Trident nuclear disarmament activist Steve Kelly, a Jesuit priest, begins his third year imprisoned in a county jail as he and his companions await sentencing. (Photo from previous Plowshares action 7 years ago.)
By Kathy Kelly
April 3, 2020
On April 4, 2020, my friend Steve Kelly will begin a third
year of imprisonment in Georgia’s Glynn County jail. He turned 70 while in
prison, and while he has served multiple prison sentences for protesting nuclear
weapons, spending two years in a county jail is unusual even for him. Yet he adamantly
urges supporters to focus attention on the nuclear weapons arsenals which he
and his companions aim to disarm. “The nukes are not going to go away by
themselves,” says Steve.
The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 now await sentencing for their
action, performed two years ago inside the Kings Bay Trident Submarine
base in southern Georgia. They acted in concert with many others who take literally
the Scriptural call to “beat swords into plowshares.” Commenting on their case, Bill Quigley, a member
of their legal team, told me “their actions speak louder than their words and their words are very
powerful.” Bill encourages us to remember each of them in our thoughts,
prayers, and, hopefully, through our actions. “The legal system is not big
enough for the hearts, minds and spirits of these folks,” he adds. “The legal
system tries to concentrate all of this down to whether you cut a fence or
sprayed some blood.” Bill believes we should instead look at the impending
disaster nuclear weapons could cause, and the continuing disaster they do cause
by wasting crucially needed resources to potentially destroy the planet.
“You’ve got eight numbers just like everybody else.” Jailers
sometimes use this line to subdue or humiliate a prisoner who complains or
seems to ask for special treatment. I learned this during a two-month stint in
a Missouri county jail, (for planting corn on top of nuclear missile silo
sites).
Once inside the prison system, your number is more useful to
the Bureau of Prisons than your name, and you grow accustomed to responding
when your number is called. The eight numbers help blur personalities and
histories.
I think jailers have a hard time finding any instances when
Steve Kelly tries to pull rank or claim extra privileges. He’s a well-educated
Jesuit priest who has traveled the world. Outside the prison, he’d often be
found walking alongside people who migrate from one difficult situation to the
next, blending in, trying to help. Inside a jail or prison, he has often preferred
solitary confinement to “general population” which requires obedience to all
rules. The cramped confines of the Glynn County Jail don’t have a more punitive
space in which to put him. Amid the jail’s crowded, noisy, unhealthy conditions,
he uses his time remarkably well. I surmise this from reading his weekly post
cards which are always humorous, thoughtful, and encouraging.
From his vantage point, amid people immiserated by poverty
and mass incarceration systems, he yet sees the nuclear threat as the one that
most endangers people. When “nuclear states” insist on superiority because they
can menace non-nuclear states, a dangerous nationalism arises. Using arsenals
to back up a fortress mentality undermines our capacity for international
cooperation now massively needed to tackle the major problems we face. “You’ve
got eight numbers just like everybody else” could point to a humbling yet
helpful reminder that we are confined together on this planet and constrained
by the prospect of real crises like the pandemic we’re now weathering.
I can recall walking through wet markets in far-away places and
shuddering at the sight of slaughtered, bloody carcasses hanging from hooks in
the open air. I imagine Steve would catch me, with a certain glance and nod,
and ask what could be more savage and destructive than a lab creating nuclear
weapons to incinerate people.
At the end of World War I, soldiers emerged from trenches in
the front lines and felt puzzled by the silence. Realizing the terrifying,
horrific explosions had ended, that the war was over, they didn’t clap or
cheer. Exhausted, they slumped over their packs, awaiting migration back to
their homes.
When the COVID-19 pandemic ends, global silence may be appropriate.
A new biological threat will still be conceivable, one that could equal climate
change and a nuclear meltdown or nuclear winter. Climate catastrophes could exacerbate
our human immunological vulnerability. It’s grim to reckon with the potential for
a new, mutated wave of coronavirus or another virus altogether to cause further
sorrow and death.
