morning, Zoom Lectio with Mark and a few others, and he often comes on while driving a food delivery or preparing a breakfast for a crowd, and he can be countered on to share some of the most profound insights about the gospel, about the gospels and how to live courageously and faithfully and strive for the beloved community from inside his car or his kitchen while engaged in the works of hospitality and mercy, and always with a humble smile and a good nature demeanor. He truly lives the path of the nonviolent incarnation of the beloved community, and it's truly an example that's so inspiring to me, and I remain inspired by the witness at King's Bay because the action so eloquently sought to address the triplets of militarism, racism, and economic justice. For many people of my generation, older millennials, late generation X, we came into our activism at a time when our work felt very siloed. We worked for a piece in an inter-nuclear weapons with a certain group of people, and we worked for an inter-climate change with another group of people, and we worked for civil rights with yet another one. Not to say that there weren't people in communities engaged in a more holistic version, and I wouldn't want to erase that work. Many indigenous communities and others, you know, were seeing the whole picture all along, but that often wasn't the, maybe the experience that I was always having, but not long before the King's Bay plow shares, Claire Grady and I had a conversation in which we talked about how it felt at the moment was here to demand of ourselves that we bring the threads of what Martin Luther King identified as the triplets of racism, militarism, and exploitation together, that we work to end our, that we bring these pieces together, that if colonialism is the action that flows from a belief in the inherent right of white people to steal and possess other lands and enact the violence of these lands, enact violence against people of those lands, nuclear weapons are the ultimate expression of that politics of death. And for those of us who are, such as myself and Mark, who are white Catholics, we have the particular obligation to reckon with our church's participation in this racist culture of death. And ideally our actions from large gestures, such as plow shares actions to small daily activities, must reflect the fullness of understanding about what is demanded of us to embrace a culture of life. Mark and the rest of the seven exemplify how to counter this politics of death and the life-giving and life-affirming actions that make up their everyday lives. Mark and the rest of the seven and their supporters, including us hopefully, have worked tirelessly to explain their action through word and symbol and ways that reflect this understanding about the triplets of militarism, racism, and white supremacy. For this I am profoundly grateful and I invite all of us to continue the work of grounding our non-violence in a commitment to dismantling colonialism, white supremacy, and the triplets. In closing, I want to just lift up Mark and Luz and their whole family as they prepare to be separated by incarceration. We are so, so grateful for you both. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Jessica, especially for your opening reminder that every one of us should recall whose land it is we are all each of us standing on. Robert Randall is a lifelong Christian pacifist, including war tax regression, living in what seems like the current ground zero for Martin Luther King's triplets, Brunswick, Georgia, where he is part of the Beyond Trident campaign. Robert, you're muted, Robert. There you go. Yeah, the host muted me after I had unmuted myself. Shame on our host. What gives me hope? When I looked at the schedule and saw that I was scheduled to speak right after the three awesome women who just preceded me, I lost all hope indeed, but I'm going to continue anyway by quoting another woman. And this is the same quote that I used a year and a half ago at the Festival of Hope that we had here in Brunswick during y'all's trial, Mark. It's a quote from Greta Thunberg and it goes, yes, we do need hope. Of course we do. But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, then hope is everywhere. And it's so for me, it's action. Your action and my action that gives me hope. And I want to remember that your action was not simply the act of going onto the base down at King's Bay, but it is the ongoing action that has continued since then through the trial, the court proceedings, the sentencing, and now into prison. And all of that action as part of the plow shares plus the rest of the action that you do, that others have already so eloquently spoken to, is what gives us hope. The second question we were asked to address is what can we do to continue the seeds of that action? And that question reminds me of the parable of the sower because of the idea of seeds. And I find it strange that the sower doesn't seem to be very careful about where it is that she is throwing all of those seeds. They're just flying out there and landing hither and yon and some of them grow up and others of them don't grow up. Yet they all start with the same kernel within the seed, the same possibility of a thriving plant. So it seems that if we sow our seeds, that is if we act wherever and whenever we are without making excuses about where that might be, then we may or may not not always see the success that we have predefined for those seeds, but we will at the very least be spreading hope everywhere. Now later on, Teresa is going to share with all of you about how this sowing is going on here in coastal Georgia, continuing the hope of the actions of the Kings Bay plow share seven. And one part of what Teresa is going to share is a piece of our work, which actually in my thinking moves us beyond hope. And I would like to close by kind of making that appeal that we actually try to move beyond hope. What I'd like to suggest is that we actually embrace and build upon the successes of the entry into force