The Kansas City Plant Accountability Project

Here are excerpts.

In Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet’s former friends are assigned to accompany him to exile in England. Their diplomatic dispatch contains instructions for Hamlet’s execution; Hamlet alters the document to name his friends instead. As the end approaches, Guildenstern insists, “There must have been a time, somewhere near the beginning, when we could have said no.”

We are nowhere near the beginning of nuclear weaponry. Yet there comes another moment in time, another turning point. Let us not say with helpless apology to our grandchildren, as we endow them with a poisoned planet, bristling with nuclear weapons, “There must have been a time, somewhere along the line, when we could have said no.”

April 2 is a time to say no to anger and fear by voting yes on ballot Question 3, to prevent City Council from leading this community deeper into league with merchants of death.

Stoever, Potts expect state-level trial June 10; y’all come!

Arrested: Mark Kenney, Henry Stoever and Lu Mountenay.
photo by Robyn Haas

Posted April 14, 2013

Henry Stoever and Midge Potts, who stepped onto the property of KC’s new nuclear weapons parts plant April 14, 2012, have a June 10 court date and have requested a jury trial. And there’s another new twist, compared with the 2010-2012 court hearings and trials for nuclear weapon resisters. This trial is at the state level, not the municipal level. 

“Our continued resistance to the new nuclear weapons parts plant promotes our three-prong effort: public education, seeking a law against KC involvement in making nuclear weapons parts, and advocating peace both at the plant site and in the court system,” says Stoever. He and Potts worked out an agreement at their municipal court trial Oct. 12 whereby they pleaded “technically not guilty,” were found guilty and sentenced to three days in jail, and immediately appealed to the state level.

The June 10 trial will be at the Jackson County, Missouri, Circuit Court in KC, at 12^th and Locust, beginning at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 10 on the eighth floor.

Peace measure wins almost one-fourth of vote, succeeds in public education

by Jane Stoever

Posted April 4, 2013

Kansas City, Mo., voters received a barrage of negative publicity from the “vote no” camp before the April 2 election, but 23 percent of the voters still said yes to stopping future KC financing for producing parts for nuclear weapons. The vote tally was 25,006 against and 7,559 for the measure.

“It’s a win!” said Rachel MacNair, campaign coordinator for “vote yes” proponents, after the polls closed April 2. “We’ve always said our strategy was to educate the public about the nuclear weapons parts plant, and our goal of making the plant and the nuclear weapons upgrade program more controversial has been achieved.” She said it was amazing to gain 23 percent of the vote in the face of the negative publicity from the opposition.

That publicity, focusing on jobs and national security, included three pricey mailers, robo calls from Mayor Sly James, handouts from paid workers at polls, and ads in local papers. For example, a promotional insert from Freedom Inc. in The Pitch in late March said of the ballot measure, “This is a rogue issue that was placed on the ballot by initiative petition, motivated by anti-nuclear extremists who want the United States to dispose of its nuclear weapons while other nations keep theirs.”

When, earlier, the second mailer from the “vote no” camp made the same charge, MacNair countered that peace groups are calling for multilateral, not unilateral, disarmament, and the third mailer carried revised language. However, that third mailing featured North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s threat to turn Washington, D.C., into a sea of fire—a way to call for strengthening the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Despite the fear-based mailers, many voters talked with peace activists outside the polls, and some voters said they’d vote yes because of those contacts. One voter who, on leaving the poll, said she had voted yes, was asked why. In a quiet voice, she replied, “It’s just terrible to make those weapons.”

Banner saying "Protect Workers Vote Yes Question 3" above Highway 670.

Before election day, PeaceWorks members informed the community about the peace measure through multiple activities. KKFI community radio interviewed various proponents on four programs and played a public service announcement. KCUR, an affiliate of National Public Radio, played and replayed a segment quoting MacNair and City Councilman Scott Taylor, who opposed the measure. Local TV programs such as “Week in Review” discussed all the election issues. Although The Kansas City Star editors recommended a no vote on the measure, news reporter Lynn Horsley quoted heavily from MacNair in her story originally titled “David vs. Goliath in Measure on Weapons Manufacturing.” PeaceWorks members circulated flyers at churches, offered informational cards to “Disney on Ice” attendees and to community groups, and leafleted on sidewalks. Perhaps the most flamboyant stint was the dropping of three banners above highways 71 and 670. The banners flew a few days.

PeaceWorks committed $4,000 to the campaign as its major contributor. The opposition amassed more than $123,000, with donors including Honeywell, which manages the current and new KC plants for the National Nuclear Security Administration; J.E. Dunn Construction Co., which heads up construction for the new plant; and the Chicago law firm Richmond Breslin, home base to Kevin Breslin, lawyer for CenterPoint, the development company that worked with KC on the plan for public/private ownership of the new plant.

Ann Suellentrop of PeaceWorks shared election results with national peace leaders on behalf of the KC peace community. The American Friends Service Committee disarmament coordinator, Joseph Gerson, replied, “Thank you for all that you’ve done. Born Jewish in 1946, in many ways my frames of reference are from the Second World War and the Holocaust. It would seem that … the majority of voters in KC seem to care in the short term about their well-being but, in what Hannah Arendt once termed the ‘banality of evil,’ put jobs and comfort ahead of nuclear genocide or omnicide.”

Open letter to all who worked to stop KC from supporting nuclear weapons production

April 3, 2013

Dear Friends:

I think a huge thanks to all of you is in order for your courage of resistance to fight Goliath! I know we lost the April 2 election in worldly terms, but I also know this is the beginning of an evolution that ends in truth and love. Gandhi said, “The way of truth and love always prevails.”

I know that 20 years ago, when National Catholic Reporter was the only lonely voice speaking out against child sexual abuse, they could never know that their courage would lead to a worldwide outcry for justice for children. And when the gay rights movement was being slammed and slandered, who knew that we would reach today, when 58 percent of all Americans favor gay marriage? In the same way, those who have fought for alternatives to the death penalty are starting to see the turning of the tide. The courageous people working for an end to nuclear weapons will also say, “I have been to the mountain.”

Dr. King said, “nonviolence or non-existence.” As a citizen of planet earth, I choose to believe that we as a human people will see a day of “nonviolence” and not “non-existence.”

Having said this, I beg you to indulge me as I share a transforming experience I had yesterday at the polls at St. Mark’s church, 1101 Euclid, in Kansas City.

