NH #452: Anti-nuclear weapons, Anti-war Catholic Protestors Facing Prison: Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Defendants Patrick O’Neill, Martha Hennessey

Anti-nuclear, anti-war protestors from the Kings Bay Plowshares action.
Front row (l-r) – Clare Grady, Elizabeth McAlister, Carmen Trotta, Martha Hennessy;
Back row: Patrick O’Neill, Stephen Kelly SJ, Mark Colville.

This Week’s Featured Interview:

• Anti-nuclear, anti-war – the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. These Catholic Peace Activists performed a peaceful action protesting the nuclear weapons aboard Trident nuclear submarines at the Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia, 38 miles from Jacksonville, Florida. They were arrested, tried, and found guilty on three felony counts and one misdemeanor. Now, nearly two years after the action took place, they are still awaiting sentencing.
  
  We talk with Martha Hennessey and Patrick O’Neill (71) about the Plowshares Movement, their religiously-based dedication to peace, how the Kings Bay action was planned and executed, and what happened the night they did it — April 4, 2018, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death. Then we learn what has happened to them since the trial.
  On October 24, 2018, all seven were found guilty of three felony charges and one misdemeanor, which could lead to 20 or more years of imprisonment for each of them. Sentencing has been delayed almost two full years because, according to them, it’s an extension of the cruelty with which the government has treated them, and punishment that cannot be claimed as “time served” once they are sentenced.
  
  NOTE: I’m not often moved to tears by my Nuclear Hotseat interviews, but this one really got to me.
  
  WHAT YOU CAN DO: The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 request the following actions be taken by listeners to Nuclear Hotseat:
  • Sign the petition asking for leniency from the court
  • Write a letter to Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, requesting leniency for the protestors.
  • Visit the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 website to keep informed about the case and learn further actions you can take.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

Japan can dish it out, but they can’t take it! Cries of “Propaganda!” greet South Korean posters that elegantly, brilliantly capture the true nature of the Radioactive Tokyo 2020 Olympics – and Japan pours gasoline on the radioactive torch by taking to the media in high dudgeon to protest them!

And in case you never saw the visual was generated by Rainbow Warriors in 2013:

Action Links:

• ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) held its xxx