of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. That perhaps we should stop focusing just on hope as if the abolition of nuclear weapons is some far off dream. And instead we should act into its imminent inevitability, which is shown to us in that treaty. And perhaps if we do that, if we redefine our paradigm, it will move us from hope to reality. Thank you. We're very grateful, Robert. Well, since the COVID epidemic, that remarkable musical organization known as the filthy rotten system has been narrowed down to Anthony Dunovan and Bud Prudney, but they continue to stand and play for peace and justice whenever and wherever the need be. Gentlemen. It's an honor, somewhat bittersweet to be here tonight, but blessings, Mark and Rose. We can't hear you. You need to fix your sound. Try it again. It's an honor to be here, Mark and Rose. We love you. And we're going to send this song out to all of you. Anthony wrote this song and it's the first time we've ever played it in public. I just just because I don't want to ruin anything to be ruined. We still can't really hear you. Can you try one more time? Can you hear me now? Yes, that's better. Well, okay, so we just need to speak louder, huh? Yes, that would be good. Thank you. We have no control of the biome that we can see. All right. Well, thank you. Liz and Mark, we love you. And as Bud was just saying, couldn't be heard, this is a song written seven years ago. I wrote it seven years ago after, well, we had another police murder down at Ferguson. So this is what it was written, but we thought today you'd be apropos as well. And as Jessica mentioned, we are very, have much gratitude that the Kings Bay plowshares in Newmark brought racism clearly into this action with the banner of Martin Luther King, but citing racism as being integral to the militarism and these nuclear weapons. So this is a song about racism. I hope you can hear it. Justice is rising. Justice is rising. Justice is rising. Hands up against the wall, spread your legs, shut up enough out of you. Hands up against the wall, spread your legs, shut up enough out of you. Hold over the side of the road for no clear reason. What you're doing tonight, I.D. Watch and follow down the store aisle for what's in their minds, not yours. Arrested, hung, shot to death, choked to death, without accountability, for conviction. Justice is rising. Hands up against the wall, spread your legs, shut up enough out of you. Justice is rising. Hands up against the wall, spread your legs, shut up enough out of you. Justice is rising. Many got bonuses that year snorting cocaine without fear in those Wall Street rooms. A sea of wide faces free and incorporated. But three strikes and you're out in prison. A sea of young black and brown souls incarcerated, incarcerated. Justice is rising. Hands up against the wall, spread your legs, shut up enough out of you. Justice is rising. Hands up against the wall, spread your legs, shut up enough out of you. Justice is rising. That woman falling asleep is not a derelict or unwelfare. She's a dedicated single mom working two or three jobs at minimum wage. The powers to be saved, life's never been fair, but our bill of rights demand. Justice. Justice. The authority is called for peace and order, but without justice for all, our Constitution says. Justice is rising. Residents dead bodies off the battlefields, from the revolution to Antietam, Germany, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East and here in our streets. Justice is rising. Spread my arms, standing tall, right next to you. And together, spread my arms, stand with justice. We're breathing together. What's that I see from the mountaintop? Oh Lord, together. Justice is rising. What's that I see up there from the mountains? Justice is rising. Thank you brother Mark and all your Kings Bay plowshares, seven in your families for showing us and sacrificing so that justice to get rising. Thank you. Thank you. Without music, there will be no revolution. No question. So now we're going to have a series of updates from representatives of several campaigns which share with the Kings Bay plowshares, seven that passion to bring an end to militarism in this country and throughout the world. Begin with Ken Jones of reject Raytheon. Ken is a retired teacher educator, member of veterans for peace and Christian peacemaker teams and a longtime anti-war activist. Ken. I had to unmute myself. Hi everybody and hi especially to you Mark and Luz and so much love to you all. You know we'll have you in our heart the whole time you're away Mark. Well it's my privilege to be able to share with you an action of hope as Robert was talking about. About five months ago we here in our little town of Asheville, North Carolina discovered that for a year and a half before that our community city council chamber of commerce commissioners in the county had been planning to bring Pratt and Whitney which is a division of Raytheon here to Asheville to open a huge plant, a million point two square foot plant to build engines for commercial and military planes and the military planes include the F-35s that are being used so much by Israel and other countries around the world, F-15s, F-16s, lots of war machines. So the hopeful thing is that almost immediately a community of resistance sprung up against the placement of this plant here against Pratt and Whitney and it included young people from Sunrise, from DSA, from PSL and some old people from Veterans for Peace and so we came together as we protested and found each other and decided to create this organization that we call Reject Raytheon and for the past five months we have been doing all kinds of fierce work I mean we're little but we're rising and we're passionate there's about 20 people on our core team and when we show up in the streets which we have been about every other week we get 30 to 40 people show up with us with signs we do banner drops from bridges we've done dynes in the city square here we've we came together to celebrate the treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons and the international day to stop the war in Yemen we've shown up at the site of bridge construction which is underway across the French Broad River for the plant we showed up at the offices of Biltmore Farms which donated this land hundred acres of land to this plant this Raytheon plant and at the chamber of commerce and at the county commissioner's office they gave they voted to give 27 million dollar tax incentive to Pratt and Whitney here so the good news is that we have a bunch of people who are not daunted by having to confront you know this international multinational war machine Raytheon and a lot of our work has been spent in trying to educate the public about what Raytheon is what Pratt and Whitney is and connect it to the the greater evil happening in the world not only wars but arms trade arms sales and nuclear weaponry and so forth so we have an ardent group we have websites that i steer you to reject Raytheonavl.com we have facebook twitter and instagram and you know we do this in the spirit of hope just like kingsbay plowshares did too and mark if you were here i know you'd be part of us so god bless y'all thanks very much uh Jackie Allen Duceau of no new tritids is a plowshares activist and co-founder of the Hartford Catholic Worker Jackie thanks everybody it's great to be here and especially to be able to speak to mark and lose before the court descends upon them i hope that you feel connected and loved by all of us in your beloved community and we are so grateful for your witness and what you've done what you do with your everyday lives and lose what you'll be doing for mark while he's away and mark what you'll be doing to finish the witness that you began three years ago i want to talk to folks about the no new trident campaign that's going on here i'm blessed to live two blocks from the Thames River on land that the Pequot and Mohegan and Narragansett people lived on and raised their children on and took very good care of until we sort of occupied their space and committed incredible genocide right at the mouth of the Thames River where it pours into the Long Island Sound is an absolutely beautiful part of the world right now it's a super fun site thanks to the navy the u.s navy electric boat shipyard and Pfizer currently they're spending billions of our tax dollars and none of it is going towards cleaning up the super fun site there are plans for the columbia class of submarines and it involves production of 12 boats and a projected cost presently estimated at 103 to 109 billion dollars you know how do we even conceive of that incredible amount of money each sub will carry 16 missile tubes eight fewer than the current Ohio class trident but will also have updated propulsion and stealth capabilities which will magnify their threat they will initially carry the existing trident trident 2d5 missile but designs for both a new missile and a new warheader underway more billions initial construction has already begun at new port news shipbuilding in virginia with final assembly to take place at electric boat in grottin connecticut beginning beginning this year ahead of schedule a new facility for that exclusive purpose is now being built in the grottin shipyard and it literally the cranes and construction are going on 24 hours a day around the clock it's clear that the new weapons would continue the crime of trident against both humanity and the environment the no new tridents campaign proposes to undertake programs of public education lobbying and nonviolent civil disobedience calling for the immediate abandonment of the columbia submarine and the diversion of sun's funds set aside for its construction to policies which will realize the rights of all the world's people to health care housing education income equity and racial justice and support of the call to celebrate january 22 the day that the united nations treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons entered into force we organized telephone actions directed at electric boat in grottin to jam the lines with demands to end the columbia program this past friday we had good friday service via zoom that we normally do at the us subbase but we'll be continuing to do actions both at the subbase and at the engineering department on the new london side of the river the north walk catholic worker will be primary organizers for this around the new port news shipyard and the catholic worker will coordinate the witness at electric boat i just wanted to say that um all of the things of empire come to fruition in this weapon come to the racism the environmental degradation the poverty the violence all of those things but we know as members of the beloved community that the plowshares witness and the work that we do to stop these horrible weapons is where empire comes to an end and the beloved community begins sisterhood and brotherhood resistance and hope so i'm very grateful mark and loose i hope that we have a chance before you have to turn yourself in to have some beers and go fishing together and enjoy our beloved community a little bit and our prayers of our community are with your community every day god bless you many thanks jackie so teresa grady will be speaking uh about the campaigns of beyond trident uh risa is sister of mark's co-defendant player grady who is now in prison i actually got a letter from claire today she was documenting the wildlife she could see from her so window starlings and deer and a particularly rotund squirrel she hopes to be out there walking around herself shortly anyway uh teresa has been steeped in the plowshares movements since she was 15 unfortunately the most colorful facts of teresa's history can simply not be shared in a public forum teresa oh um thank you steve and uh yeah i'm uh yeah um i'm just not used to doing this kind of thing on zoom so forgive me if i'm a little uh slow and not as uh synced as everyone else um we began the the beyond trident group immediately after um the kingsbay plow share seven trial in october of 2019 building on the already