I arrived feeling “a stranger” because somewhere I was taught that in Wayne Minor, this is the “hood,” and I am not welcome here. Instead, I found a very hospitable woman working for Freedom, Inc., also working the polls. Although she was working the opposite side of Question 3, we were in agreement on Questions 1 and 2. She immediately found me a chair. Within a short time she began to tell me her life story of growing up in Wayne Minor and living in the “murder factory.” She shared with me atrocious stories of her own abuse, of finding a friend on the streets “who died of the cold,” and of losing countless loved ones, including her husband, to tragic deaths. We bonded. By the time I drove her to her polling place to vote, she shared with me, “You've convinced me, I'm going in to vote yes on Question 3!”

She said she had spent much of her life as a participant in Truman Behavioral Health so she could get medications to counter her suicidal ideology. I told her I had worked 5 years at Wyandotte County Mental Health, and I had started our own organization free of bureaucracy and “billing stipulations.” She shared with me that her daughter was struggling with housing problems, so I gave her the number to Companion Ministries (913-514-2399) and asked her to have her daughter call us.

When the polls closed she said, “You have made my day,” and I said, “You have made my month.” As I drove home I could not help but think about the irony of a country that wastes billions to uphold a paranoid fear, yet abandons the incredible people of Wayne Minor!!!

Anyway, Ann, Jane, Henry, Ron, Rachel, and all the others, thank you for being 20 years ahead of your time. I am so grateful that I could be at least a small part of it ... getting arrested (in 2011 for civil resistance at the new plant for making parts for nuclear weapons), spending time in solidarity with Jim Hannah and the forgotten men locked up in Jackson County Jail, and spending time on Election Day with this woman. Even to drive Wayne Knox and Helen Caldicott to the airport was an incredible honor! People tell me I am not Catholic, and maybe they are right. But I do know that I try to follow three important people: St. Francis, Pope Francis, and another unbelievable Catholic, Dorothy Day.

We will get to mountain top. Thanks again for your courage and prophecy. I am with you.

Sincerely,

Charles Carney
Kansas City, Kansas

The Deafening Sounds of Silence

By Jim Hannah

Posted April 14, 2013

Sometimes it’s not what you hear that most informs you, but what you don’t hear.

Listening to the applause of Congress during President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address was a case in point. More than a hundred times the senators, representatives, and others in attendance applauded in support of the wide variety of domestic and foreign affairs enunciated by the president.

The first was as the president declared, “tonight we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us.” It was as though he had said, “All rise” in the courtroom of public opinion, and seemingly all did.

The other occasion was when the president said, “we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace.” For this, and his assertion, "We will maintain the best military the world has ever known," there was fervent and seemingly universal acclamation.

Oh, and yes, whenever the president highlighted American exceptionalism (U.S. as “the wealthiest nation on earth,” “the greatest nation on earth,” “a beacon to all who seek freedom”), our representatives were right there beside their chief executive and commander-in-chief, beating the centuries-old drum of Manifest Destiny.

That tells us a lot about the legislative and executive branches of our government, whose primary concern seems to be keeping the United States “#1” in military and economic power, through strong military alliances, whatever the cost. That’s a pretty clear message about our current state of the union.

What’s not as clear, unless you carefully listen to “the sounds of silence” on both sides of the aisle, is what our “representatives” universally seem NOT to support.

One initiative announced by the president, an initiative with global import far beyond nearly all others delivered in his 77-minute speech, received absolutely NO applause from EITHER party.

It was the one line I was most listening for, because just days before the address it was announced in the media that President Obama might be calling for sharp reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal--perhaps even reducing the number of deployed U.S. nukes to 1,000 or less, ahead of schedule for the New Start Treaty provisions reducing the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 by 2018. Sadly, that announcement never came. 

But there was a one-liner on the topic when President Obama pledged, “we’ll engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands, because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to lead and meet our obligations.”

Granted, that was far short of what one might have hoped from a president who four years ago pledged “clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”--a pledge that contributed to the president’s reception of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

But still, NO one was moved to even faint applause by the president’s initiatives for nuclear weapons reduction? Not even a single Democrat? NO applause that the U.S. will take the initiative toward Russia to further reduce each of their nuclear arsenals? NO applause that the U.S. will continue to lead the global effort to secure nuclear materials? NO applause that the U.S. will finally lead the way toward honoring our part in the world’s 45-year-old treaty for nuclear disarmament?

I was amazed by the deafening silence in the chamber, so in my parent’s living room I created my own applause line. Because I’m of the opinion that the primary legacy of the Obama presidency may not be saving the U.S. middle class, but saving the world from nuclear extinction. Paradoxically, that was the very goal (and near legacy) of President Ronald Reagan, hero of the Republican Right that today is not only silent about Reagan’s urgent efforts toward a nuclear weapons-free world, but instead argues that that nuclear weapons reductions would embolden our enemies and weaken our national security.

“Silence like a cancer grows,” as Paul Simon used to sing. So let’s pay attention to “the sounds of silence” from our legislators. We, the people, must applaud the efforts of peacemakers so loudly that they cannot be ignored, even by “representatives” so often compliant with the burgeoning military-political-corporate-media complex.

--Jim Hannah is a PeaceWorks, Kansas City, Board member and its secretary.

Vote YES on Question 3 on 4/2 ballot

by Mark Bartholomew

Election day, April 2, is right around the corner, and it's crucial to ask KC voters to say YES on Question 3. Why? To prevent KC from offering future incentives for making parts for nuclear weapons. See Question 3, below.

The $80,000-strong opposition to our measure is spreading much misinformation. They say our measure kills jobs. Wrong. The jobs will continue as long as the federal government pays the salaries. The point of Question 3 is to prevent KC from future contracts supporting the jobs. The city financed the building of the new, $687 million facility at Mo. Hwy. 150, but the city is not paying the salaries. The misinformation blitzing the city is the reason we need to tell friends to vote YES on 3.

To work at the polls, contact George Baldwin, gwbaldwin@yahoo.com, 913-839-6996. To "leaflet" between now and April 2, contact Rachel MacNair, Rachel_MacNair@yahoo.com, 816-753-2057.

Remember, Helen Caldicott, who revived Physicians for Social Responsibility in this country, has written to us, "All power to you brave and noble people!"