We’ll all need to pick up our packs and go back to work,
determined to be far better prepared for life saving actions as we move into an
uncertain future. Ideally, nuclear weapon arsenals will be recognized as a
crazed burden we must finally shed if we’ve any hope of surviving our past recklessness.
At some point, hopefully, my friend Steve Kelly will hear a
voice over a loudspeaker telling him to pack his belongings. He’ll have
survived this chapter of punishment. He won’t very likely be released, as there
is a warrant for his arrest for a previous protest action, but he’ll carry a
small pack beyond the confines of the Glynn County Jail. More importantly, he’ll
carry the challenge to continue dedicating his life to ridding the world of
nuclear weapons. In these challenging times, those eight numbers distinguish
him as a fine and invaluable leader to follow.
Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org)
co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)
March 17, 2020
U.S. sanctions against Iran, cruelly strengthened in March of 2018, continue a
collective punishment of extremely vulnerable people. Presently, the U.S.
“maximum pressure” policy severely undermines Iranian efforts to cope with the
ravages of COVID-19, causing hardship and tragedy while contributing to the
global spread of the pandemic. On March 12, 2020, Iran’s Foreign Minister Jawad
Zarif urged member states of the UN to end the United States’ unconscionable
and lethal economic warfare.
Addressing UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres,
Zarif detailed how U.S. economic sanctions prevent Iranians from importing necessary
medicine and medical equipment.
For over two years, while the U.S. bullied other
countries to refrain from purchasing Iranian oil, Iranians have coped with
crippling economic decline.
The devastated economy and worsening
coronavirus outbreak now drive migrants and refugees, who number in the
millions, back to Afghanistan at dramatically increased rates.
In the past two weeks alone, more than 50,000 Afghans returned from Iran, increasing the likelihood that
cases of coronavirus will surge in Afghanistan. Decades of war, including U.S.
invasion and occupation, have decimated Afghanistan’s health care and food distribution systems.
Jawad Zarif asks the UN to prevent the use of hunger and disease
as a weapon of war. His letter demonstrates the wreckage caused by many decades of United
States imperialism and suggests revolutionary steps toward dismantling the
United States war machine.
During
the United States’ 1991 “Desert Storm” war against Iraq, I was part of the Gulf
Peace Team, – at first, living at in a “peace camp” set up near the Iraq-Saudi
border and later, following our removal by Iraqi troops, in a Baghdad hotel
which formerly housed many journalists. Finding an abandoned typewriter, we
melted a candle onto its rim, (the U.S. had destroyed Iraq’s electrical
stations, and most of the hotel rooms were pitch black). We compensated for an
absent typewriter ribbon by placing a sheet of red carbon paper over our
stationery. When Iraqi authorities realized we managed to type our document,
they asked if we would type their letter to the Secretary General of the UN. (Iraq
was so beleaguered even cabinet level officials lacked typewriter ribbons.) The
letter to Javier Perez de Cuellar implored the UN to prevent the U.S. from
bombing a road between Iraq and Jordan, the only way out for refugees and the
only way in for humanitarian relief. Devastated by bombing and already
bereft of supplies, Iraq was, in 1991, only one year into a deadly sanctions regime
that lasted for thirteen years before the U.S. began its full-scale invasion
and occupation in 2003. Now, in 2020, Iraqis still suffering from
impoverishment, displacement and war earnestly want the U.S. to practice
self-distancing and leave their country.
Are
we now living in a watershed time? An unstoppable, deadly virus ignores any
borders the U.S. tries to reinforce or redraw. The United States military-industrial
complex, with its massive arsenals and cruel capacity for siege, isn’t relevant
to “security” needs. Why should the U.S., at this crucial juncture, approach
other countries with threat and force and presume a right to preserve global
inequities? Such arrogance doesn’t even ensure security for the United States
military. If the U.S. further isolates and batters Iran, conditions will worsen
in Afghanistan and United States troops stationed there will ultimately be at
risk. The simple observation, “We are all part of one another,” becomes acutely
evident.