built relationships with it with the people of brunswick which is where the federal courthouse is sits that tried the kingsbay plow share seven um and what came out of that was an art show that we did where we had liz and jackies and brian cavernas and a lot of people's artwork that was shown during the trial and then we just kept it up as a way of engaging the community that was already riled up about what happened down in kingsbay and now in their in their town with the courthouse and the whole court trial scene so we maintained that art show for november and december of 2019 and by january and february uh four of us were were gathering together to say we want to start a campaign uh that brought together not just four of us though many of us came together and if i can find my notes where did that go um we came together folks from the nuclear watch south uh glenn carol joann well joann um joann it's it's skipping my mind anyway steel thank you joann steel um a bunch of other people and i'm sorry i'm forgetting names i just had my covet shot the second one and i'm really spacey um the we gathered together in january and february we created a definition of who we were as beyond trident campaign and that we've decided that we were dedicated to abolishing nuclear power and weapons through addressing racism militarism and ecocide and folks from camden county we engaged with to be a part of this process of uh of creating this uh idea of this campaign we uh wanted to maintain an anti-nuclear weapons presence in south coastal georgia i think it was kathy kelly or maybe it was martha one of the two of you sent on an email uh and it could have been used steven cobeza as well about how highly uh that georgia holds some of the greatest number of contracts with the pentagon compared to all the other states in the country now i don't know i don't know if that's really true but that was some article that was sent out and it really felt that way as i've uh grown up in the in the um clausher's movement and benet many many many many trials it was very clear that there was a need to uh cultivate the the soil down in georgia um so we we are maintaining the relationships with one another we're wanting to link the opposition to nuclear weapons to issues of racism extreme materialism ecocide and and the environment the environmental degradation uh then the pandemic came in people got sick some folks had to get jobs and things kind of rearranged but um we continued to meet and then uh we came with the news of amad arbery being murdered in uh just 10 minutes south of the house and that broke open the public space to more public discourse to kind of look at what's going on here and it fell right into the the framework of what we were already working on to want to bring links between these nuclear weapons down at kingsbay and what's going on and with respect to poverty and racism uh in brunswick and in south coastal georgia um so we continued to do uh coalition building and in particular out of the amad arbery uh murder wanting to try to connect the dots and so um we established uh connecting the dot zoom calls uh to build interracial analysis of the triplets um and so we did that in probably june june or july and we continue to look forward into the future of having more of those uh just due to people's health and a lot of reconfiguring we've we've been uh just plugging along but but it feels good and i guess the the where it came to fruition was that in um january we held the first ever majority people of color anti-nuclear event at the kingsbay naval base connecting militarism racism and the plight of the north rite wales as part of the global observance of the entry into force of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons so we're currently trying to create a second roundtable discussion on the effects of that treaty on poor people and people of color in coastal georgia by identifying leaders in those communities and which we've already done uh which we're in great relation with and providing them with historical and and background materials uh for such a discussion um the next step is to follow up with those who have received these packets so we've been doing a lot of work around racism but trying to bring the link in with uh with these nuclear weapons and how how they are excellent just i think we're going hand and fist as everyone here knows so i almost feel like i'm i don't know but i guess this is a larger group of people that are listening so um i kind of think if there's anything else robert can you plug me in if i'm i'm missing something we've done a lot of support work for kmet p seven and they're supporters when they've come down to town um we've participated with the iran with mod and the 223 foundation um and i guess i just want to put a plug into um it is uh oh lord say this i'm so sorry my brain is just not working here um glenn carol and the um nuclear watch south who's our fiscal sponsor as well as um hermene glass who's part of the suit well she is heading of the susie king taylor women's center and ecological ecology institute as well as the coastal black women's ocean memory and conservation jamboree and that group of women joined us when we went down to the uh to the base in january um and it was just it was a completely new uh experience as far as protesting and being present uh in the face of these weapons and i just want to say it was good i'm i'm sorry guys i'm not very i think to apologize for drisa that's a remarkable history of work going on down there thank you so much for that thank you Steve um we'll hear now from lettard our iger from ground zero lettard is a retired public health professional works to abolish the greatest public health threat nuclear weapons he serves as communications coordinator for the ground zero center for nonviolent action Leonard thank you steven nice to be with you all um before i begin i just want to mention that two hours drive south of here our good friend uh father steve kelly is enjoying the hospitality of the federal detention