Question 3 — Shall the City of Kansas City adopt an ordinance proposed by a committee of petitioners to prohibit the City from entering into, facilitating or giving permission for any future contracts whereby the City is directly financially involved in facilities that produce or procure components for, assemble, or refurbish nuclear weapons except for outside infrastructure improvements customarily provided by cities and governmental services ordinarily provided to citizens, and also barring any future funding or subsidizing such facility through taxes, bonds, loans, tax credits, credit or any other financial scheme or mechanism? The definition of such facility excludes providers of goods and services which were not produced for the purpose of nuclear weapons components production but which may be purchased by such a facility as a consumer.

Trying to get pay for sick workers from Bannister complex

Donna Hand, a paralegal advocate from Tampa, Fla., since 2010 has helped Bannister Federal Complex employees seek compensation for illnesses related to working at BFC. The payment is hard to come by. BFC houses federal agencies including the Kansas City Plant, where non-nuclear parts have been made for nuclear weapons for 63 years. In this Q&A, Hand comments on her KC advocacy.

Q. How many KC-area employees have you helped try to gain compensation for their illnesses?

A. I’m working on about 27 cases from the KC Plant side of Bannister Federal Complex, and I’m getting ready to file about 5 cases from the General Services Administration (GSA) side of the complex. On the KC Plant side, three whom I’ve helped as an advocate have been accepted for compensation, and two whom I’ve helped as an authorized representative were accepted. My colleague Tamara Severns has two other clients; she has obtained a recommended decision of approval for medical benefits for one client concerning renal failure.

Q. What other illnesses do the clients report?

A. A lot of the KC Plant employees have pancreatic cancer. The GSA-side employees tend to have respiratory illnesses.

Q. What’s caused these illnesses?

Plumes of toxins contaminate groundwater under the Bannister complex.
Source: National Nuclear Security Administration, 2006

A. Some workers have been exposed to beryllium, uranium, PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) particles, cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic, tritium. For example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found uranium on the GSA side in a stairwell area, as reported in November 2010.

Q. How did contaminants move from the KC Plant side to the GSA side?

A. Several agencies, including the KC Plant and the GSA, shared one building; they had the same air system, the same heating/cooling system. Most toxins were airborne. Workers were exposed through air vents and worker cross-contamination.

Q. Do you expect beryllium, uranium, and tritium to be used at the new KC Plant facility at Mo. Hwy. 150 and Botts Road?

A. Yes. They are the main ingredients for some nuclear weapon parts. Beryllium is often used in compounds, such as beryllium copper; golf clubs use beryllium; dentistry stopped using it because of health issues. Berylliosis starts with a dry cough and sinus problems, causes nodules and fibers to grow in the lungs, and causes breathing problems; the end stage is cancer. Uranium decays down to radium 226, to radon, and eventually to lead; uranium causes kidney disease. And tritium’s target is the whole body; it causes cancer.

Q. How can people contact you if they need help obtaining compensation?

A. I’m at 608-921-9940 and CTDHKK@aol.com, and Tamara Severns is at 816-753-7642 and redwoodseverns@yahoo.com.

—by Jane Stoever, PeaceWorks Board member

The un-stoppable nuclear genie?

by Jim Hannah

Common sense, it seems, isn’t.

I concluded this recently after quibbling with some colleagues over what seemed to me a perfectly straightforward and evident statement:

Production of nuclear weapons creates devastatingly toxic waste, potentially poisoning air, water, land, and living creatures for generations to come even if the weapons are never launched.

For me, that’s just common sense. Making nuclear weapons produces toxic radioactive waste. Safely containing that waste for thousands of years is a daunting challenge (which the manufacturers clearly have not yet mastered). And making yet more weapons compiles that challenge for millennia to come, even if the weapons are never launched.

To my surprise, objections to the statement ranged from minimizing the threat to near-denial. The quantity of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons is relatively small, I was told, and besides, these days not much new waste is being produced. Not to worry.

by Jim Hannah

But, unlike Dr. Strangelove, I do worry.

I worry when the Department of Energy’s 5-year plan ending in 2011 acknowledges, “Fifty years of nuclear weapons production and energy research generated millions of gallons of radioactive waste, thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel and special nuclear material, along with huge quantities of contaminated soil and water.” The DOE’s goal is to complete cleanup at 108 sites by 2025.

Wow. That’s a lot of very deadly stuff, still with us for a long time. Which for me raises a couple common-sense questions. Do we really want to produce more and ever more radioactive poisons? And is this the legacy we want to leave our children and grandchildren, and their children?

At about this point in the discussion comes the inevitable “common sense” objection: you can’t put the nuclear genie back in the bottle.

To some extent that’s true. All of us living today have already been irradiated by thousands of nuclear weapons tests from decades past, and current radioactive contamination from the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear reactor disaster has journeyed to our home shores. Truth be told, all humanity is a test case in the long-term effects of radioactive fallout.

So, yes, in a sense what has been done cannot be undone. The atomic age is not likely to be dis-invented, and some of its benefits we would be loathe to lose. But that is not to say that we must resign ourselves to an endlessly nuclear-armed world, and the growing likelihood of nuclear cataclysm.

“Nothing can doom man,” said philosopher and theologian Martin Buber, “but the belief in doom.” That quote comes from one of the most cogent and en-couraging books I’ve read for some time: Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World. Author Tad Daley turns the “common sense” arguments for nuclear weapons on their head, noting that in human history almost nothing is preordained and, as George Bernard Shaw once said, “Not one of us has enough knowledge to be a pessimist.”

History is replete with events that defy common sense. I’ve witnessed in my lifetime the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the demise of the Soviet Union, men walking on the moon, the civil rights movement—truly logic-defying events.

So what is common sense, and what is nonsensical? It seems to me that in the shadow-and-mirrors world of nuclear weaponry, we need to examine carefully the myths that inform us and that shape our national policies. Is the specter of nuclear holocaust really un-stoppable? Our world has already achieved international conventions banning chemical and biological weapons; we can similarly ban nuclear weapons.

Imagine someday reading the joyous headline, Apocalypse Never! Each one of us can help make that headline a reality, working toward the 2020 deadline proposed by Mayors for Peace for a nuclear weapons-free world.