It’s
helpful to think of guidance from past leaders who faced wars and pandemics. The
Spanish flu pandemic in 1918-19, coupled with the atrocities of World War
I, killed 50 million worldwide, 675,000
in the U.S. Thousands of female
nurses were on the “front lines,” delivering health care. Among them were
black nurses who not only risked their lives to practice the works of mercy but
also fought discrimination and racism in their determination to serve. These brave women
arduously paved a way for the first 18 black nurses to serve in the Army Nurse
Corps and they provided “a small turning point in the continuing movement for
health equity.”
In the spring of 1919, Jane Addams and Alice Hamilton witnessed the effects
of sanctions against Germany imposed by Allied forces after World War I. They
observed “critical shortages of food, soap and medical supplies” and wrote
indignantly about how children were being punished with starvation for “the
sins of statesmen.”
Starvation continued even after the
blockade was finally lifted, that summer, with the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles. Hamilton and Addams reported how the flu epidemic, exacerbated in
its spread by starvation and post-war devastation, in turn disrupted the food
supply. The two women argued a policy of sensible food distribution was
necessary for both humanitarian and
strategic reasons. “What was to be gained by starving more children?”
bewildered German parents asked them.
Jonathan Whitall directs Humanitarian Analysis for Médecins Sans
Frontières / Doctors without Borders. His most recent analysis poses agonizing
questions:
How are you supposed to
wash your hands regularly if you have no running water or soap? How are you
supposed to implement ‘social distancing’ if you live in a slum or a refugee or
containment camp? How are you supposed to stay at home if your work pays by the
hour and requires you to show up? How are you supposed to stop crossing borders
if you are fleeing from war? How are you supposed to get tested for #COVID19 if the health
system is privatized and you can’t afford it? How are those with pre-existing
health conditions supposed to take extra precautions when they already can’t
even access the treatment they need?
I
expect many people worldwide, during the spread of COVID – 19, are thinking hard about the glaring, deadly
inequalities in our societies, wonder how best to extend proverbial hands of
friendship to people in need while urged to accept isolation and social
distancing. One way to help others survive is to insist the United States lift sanctions
against Iran and instead support acts of practical care. Jointly confront the
coronavirus while constructing a humane future for the world without wasting time or resources on the continuation of
brutal wars.
Photo
credit: Campaign for Peace and Democracy, 2013
Photo caption: Protester’s sign decries sanctions, “a silent war”Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence
716-332-3904 | Updated 3/13/20 | wnypeace.org
Dear Friends!
Keeping our balance, each of us …. Hoping you’re deep slow breathing, and not worrying too much, while taking needed precautions. Prayerfulness, keeping the Good Mind, maintaining our perspective (the big picture) while balancing it with the small (doing what we need to do and the wisdom to know what that is ? and yes making sure to have joy, beauty, and mindful care and compassion every day and every way we can. #OneLove
We’re in a strange place right now, as a whole. So we put this out to report on what we do know (e.g., all SUNY/CUNY schools – and many others, like Canisius and Daemen – going to online classes). We have suspended our own office hours until further notice. Many events are being postponed (Work2Win) or cancelled (World Conference 2020 in NYC before the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review). Some are not cancelled but are planning to move online (Women’s Issues & Solutions) or aren’t being promoted (67 Uprising). Check ours and other’s websites (we’ll keep you posted as well as we can, without too many emails!)
Do remember to keep washing your hands (see John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on Coronavirus), keeping your personal space ample – and boy, will we miss hugging!! And remember,
We have nothing to fear but fear itself (Franklin D Roosevelt), and what must be done can be done (Elinor Roosevelt). 😉
On that note, be sure to see “Defending Your Life” with Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks. It’s very much fun and on topic.
So with that in mind, we’ll give us all a little time to catch our breath while keeping solidarity and love in the Spirit, and plenty of space and care with the body.
More to follow… We’ll just keep taking it as it come, Together/Harambe!! Si, se puede/yes, we can …!
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and of course Love!
#CourageousCompassion
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
#Unite! #OneLove