center c-tac and uh that is preliminary hearing uh by his attorney blake cremer since of course steve couldn't appear in person and that's one of the things that he is very firm about it's being able to face his accuser in person um so ground zero center is of course in doing all we can to support steve while he's out here so you can rest assured he's in in good hands um briefly ground zero has been doing a lot over the past 12 months we're always trying to find new ways to resist trident and engage the public and people on naval base kids at banger uh the trident base here and over the past 12 months a couple of major billboard campaigns um this last time in january um around puget sound not just in seattle to announce the new treaty um in addition we did public service announcements a number of times throughout the year in the newspaper of record that serves the naval base the banger trident base again trying to get directly to the people on base in addition to our leafletting and also regular bantering over major freeways in the area and then there's much more with our other communications but again our major effort is trying to engage the public and people on the base trying to work throughout the area and engage people around puget sound to understand the threat that trident poses and what we can do about it so it's it's there's a lot going on that being said the most recent issue that's come up and I just wanted to briefly touch on that affects us all and is never really discussed in the press and public or in the halls of congress is the special relationship between the us and the uk that has existed since 1958 when the two countries signed their mutual defense agreement which was specifically focusing on their their nuclear relationship and the ability to share information technology and and what if we look at it today is pretty much everything related to trident and just briefly I'll mention that we already know that the us supplies the trident missiles to the uk but what is really not commonly known is that the warheads for all intents and appearances according to experts including Hans christian senate the federation of american scientists appears to be identical to the w76 warhead produced by the united states and it was confirmed when we produced the w76-1 in our what we called our life extension program they integrated something known as a super fuse in that warhead which makes it much more effective as a first strike weapon and to be able to take out russian silos and the uk basically has those w76-1 warheads at very same warheads so command and control systems just about everything you could imagine related to trident is shared between the two systems supplied by the us government us base corporations and the new submarines are a new trident whether it's the uk or the us version will carry those same missiles and warheads a new warhead that's coming up the w93 they'll use a common missile compartment manufactured here in the us and again probably most all the same command and control system software just everything including information from the us navy on weather for targets it's just extensive and there's a full article on it at our website but this is something that i find really shocking and unacceptable and something that we need to really make public and engage the news media and everybody on this and really build on it so it's something we'll be working more on in the days weeks and months ahead and as we work to try to abolish trident and lastly i will say that all the talk these days as it generally is is about icbms and kathy made mentioned about the icbms and you know that's the low hanging fruit and no one in government will even utter the words cut trident whether it's even one submarine or you know or one crew member trident is the crown jewel of the nuclear triad and if they had to give up two out of three we can guarantee that one of the wouldn't be trident so we have an uphill struggle and yet we have hope we're all here today together to give our blessings to mark and and all the members of the kings bay plowshares and all who work to abolish nuclear weapons so we will continue to be in solidarity moving forward to to ditch trident it's it's going to be a tough struggle but we're in it for the long haul and we shall prevail so thanks to all of you and thanks for having me today Leonard very grateful and thank you for that support you'll be giving to uh father steve so uh bobcat carothers uh 73 years old he's done a variety of work and play throughout his life and currently fancies himself as a street musician working mostly in new haven so we're about to hear what that sounds like bobcat well um thank you uh been a little under the weather lately but happy to have this chance to play and honor mark a little bit and i i'd actually like to do two fairly short songs um the first is called stand it down to haven town which was written stand it down new york town by woody guthrie many years ago and uh kind of speaks to uh being a little down and out standing standing down the haven singing hey broken didn't have a broken didn't have it every good man gets a little hard block sometime every good man gets a little hard block i'm singing hey i'm gonna ride that i'm gonna ride that morning train singing hey hey that's kind of what a little bit i think uh speaks to some of the stuff marked mark is involved with and this is another song i wrote uh quite a while ago i'd walk through hell to get to heaven walk through hell get to heaven gotta walk through hell get to heaven gotta walk through get to heaven it's the only been down hard and yeah i've been down put your trust in the man upstairs you gotta put your trust in the man i put your trust in the man upstairs a sister marry praise the rosary sister marry praise the rosary sister marry praise the rosary best with a genome put your trust in the man upstairs you gotta put your trust in the man i put your trust in the man upstairs The best way that I know, I can tell when you're fucked to hell. Amazing. Amazing. You know, your first song reminds me that if there's some important question you don't know the answer to, you just go to the blues and it'll tell you. It's like the thing about the blues is that, you know, you may have a certain blues and the guy sitting next to you may have the same blues and you didn't know it until the song came out, you know. There you go. All right. We are now going to hear the voice of Luz Catrinu, co-founder with her husband, Mark Covell of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Connecticut, a passionate advocate for the hungry and the unhoused of this sometimes difficult city. Luz. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you for joining us this evening. I want to start off by expressing gratitude for your ongoing support. This coming Friday is the culmination of what our journey of the past three years has prepared us for. Mark has already spent 15 months in jail and, lucky for us, we were able to have him home when necessary. Mark had been diagnosed with skin cancer and had that taken care of while out of jail and we had him home to be the primary caregiver for our grand nephew during his dialysis while there was a search for a new kidney. We are blessed to have pulled together thanks to the ongoing prayers and we are ready for Friday. Alexander has his new kidney and is doing remarkably well and Mark has been fully vaccinated against COVID as of a couple of weeks ago. God has walked with us during this time and I have felt, I have not felt afraid of what's to come. If anything hopeful that Mark will be able to say why, what and for whom did we act together as a family three years ago yesterday. God provided and will continue to keep us on the path of resistance as a couple, family and community. Pray not that Mark gets time served, home confinement or a little jail time, but for Judge Woods to have her ears and heart open to Mark's words. That's it. Thank you. That's beautiful, Luc. Thank you. A reminder that families are due actions together in all their ways. Matt Delocio, a student of Anne Montgomery and Elmer Moss. Wonderful to speak those names among the saints who guide us. Matt works as a public defender with the neighborhood defender service of Harlem and has helped coordinate the Kingsborough plowshares legal team. He wanted to include in this bio a note that he had impeccable taste in music. However, I interrogated him on this point and that is clearly untrue because anyone who begins his list with that cheap band, The Grateful Dead and not The Clash has a lot to learn, but he's a decent attorney, I hear. Matt. Thank you, Steven. You should stick with poetry and stay away from music. I did also have in my bio that Frida Berrigan is my fashion and life consultant, but he left that out. So first I don't know why everyone thinks that Mark is going to prison. I mean, he has a stellar legal team. If he would just recant, apologize, genuflect, pay restitution and beg for mercy. I guess I do know why everyone thinks Mark is going to prison. Well, just as Mark has ignored all of my legal advice in this process, I'm going to ignore the instructions that we were given to talk about hope. And instead of talking about hope, I want to talk a little bit about relevance. And as we all know, relevance has a specific legal meaning. And I want to share two quotes from the court actually in the Kings Bay Clash Air's tribe. The first quote, very few of you heard as it occurred at the bench with Judge Wood in a bench conference. Some of you might not know, bench conferences do make it into the transcripts. So as Martha was testifying, her attorney, Stephanie, and just a brief anecdote about Stephanie, there have been many miracles in this whole process, some of which were connected to the folks that we got connected to locally in Georgia. And I just want to mention Jason Clark, one of the attorneys who in this process rekindle his Catholicism, got baptized and confirmed, had a new baby, got that baby baptized. And also Stephanie, who was working at a law firm and was assigned to this case as of last week, quit her job at the law firm and was hired as the legal director for the ACLU in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. So in any case, Stephanie was representing Martha and questioning Martha. And as part of this questioning, she wanted to introduce a book of photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was objected to, which led to this exchange at the bench. So the court says, we've talked about her beliefs referring to Martha. That's marginally relevant to the case, marginally relevant. But to introduce a book that helped form her belief is so far down the stairs of irrelevance that I do deny the request to admit a book called Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So that's the first quote from the court. In the view of the court, in a case where folks were on trial for attempting to address nuclear weapons, the effects of nuclear weapons on human beings are relevant. The second quote I want to share was said in open court, but almost in passing and folks might have missed it. It was on the first day of the defense case. So the first day where folks were testified. And over a break, one of the jurors sent a question to the judge. And so the court says, quote, and before we bring the jury in, I want to share with you, we did get another question from one of the jurors. It says, quote, do they know there are six Trident missiles at Kings Bay or is that speculation? Again, not legally relevant, right? The question went unanswered. But the question was asked. And what I think speaks volumes, perhaps even greater volumes than the fact that the court refused to answer it, was the fact that an ordinary citizen sitting through that trial thought to ask it. So some people on the jury knew what this trial was about. And I would argue the court knew what this trial was about, even though the court used legal relevance to keep things out. I want to close by saying that I am so grateful to Claire and Carmen