On zoom.  You are invited to join us for a virtual Festival of Hope for Clare Grady before she reports to Alderson Federal Prison in W. Virginia on February 10. Clare is the sixth of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 to begin her sentence for her part in the nonviolent, symbolic disarming of Georgia’s Trident nuclear weapons. We do not have the link yet but will send it out and post it on the website when we do.

Clare has invited speakers who challenge different aspects of Rev. Dr. King’s triplets, racism (white supremacy), materialism (global capitalism), and militarism (global military dominance).

Speakers include a Seneca leader working in western New York, Agnes Williams, and a Diné leader, Leona Morgan, from the Navajo Nation, working in New Mexico and Arizona to stop uranium production and dumping on their lands; Irish Parliamentarian, Clare Daly, a co-defendant in an Irish trial of civil resistance to US warplanes refueling at Shannon Airport; a taped greeting from Setsuko Thurlow, a Hiroshima survivor who has worked tirelessly to end nuclear weapons and been instrumental in the enactment of the Treaty on Prohibition to Nuclear Weapons that went into force last week; Professor Russell Rickford, Cornell University historian of the Black Freedom Struggle and the Black Radical Tradition and an organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America; Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, Detroit theologian, author, nonviolent community activist and civil resister to water shut-offs, will give a closing prayer.

As of this date, we’ve not heard yet from Patrick O’Neill who reported to prison Jan. 14th, as he was expected to be quarantined for 2-3 weeks due to COVID prison protocol. Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, Martha Hennessy, and Carmen Trotta reported to jail on Dec. 14th. We received first reports from Martha from FCI Danbury, CT and Carmen recounting his time at Otisville, NY and his statement on the new TPNW treaty. They report that they are settling in at their respective prisons and have plenty of reading materials for now. Their letters are posted on the website under About/jail reflections at: https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/category/jail-reflections/

There are many reports on the Kings Bay Plowshares Facebook pages about the demonstrations on January 22 marking the effective date of the TPNW treaty. Kings Bay Plowshares Facebook group or the page Kings Bay Plowshares Facebook page

You can get further information about the treaty and reports of worldwide demonstrations in support at https://www.icanw.org/

Eighty-two year-old Liz McAlister, widow of the late Phil Berrigan, served 17 months prior to trial and is home in New London, Connecticut with her family. Mark Colville, of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, is the only one of the KBP7 not sentenced yet. He has a sentencing date scheduled for Feb. 19 but it is not known if sentencing will be then.

Fr. Steve Kelly was moved on Jan. 27 from the Baker Co., Florida jail where he has waited since mid-December for transport through the federal prison system. He’s being sent back to Tacoma, WA, shackled, to report to court for a probation violation for trespass at the west coast Trident nuclear sub base. He was flown by plane to Oklahoma but there’s no telling how long he will wait now in Oklahoma.

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For background in preparation for the Festival of Hope, here’s the link to Clare’s sentencing statement: https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/2020/11/clare-gradys-sentencing-statement-nov-12-2020/

The KBP7 action statement:

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