“The best lack all conviction,” said William Butler Yates, “while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” ... If the nuclear danger causes us to succumb to hopelessness, fear, and hate--the worst within us—then we will succumb to our desires to safeguard ourselves only with escalation and force. But if we can aspire instead to genuine security for both ourselves and our adversaries, to hope for a better day tomorrow, perhaps even to love our enemies—the best within us—then we can overcome our fears, and devote ourselves to nuclear weapons abolition, enduring world peace, and a just and sustainable future for the community of humankind. (Apocalypse Never, p. 206)

Myths abound. But unlike that ancient Persian myth about un-stoppable genies, tomorrow’s truth could be a world fee of nuclear weapons. This would prove again Mark Twain’s wise maxim:

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn't.

—Jim Hannah is a PeaceWorks Board member and columnist.

Spread the word re blocking future support for nuke-parts plant - Use yard signs, request speakers

by Jane Stoever

Photo by Nick Pickrell

Fourteen private investors purchased Kansas City municipal bonds to fund the new plant at Mo. Hwy. 150 for making parts for nuclear weapons. To let citizens have a say on such financial dealings in the future, PeaceWorks members got a measure approved for placement on the April 2 ballot. We blitzed polling places Nov. 6 with yard signs and flyers asking voters, “Vote yes!” on April 2 to prevent future KC financial involvement in the plant. The yard signs are now ready to use in yards, windows, and indoors, says ballot campaign coordinator Rachel MacNair.

Call her at 816-753-2057 to request a sign. Also ask her to line up speakers for civic or social groups, to spread the word about the campaign.

The ballot measure for April 2 has teeth: “The City of Kansas City, Missouri shall not enter into, facilitate, nor give permission for any future contracts whereby it will be directly financially involved in any facilities that produce or procure components for, assemble, or refurbish nuclear weapons. … The City is also barred in the future from funding or subsidizing such a facility through taxes, bonds, loans, tax credits, credit, or any other financial scheme or mechanism.”

Stoever, Potts move nuclear weapons trial to state level

by Lu Mountenay & Jane Stoever

From left, Midge Potts, Ron Faust, and Brian Terrell prepare to march in front of City Hall and Municipal Court before nuclear weapons resisters' trials Oct. 12. -- Photo by Jo Larmore

Henry Stoever, chair of the PeaceWorks-KC Board, and Midgelle "Midge" Potts of Springfield, Mo., a longtime nuclear weapons resister, may have a jury trial for the charge of trespass on April 14 at the new nuclear weapons parts plant in KC. On Oct. 12, they worked out an agreement with Municipal Court Judge Elena Franco and pleaded "technically not guilty."

Witnessed by a court full of supporters, they were found guilty and sentenced to three days in jail. They immediately appealed to the state level—to the Jackson County, Missouri, Circuit Court in KC.

This will mark the first opportunity the peace community may have to bring its case against the plant to the state level—possibly to a jury. "This is another forum in which we are expanding our opposition to nuclear weapons," said Stoever.

Referring to his letter sent April 11 to KC's chief prosecutor and the chief of police, Stoever restated his case to Franco. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed into law and ratified by the Senate in 1970, and which 189 nations have signed, has a goal to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and eliminate them, said Stoever. There's a body of law against the use of nuclear weapons, he said, and we have First Amendment rights to protest. Stoever said he felt it was important to risk arrest because of the difference between what we have signed and what we are doing.

Stoever spoke out about health hazards and deaths of workers from contaminants at the Bannister Federal Complex, where the current nuclear weapons parts plant is located.

"I don't want to be an executioner,
nor a victim."

Picking up on a post-World War II phrase of Albert Camus, Stoever said, "I don't want to be an executioner, nor a victim."

Part of Stoever's duties as an officer of the court for 31 years has been to provide legal services. As a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he did two years of alternative service and has consistently been involved in peace efforts.

Potts, in her statement, began, "I have a 12-year-old daughter. Since her birth, I've seen an increase in the military-industrial complex, and it worries me that she may not see anything but global imperialism the rest of her life."

Members of Congress
vote for weapons development
"solely to keep jobs in their districts."

Potts said she feels members of Congress vote for weapons development "solely to keep jobs in their districts, after being told by generals that they didn't need that equipment. In all 435 U.S. districts, there are military-industrial complex jobs."

Potts, who served in the Navy in the Persian Gulf, said, "I became aware of the extent of the U.S. military's global empire—we have nuclear weapons on Trident submarines sitting on the floor of the Indian Ocean. Our president and secretary of state are talking about other countries' desire to obtain nuclear weapons, when (at the same time) we are getting new money to build and refurbish nuclear weapons. ... My daughter is in jeopardy of living the rest of her life in this world endangered by nuclear weapons."

Franco commented, "While this is a troubling issue, this is also one of the few places where you can protest. I didn't have that right when the Castro government removed my family from Cuba."

While these trial highlights tell the story, we celebrate that Stoever and Potts were able to state their case in court.

—Lu Mountenay and Jane Stoever are members of the PeaceWorks Board.

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Sowing seeds of peace

Peace Colloquy features trip to new nuclear weapons plant site

By Lu Mountenay

About 25 people took a field trip Oct. 26 to pray at KC’s new plant for making parts for nuclear weapons. The people were attending the annual Peace Colloquy in Independence, Mo., held by the Community of Christ. This year, the theme was Engaging Nuclear Questions, and the bus wound its way from the church’s peace temple to the current nuclear weapons parts plant at Bannister Federal Complex and then to the new plant site. Jim Hannah, a PeaceWorks Board member, and his wife, Sharon, organized the bus trip to allow participants to demonstrate against nuclear weapons and for peace.

On the bus, Jane and Henry Stoever gave us a brief history of the Bannister complex and the radioactive and chemical contamination of the surrounding land and water. They detailed what grassroots groups are doing, and what we can do, to encourage transformation of weapons-making jobs into hoped-for green jobs.

At the new plant site, we held gentle signs promoting peace supplied by our companion rider, Sue Sloan, who represents PeacePathways in the Community of Christ. We sang songs of peace and justice from the church’s 2013 hymnal with Dale Jones and Lauren Hall. Jim Hannah talked with us about his weekly protests at the site and his question about building more weapons, “Is it good for the Grand-kids?” I shared a poem adapted from Chief Seattle:

I affirmed, “Chief Seattle spoke this truth in his age—and it is still truth today. In the nuclear age, what we do to our enemies, we do to ourselves … to our sons, to our daughters. I’m sure you’ve heard it asked, ‘Where are these weapons of mass destruction?’ Well, we know where they are … this is one of the sites where they are born. We stand on guilty ground. This ground, this earth did not choose to birth these weapons. It would rather grow sunflowers.”