and Patrick and Steve and Liz and Martha and Mark and I, and I, and I, and Steve and Liz and Martha and Mark for living in a way that invites these questions. And also for inviting us all into this process for building this beloved community. My legal record was better before I represented or represented a stand by counsel, Mark, but I also deeply appreciate that he chose to disregard all the legal advice that I had because I learned a lot about the law in this case from Mark and I've learned over decades now a lot about how to live from Mark and Liz and our friends who were part of the Kings Bay plashes. So thank you all. Thank you, Matt. An enlightened attorney is a thing of beauty. Um, Mark Hovell, resident member of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Connecticut, which he and his wife, Luce, helped to establish in 1994. They've been married for 30 years with four adult children. Keely, Soledad, Justin and Isaiah. Mark took up the hammer with two other plowshares communities previous to Kings Bay, one in Bath, Maine in 1997, the Prince of Peace plowshares and another in New York City in 2003, the Riverside plowshares. And Mark Covell is also a very good friend, Mark. Thank you, good friends. Good friends. Thank you, everybody. I, you caught me on a bad night in terms of asking me to speak. I'm carrying a bit of emotion this week and I'm also finding, which is kind of typical in preparing for things like this, that I'm a little scattered cognitively. So, and really listening to everything that's been said tonight and thinking about the other similar festivals that we've held for the others. I'm just kind of struck mainly by a feeling like that I've just received a life formation from being connected with all of you in, you know, basically like a formation in community, hospitality and resistance, you know, that that, you know, I'm going to be 60 years old this year. And I feel like I feel like, you know, in large part through what we've been through all of us together through the past three years, that that one of the blessings of it has been that I feel like my my life has kind of gotten boiled down to that. You know, an understanding that those are the things both that drive me, that give me hope, that push me forward and that keep me connected to, you know, to a loving bunch of folks who who actually are able together to grasp at sanity in this world. So, yeah, so I'm going forward on Friday, really feeling that, you know, and also one of the most liberating things that I've felt in a while. And I've been feeling this now for a while regarding the, you know, the prospect of sentencing. Is is that I and I don't know, this isn't, you know, a boast and it's not a it's not a fantasy or anything else. It's it's really it's really it really is the truth for me. It doesn't matter at this point. It doesn't matter if I go to prison or not. And that's a very liberating feeling, you know, because I partly because, you know, again, from the formation that I've had in my, you know, in my family and my marriage and in this community is is it's such that we're going to do the same work, you know, whether we're on this side of the wall or the other side of the wall, you know, community, hospitality and resistance, you know, and and that's the that's the that's what the life source that we live out of. And so there's no reason for for fear going forward. And, you know, I have, again, I'm a little feeling a little emotional this week and a little scattered because I'm well, I just want to spend a moment then to to just say how I plan to engage the court on Friday. OK, you know, I probably have said this before. But anyway, well, we first of all, in the final piece of advice that I rejected from my lawyer, I've decided to withdraw all of the the motions that are before the court with regard to my sentencing. You know, people will recall that in all of the previous sentencing's there have been these these motions that have been filed on behalf of all of us. So we're all joined in these motions. And, you know, basically have to do with arguing against the prosecution or the government's insistence that we don't accept responsibility for our actions and that we risk death. OK, so those are as everybody knows, that's kind of the the two elements that that that force the court to bump up our our sentencing guidelines. So I've withdrawn those objections because we've heard it argued six times already. And we've heard the judge rubber chin and say, you know, I deeply considered what you've said. I deeply considered this this argument and then she denies them. So we're just going to cut through that crap because I'd like folks to be awake when when we actually get to the substance of of the show there. So we've withdrawn all those motions. However, I will argue them briefly in in my sentencing statement. I want I believe that that that that was really kind of a twisting of the knife or a real mocking of us to you know, to actually put that into the sentencing, you know, guidelines that we we don't take responsibility. You know, I Patrick and I waited what, forty five minutes to get arrested after we were all done. Well, and, you know, risk of death. You know, you have hiding in plain sight in this community, the sleepy little community down in Georgia is weapons that can kill six billion people, but we risk death. OK, I won't go on with that. Uh, let's see. Last thing on the. A lot of people wrote letters on my behalf and I'm I'm deeply grateful for those. It's and, in fact, I play, I know that while the judge insists that she reads them all, I hope she does. But I would like I'm going to ask the judge to to consider those not as a plea for mercy on my behalf, but I wanted to consider those letters as an expression of the conscience of the community with regard to, you know, the legalization of of this end of the world that is being planned right in our midst. So I'd like her to to read those as a as an expression of the conscience of the community and beyond that, you know, I feel like everybody, everybody who has spoken before me at sentencing has it's been very comprehensive and very moving, all of it. And I I don't feel the need to repeat any of that. And and I'm going to stay I'm going to stay focused on trying to hold the court accountable for its behavior. You know, as as our brother, Steve Kelly is is fond of reminding us, or he has been in this in this preparation phase, is that that the not only is the sentencing another, you know, another part of the action, you know. But the court itself now, because of its behavior, because of its refusal to let the law be applied beyond that fence that we then had to cut through. The court has has become complicit in a criminal operation, a criminal syndicate. So not only has it ignored that, but it has joined it has joined a criminal conspiracy, which turns the courtroom itself then into another crime scene. And, you know, again, I've said this before and I I'm going to stand behind the that those words when I go before the judge and I'm going to go before the judge without fear. Again, because I am I am I am embraced by a community that lives hospitality, community and resistance. So thank you for preparing me and sending me forth. And I'm overwhelmed by by the expressions of everybody tonight. So thanks a lot. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mark. We're reminded by you rightly that the Kings Bay plowsher seven action did not begin and end that one evening three years ago, but is ongoing. And the spirit of each one of its members continues to inspire us in that way. And so we there, you know, one doesn't like to accrue deaths, but that debt of grace to you, I will gladly bear. Before we come to a closing blessing, I wanted to make sure that everyone who is part of the circle tonight knows that the the Kings Bay plowsher seven will be the first recipients of the Berrigan McAllister award for Christian nonviolent action established by the Paul University in Chicago and be presented in online ceremonies on the fifth of May. The award is named for Elizabeth McAllister for her late husband, Philip Berrigan, and for his brother, the late father, Daniel Berrigan. And tonight, our closing blessing will be given by Liz McAllister, the co-founder of Jonah House, mentor to many within the plowshares movement and Mark Coville's co-defended and the Kings Bay plowshares. She was sentenced to time served in three years probation in June of last year. She lives with her daughter, Kate Berrigan and Kate's partner, Karen Pazzetti in New London, Connecticut. Her older daughter, Frida lives right down the street with her family. Liz was the editor of Jonah House's newsletter year one. Co-authored the Times Discipline, the eight Beatitudes of Nuclear Resistance with her late husband, Philip Berrigan, and has written countless articles and book chapters over the years. The Kings Bay plowshares is her second plowshares action, the first being the Griffiths plowshares in 1983, which also included her current co-defendant, Claire Grady. Liz McAllister is the mother of us all. Liz. Before we move on to the blessing for Mark, we would like to pause to remember that three years ago we carried several things with us into the Trident submarine base down there in Georgia. That night we carried hammers, we carried blood, we carried a statement and an indictment of the government for possession of weapons of mass destruction. We also carried with us a book called The Doomsday Machine, Confessions of a War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg. We think that the information in the book is so important for us all to understand and we are so grateful to Daniel for his tireless work, fearless work to expose the lies of war, of the war machine and to call us to act. On this year, 50th birthday Daniel, 90th birthday Daniel, we send our love and gratitude for your life. Happy birthday all of the Kings Bay plowshares and we're going to end with a blessing for Mark, a prayer for conscience and courage in this time of public struggle. Loving God, lead us beyond ourselves to care and protect, to nourish and shape, to challenge and energize both the life and the world you have given us. God of light and God of darkness, God of conscience and God of courage lead us through this time of spiritual confusion and public uncertainty. Lead us beyond fear and apathy and defensiveness to new hope, to new and to hearts full of faith. Give us most of all, give us the courage to follow those before us who challenged wrong and changed it, whatever the cost to themselves. In our immediate circles, those include Sister Emma Gummary, Elmer Moss, Phillip Berrigan, Sister Art of Blacking, Daniel Berrigan and so many more. Quietly hold those other names in your heart while we conclude our prayer. Finally, great God, give us the kind of faith in you that was the mainstay of those before us who followed you from Galilee to Jerusalem doing good, raising the dead to life and singing alleluia all the way. God of conscience, God of courage, give us whatever grace we need to work for the coming of the reign of God now, here and always. Amen. With thanks to Sister Joan Chidrister. Thank you. Peace to all gathered here tonight. The circle of witnesses joined with witnesses, those who went before, those who will come after. And we continue to tell the story of resistance and pursue the acts of resistance that the stories tell of. So may all be blessed in a special way, Mark, and loose tonight. It's just good to be in your company, all of you. So thank you everyone. Peace. Thank you, Steve. And a special prayer has been asked for Ramsey Clark who did fall a little bit ago and so we're asking for prayers for Ramsey too as we do this because he would be here with us if he could. But so let's include him too. Thank you and good night. And Mary, did you have something you were going to say? Sorry. No, thank you everyone. Yes, thank you. And thank you to Code Pink for helping to make this happen tonight. Thank you so much. Yes, I love being here with us tonight.