Peace Colloquy attendees on the nuclear weapons site bus tour hold signs promoting peace outside of the new nuclear weapons facility.

Why sunflowers? The people of Ukraine decided to become a nuclear weapons-free state and sent their arsenal of nuclear weapons to Russia to be dismantled. To honor the occasion, defense ministers from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States planted sunflower seeds at the former missile base, symbolizing new life and hope for the contaminated earth. Today sunflowers are the worldwide symbol of a nuclear weapons-free world. They also have been planted at Chernobyl and Fukushima Daichi as a soil cleanup agent, after nuclear accidents.

I invited our group, “Kneel and touch and bless this earth, this grass, these wildflowers and tiny creatures hiding here—one last time before it is contaminated. Creator Spirit, bless this earth, with our apologies for what will happen here. We know it is not your will. Amen.”

We did all we could to stop this step in the advancement of nuclear proliferation, and we will continue our vigil. But greed has won … for now. The temple of doom is erected. It promises threats and bullying politics, at best … suffering and death, at worst.

We scattered sunflower seeds, making one small attempt toward healing. We planted sunflowers and prayers to heal the shuddering earth.

—Lu Mountenay, a PeaceWorks Board member, edits The Daily Bread for the Community of Christ.

The world’s turning toward peace, says Hiroshima’s former mayor

by Jane Stoever

Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, former mayor of Hiroshima
Photo by Jim Hannah

Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, a former mayor of Hiroshima, came to Independence, Mo., to join in the Community of Christ’s Peace Colloquy Oct. 26-28. The church honored him with its annual International Peace Award, including $20,000 that will foster peace through programs of Hiroshima University, where Akiba is a professor.

A longtime nuclear disarmament advocate, Akiba began his lecture Oct. 26 with a flashback to his high school days. He was an exchange student in a suburb of Chicago. He said that in a history class, “I was shocked to hear of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as necessary and justified.” All the students thought that, he said, and their teacher agreed. He felt his class needed to hear his views—the bombings “were inhumane because of the sufferings the people went through.” So, in broken English in the mid-1960s, he told his class about the consequences of the bombings, the evil of the bombs. No one was convinced.

Akiba said he came to feel that sharing his views was his homework. As a young man, he began a travel grant program for the Hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 nuclear attacks, allowing them to go to many countries to tell their personal stories about the bombings. Akiba eventually became a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, mayor of Hiroshima, and president of Mayors for Peace.

Akiba tacked this footnote onto his flashback: “In 2006, I gave a lecture at DePaul University (in Chicago), and many of my former classmates came to listen. I believe these friendships are the essence of peace.”

He listed three “footsteps of the Hibakusha”:

• They were able to transcend the agony—they hovered between life and death, and they had the courage to choose life.

• They prevented World War III—they showed the world that to use nuclear weapons is to doom the human race.

• They rejected the path of revenge and animosity.

“Not many people are capable of this level of sacrifice and self-control,” Akiba said of the Hibakusha. Referring to those who died from the bombings, he added, “Hundreds of thousands of souls who perished are conveying their wishes through the survivors: Never again!”

Akiba suggested this litmus test for peacefulness today: “How tolerant are our cities of gays and lesbians?”

Citing progress toward cooperation instead of alienation, Akiba reminded his listeners that in 1986, Reagan and Gorbachev almost agreed to eliminate nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Soviet Union. The passing of time is bringing the escalation of reason, Akiba said. “People regard violence as a problem to be solved rather than a contest to be won.”

In 2015, when the United Nations convenes the next five-year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Akiba said the centerpiece would be a nuclear weapons convention, a framework for dismantling all nuclear weapons.

Mayors for Peace, with the goal of making the world nuclear-weapon-free by 2020, includes 5,443 mayors representing about 1 billion people. “We still have enough time” to reach zero nuclear weapons by 2020, said Akiba, through multilateral agreements and monitoring.

“2020—what I call perfect vision,” Akiba said. Proclaiming a global turning toward peace, Akiba reasoned, “Since the Buddha nature resides within us, it might be called human nature, or the grace of God.”

—Jane Stoever is a PeaceWorks Board member.

Carl Kabat protests nuclear weapons, gets ‘time served’

by Jane Stoever

Father Carl Kabat, OMI (Oblates of Mary Immaculate), of St. Louis, in a Municipal Court trial Oct. 12 in Kansas City, Mo., got “time served” on two charges—trespassing this July 4 at the site for the new KC Plant, and breaking probation from his July 4, 2011, trespass. The city earlier dropped a property charge against Kabat, now 79, who had used a bolt-cutter to open the chain-link fence and enter the site late July 3. The time served came this July 4-5.

Judge Elena Franco and Kabat agreed she would accept his plea of “technically not guilty,” she would find him guilty and sentence him, and he would forgo appeal. This process let him speak his mind to the court, with about 30 supporters there.

Recalling that German judges (in 1987) blocked the entry to the U.S. Air Force Base in Mutlangen, West Germany, because nuclear weapons were deployed there on Pershing II missiles, Kabat told Franco, “I invite you to go out to the new plant” and block the entry. Franco listened.

Kabat gave examples in which juries refused to find law-breakers guilty. Dred and Harriet Scott were found by a jury to be people, but judges found them to be things—slaves—said Kabat. And during Prohibition, “juries found people not guilty even though their hand was found in the cookie jar,” he added. With 65 percent or 75 percent of the people saying we should get rid of nuclear weapons, Kabat asked, "Why don’t we do that?"

Mentioning Henry David Thoreau’s outcry against the silence of collusion, Kabat said of the KC Plant, “Those bombs we will make and are making, we’re responsible for.” He observed, “It’s not enough to hold an opinion. We must act!” Urging that we all go out to the plant, he said, “It’s ours! We should be able to walk in the front gate and walk around the 170-180 acres.”

It makes a person wonder when and if he’ll go walking there again.

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Finally, we're in! Kansas City votes on April 2, 2013

by Rachel MacNair

Enough! -- the new nuke parts plant on MO Hwy 150. The ordinance would ban future KC funding arrangements for making parts for nuclear weapons.
Photo by Jim Hannah.

On August 30, 2012, the Kansas City Missouri City Council voted to place the citizen's initiative on the ballot for April 2, 2013: "Prevention of the City's Future Financial Involvement in Nuclear Weapons Components Facilities."

They did first add an amendment to clarify that they were voting for it because they legally had to according to the Charter, even though they disapproved of it. Since this was adding a detail which was true, and which may have made them more likely to place it on the ballot, this did not strike us as a problem. This amendment will not be on the ballot, but only the ordinance wording.

The reason for the April 2 date instead of November 6 is that the deadline for November passed on August 28.

With that amendment, the vote was 10 for and 3 against; the three opposed were the two that represent the district in which the new plant is located (John Sharp and Scott Taylor), plus one attorney who made an assessment independent of the city attorney (Jim Glover). City Attorney William Geary had offered an opinion – in a letter before we gathered signatures and in a detailed memorandum afterwards when our opponents challenged his view – that the ordinance would be lawful if passed. He said there was no justification for keeping it off the ballot, so the councilmembers did understand they were legally required to do so.

While we were at first upset about the five-month delay in the election due to their decision being deliberately delayed two days past the deadline, this has several advantages:

• More time to use this as a vehicle for public education
• In an issues-oriented small-turnout election, our own motivated sympathizers are a larger portion
• In issues-only elections like this, a larger portion of people are ones who do their homework and consider both sides of an issue, as compared to presidential voters who may not have seen the issue before and vote in ignorance because they're already doing the ballot for other reasons
• People who are likely to vote because they always do have been directly leafleted several times at the polls, five times starting in February 2011, and will be again in November.
• We'll be competing with fewer other issues and with fewer other elections across the country for national publicity.
• More time to prepare – we can get some awesome videos up on the web, for example.

Because of previous wrangling, this was the third petition on the unique financing and ownership situation of that Kansas City has toward a nuclear weapons production plant. A petition for the City to make contingency conversion plans if the federal government were to abandon the facility passed unanimously, but challenges to the financial involvement were more troublesome. Therefore, this is the culmination of work that began in January, 2011.

In conversation with councilmember Scott Wagner before the session today about our hope that the matter would be straightened out at the session, Rachel MacNair mentioned that while we had always listed three goals for this campaign -- to raise public awareness, do public education, and make absolutely sure that the plant was controversial -- we had added a fourth one: to show that we were persistent. He said we had certainly succeeded at that.

For updates and details on the issue, visit foolish-investment.com.

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Peace petition vs. future nuke contracts takes center stage at City Hall hearing

by Jane Stoever

Kansas City peacemakers' fourth petition in two years got a rambunctious City Hall hearing Aug. 15 before the Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee. The committee decided to consult about legal issues and bring the measure back for a vote Aug. 22, with a follow-up vote by the full City Council likely on Aug. 23. At issue: Whether the measure could go on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The ordinance was developed by KC Peace Planters, a coalition created by some PeaceWorks Board members.

The opposition spoke loud and long Aug. 15. Peacemakers, including PeaceWorks members, testified with passion.

Pro

"The city attorney has no legal issues with the ballot language," Councilman Ed Ford told the committee, which he chairs. "We have a ministerial duty to put the measure on the ballot."

Rachel MacNair, Ph.D., petition coordinator, said the city attorney, Bill Geary, had given "the expected legal caveats" in his April 14 letter to her, and then had written, "It is … my opinion the legislation proposed would be lawful if enacted." MacNair asked the committee to vote yes on putting the petition on the Nov. 6 ballot.

"Our cultural creed as a nation is an idolatrous faith in nuclear weapons," said Christian Brother Louis Rodemann (see his full testimony).

PeaceWorks Board Chair Henry Stoever said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified by the Senate in 1970, binds the United States to the reduction and elimination of all nuclear weapons. "It is part of the law of the land," Stoever insisted. "What type of legacy do we leave the future? Is it one of manufacturing parts for weapons of mass destruction, or one of converting those jobs into ecologically friendly, green, alternative-energy jobs?"

Ron Faust of Gladstone, Mo., addressed the jobs issue: "We need to step back and get a larger picture. What does economic development mean? What are our jobs producing? This petition has to do with the survivability of our planet."

KC Peace Planters gave a PowerPoint presentation with excerpts from "Maximizing Job Creation: An Analysis of Alternatives for the Transformation of the Kansas City Plant." This economists' report suggests nuclear weapons facilities could convert, for example, to wind energy or solar energy enterprises.

Early in the hearing, the committee discussed environmentally sustainable projects. Supporting the peace petition, Joshua Armfield of KC, Mo., said, "I was encouraged to hear about steps Kansas City is taking toward sustainability and care for the world, and I see a disconnect. I don't see how we can build nuclear weapons and be ‘a sustainable city.'"

David Quinly of KC, Mo., referred to the new plant for making nuclear weapons parts at Botts Road and Mo. Hwy. 150. "Maybe, just maybe, if we play this dead man's hand just right, we can add to our (Hwy.) 150 corridor development anchored by the shiny new nuclear death campus now under construction," said Quinly. He asked how we could with any sense of justice continue to follow our leaders into the abyss described by Martin Luther King as "the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight."

Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, a doctoral student at the University of California-Berkeley, said young people would continue to demand alternative energy sources and jobs in those fields, whereas only the government is demanding nuclear weapons. Berkeley has declared itself a nuclear weapons-free zone, he said, adding, "We don't think nuclear weapons should be part of our arsenal. A city as robust as Kansas City surely could do what Berkeley has done."

Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, M.D., Emiliano's mother, spoke on behalf of Physicians for Social Responsibility. She held her baby grandson, Nicolas, and made a plea for consistency, for children's sake. "On one hand, you say you go to war because someone else has nuclear weapons. Then you turn around" and start a new plant in KC to make parts for nukes. "We have the opportunity to be like the student in Tiananmen Square wanting to stop the tanks, or Rosa Parks on the bus," she said, asking the committee to vote for the petition to go on the ballot.

Con

"This measure could cost Kansas City hundreds of jobs," said City Councilman John Sharp. "It is bad public policy. It should be defeated by the voters in November."

Attorney E.E. Keenan of KC, Mo., speaking for the Greater KC AFL-CIO, said the proposed ordinance "has an extraordinary clogging effect on interstate commerce: it outright bans any municipal cooperation with the nuclear defense industry. … If every jurisdiction adopted the ordinance proposed here, there would be no nuclear production. This measure directly targets national defense. It attacks and undermines it." When New York City faced a referendum banning governmental cooperation in nuclear facilities, the state's highest court prohibited its placement on the ballot, said Keenan. He also said Oakland, Calif., passed a ballot measure creating a nuclear-free zone, only to have a federal court strike it down.

Tom Whittaker, executive vice president and chief legal officer of J.E. Dunn Construction Co., the general contractor for the new NNSA plant, said construction was almost complete, and an average of 1,000 employees per day have been helping to build the facility.

"I suggest the legislation is fatally flawed," said Attorney Kevin Breslin of Centerpoint, which coordinated the development plan for the new NNSA plant. Breslin argued that the "financial involvement" banned in the petition could keep the city from receiving earnings tax from NNSA employees. He said, "They keep trying to throw a blanket or net over the Botts Road facility—this is a back-door way of discouraging people from doing business with that facility."

Pete Fullerton, president and CEO of the city's Economic Development Corporation, said the EDC executive committee on Aug. 10 had reaffirmed EDC's support for the NNSA facility. The reaffirmation statement noted the $705 million building project and the total $1.25 billion direct project investment.

Elise Martini of the Greater Kansas City Building and Construction and Trades Council, representing 16 unions, objected, "We will lose jobs with this ordinance."

Danielle Bender of the AFL-CIO said the petition could cause confusion. She told the committee, "IBM, GE, Boeing, Honeywell, they make anything from light bulbs to predators. I urge you on behalf of Kansas City labor to oppose this" petition.

Aftermath

The day after the hearing, MacNair sent the committee a list of Keenan's and Breslin's objections to the petition, with her preliminary response to each of their points. She said the ordinance would not undo contracts already made, and "no one is entitled to future contracts." Her bottom line: City voters have a right to instruct the council on its votes.

KC Peace Planters are consulting with constitutional law experts about the measure.

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Testimony exposes ‘idolatrous faith' in nukes

Brother Louis Rodemann presented the following testimony Aug. 15 at a City Hall hearing on the petition against KC's future financial involvement in making parts for nuclear weapons.

Brother Louis Rodemann sends a message of nonviolence as he stands opposite the Kansas City Plant, the current nulcear weapons parts factory on Bannister Road in KC. Photo by Ann Suellentrop.

Our cultural creed as a nation is an idolatrous faith in nuclear weapons. We propose to be fighting terrorism by our own terrorist, aggressive postures and behaviors.

We profess to be preserving and promoting democracy by shrouding ourselves and our global neighbors in a perpetual slavery to a cloud of pervasive fear and mistrust.

We squander trillions of dollars on national defense while the reality of dehumanizing poverty oppresses millions of our own citizens, and hundreds of millions around the world.

At the end of the day, or when we take a deep breath to disengage from the frenzy of our lives, don't we really see this all as insane, unjust, immoral?

—Christian Brother Louis Rodemann taught 20 years at De LaSalle High School in KC and for about 30 years has been a staff member or community member of Holy Family Catholic Worker House in KC, which he calls "a beacon of hope" for the poor and near-poor. Before giving his testimony, he said his reflection "may seem tangent to today's issue, but I believe it is at the heart of the matter."

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‘Interdependence Day' action

Priest trespasses at new nuke-parts complex

by Jane Stoever

Carl Kabat, right, stands with Joshua Armfield at Cherith Brook Catholic Worker House in KC after Kabat's release July 5.

Carl Kabat, 78, a priest from St. Louis who belongs to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, continued his life's witness against nuclear weapons on "Interdependence Day," July 4. Under cover of darkness, way before dawn, he entered the well-fenced 170-acre complex in southern Kansas City, Mo., a new facility for making parts for nuclear weapons. Kabat slept several hours and, with daylight, took a long walk across the property, eventually drawing close to the front entry. "A guard saw me and drove toward me in a golf cart, asking, ‘Want a ride?' So I went with him" to the entry, Kabat later said. He was under arrest for about 32 hours.

On July 5, Kabat pleaded not guilty to charges of trespass and property destruction. His arraignment is set for Aug. 21 at 1:30 p.m. in KC Municipal Court at 1101 Locust. He expects to request a later trial where he can explain his action to the judge.

According to a friend of Kabat, he said he wanted to open up the fencing to "allow all of the Holy One's deer and other animals that once used the former bean field for its habitat. … In place of defense, I would like to de-fence." On July 5, after his release, he said the fencing was 10 feet high and sturdy, not permitting much de-fencing.

In a formal statement developed before the action, Kabat mourned the deaths caused by the Nazis in World War II and by the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "One of our Minuteman III's could kill approximately three million of our sisters and brothers," said Kabat. "We have perfected the ‘art' of killing and burning. … Four Minuteman III's could kill twelve million of our sisters and brothers. … The opinion of the International Court in 1995 states that nuclear weapons are a Crime Against Humanity!"

Kabat's first anti-nuke, pro-peace action in Missouri was to occupy a nuclear missile silo 45 miles east of KC, close to Hwy. 70. He and three other activists used a jackhammer to damage the concrete cover over the missile—a plowshares action, in line with Isaiah's mandate to beat swords into plowshares. For that action, he served 12 years in federal prison. Reflecting on the missile site event, Kabat said July 5, "We shut down that missile silo for a month."

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Trifecta Resista civil resisters wend their way to court

Four persons, with about 30 supporters cheering them on, did civil resistance against KC's new nuclear weapons parts plant during the April 13-15 Trifecta Resista, cosponsored by PeaceWorks. On May 15, two of the resisters were sentenced. Two who requested a trial received the trial date of Aug. 17.

Lu Mountenay of Independence, Mo., a member of the PeaceWorks Board, and Mark Kenney of Omaha received comparably light sentences May 15 from Judge Elena Franco—20 hours of community service (not 25 as in the past from Franco) and 6 months' probation (not the two years she gave in the past). Welcome sentences!

Midge Potts of Springfield, Mo., and Henry Stoever of Overland Park, Kan., chair of the PeaceWorks Board, will be able to speak up, speak out, at their trial with Judge Franco Aug. 17, at the KC Municipal Court, 1101 Locust, KC, MO 64106. Come & support our resisters!

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Prevent future $ deals for making nuke parts

Petition moves toward City Council

On four straight peace petitions, PeaceWorks members and others have pounded the sidewalks and obtained 5,000 or more signatures from Kansas City, Mo., voters. On June 4, Rachel MacNair, petition coordinator, submitted to the city clerk's office the petition against future financial involvement with nuclear weapons parts facilities. The petition had about 5,200 signatures.

The city currently requires 3,572 valid signatures to bring a petition to City Council. Validation of signatures may take 10 days. MacNair said she expected the petition—"Prevention of the city's future financial involvement in nuclear weapons components facilities"—to be received and filed by the City Council in mid-June. Then within 60 days, the Council is legally required to take action.

The petition would require the city not to "enter into, facilitate, nor give permission for any future contracts whereby it will be directly financially involved in any facilities that produce or procure components for, assemble, or refurbish nuclear weapons … ." Note: The City Council on February 4, 2010, approved the development plan allowing municipal bonds to be sold to private investors to finance the new nuclear weapons production plant under construction at Mo. Hwy. 150, south of Grandview. The new measure would prevent such Council actions in the future.

The Council could vote against the measure and still allow it to go on the ballot. "Every indication from our last City Council meeting was that this future-oriented petition would be acceptable" to go on the ballot, says MacNair. "We hope it will appear on the November ballot."

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Activists march from current to new nuke-parts plant

by Barbara Howard

Photo by Marc Saviano

A few days after the Memorial Day Walk, I'm trying not to scratch the chigger bites I got at the walk's end, at the entry to the new nuclear weapons parts plant on Mo. Hwy. 150. In some perverse way, I stay grateful for the bites. They remind me of the 35 people who carried signs, sang, and supported each other along the road. The marchers were led by the lively beat of drummer Daniel Karam and a U.S. flag-bearer, Tom Fox. This image of caring and joy contrasts with the horror of the emerging new plant.

The estimated cost of the new facility is about $675 million. In an online article for the National Catholic Reporter, publisher Fox, reporting on the walk, said President Obama last year announced an investment of $80 billion in the nation's nuclear arsenal. Yet, Fox noted, recent press reports indicate that the president may be considering a significantly smaller nuclear deterrent force of between 300 to 1,100 deployed warheads. According to treaty limits, by 2018 the U.S. can deploy only 1,550 warheads. The number deployed at present is confidential. Our nine-mile march, with some of us driving to give an occasional lift to the walkers, began at the 62-year-old facility for making non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons, at Bannister Federal Complex. PeaceWorks sponsored the walk with support from Occupy KC and the coalition KC Peace Planters. For this second annual trek, participants doubled last year's group of 15 or so.

We kicked off our journey with a challenge to stand against the continuation of the nuclear weapons buildup. Maurice Copeland, a former employee and supervisor at the current nuclear weapons parts plant, reminded us that more than 150 people have died as a result of exposure to dangerous chemicals at the current facility, and several hundred are still ill. The nine-mile walk to the new building site provided an opportunity to witness to those driving by. We walked as a community committed to peace.

Kept at a distance by "no trespassing" signs, we gathered near the entrance to the new facility to share reflections. We deplored the waste of resources and the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Henry Stoever, chair of the board of PeaceWorks and a leader of the march, offered encouragement. He said that 20 years ago, activists protesting the Minuteman II nuclear missiles embedded in Missouri farm fields contributed to shutting down the sites. Stoever believes PeaceWorks can eventually help bring about the end of nuclear weapons production in Kansas City.

I concur, and I'm itching to be part of the group that makes this possible.

—Barbara Howard of Independence, Mo., a former editor at Herald Publishing House and former member of the Interfaith Peace Alliance, is a new member of PeaceWorks.

Photos from NCR's Tom Fox:

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From trespass line to jail cell

by Lu Mountenay

Editor's note: Lu Mountenay of Independence, Mo., a new member of the PeaceWorks Board, stepped over the line between the public right-of-way and the "campus" for the new nuclear weapons parts plant on April 14, during the Trifecta Resista, cosponsored by PeaceWorks.

Nuclear arms plant?
Not in my backyard

I started to have second thoughts—fearful thoughts. Do I really want to do this? The other Trifecta Resista protesters extended grace to me even before the imminent event. "Now if you change your mind at the last minute, Lu, no one will hold it against you … no one will think any less of you."

Mark Kenney of Omaha and PeaceWorks leaders Henry Stoever and Lu Mountenay hold their ground April 14 after crossing onto property for the new nuclear weapons parts plant.
Photo by Robyn Haas

As I faced the line of "peace" officers, I felt my knees go weak. I said a fast and silent prayer for courage. Immediately a peaceful spirit washed over me. So I declined to step back to safety across the private property line indicated by the forbidding sign. After our third warning, I was arrested for trespass with three others: Henry Stoever, Mark Kenney, and Midge Potts.

The nuclear weapons plant being built in Kansas City is unthinkable to me. I call it the Temple of Doom. It is being built for Honeywell by J.E. Dunn, the same contractor that built the Temple of Peace in Independence. How ironic! Thirty-five people came to protest with much forethought. We were trained in nonviolent resistance by Pace e Bene (Peace and Doing Good) facilitators from the White Rose Catholic Worker in Chicago. Now we were committed.

The officers were very respectful and I feel they were somewhat sympathetic to our cause. They cuffed my wrists behind my back very loosely. I guess they didn't think of me as a flight risk. My compatriots were separated from me in the police van by steel mesh.

So many unknowns lay ahead of me. At the station, the officers were a little frustrated because they couldn't find me in their record. "Not even a parking ticket?" Sorry. Mug shots—-face front, face right, face left-—and fingerprinting followed. They emptied my pockets and removed the laces from my running shoes. They took the cross from around my neck! The officer said "follow me" and before I knew it, the steel doors closed behind me.

How did I come to make this choice? I had thought about the decision— unwise, in my opinion— to build even more nuclear weapons. I had read about how dangerous it was. I had written about it for publications, and yes, prayed about it. Now it was time to pursue peace physically. Time to act! So…into the police van we did go.

I knew this would be engraved on my brand-new police record, but if my grandchildren understood I was doing it for them, which they did, I knew others would understand as well. If I chose peace, I had to choose this action.

Was poverty their crime?

My home for the next few hours was a concrete and steel jail cell. I sat on a graffiti- covered metal bench to gather my thoughts. I noticed someone had scratched "MAMA" in the blue paint. I saw it as a lonely, regretful cry for help. "How much is your bail?" an inmate asked. "One hundred dollars," I answered. "That's nothing! Do you have someone to pay it for you?"

I had faith in my family support system and companion protesters at PeaceWorks, KC. However, I felt the other women in the cell might be alone in their troubles. As I got to know them, I found it was even worse than I imagined. When "Stacey" learned I was a minister, she immediately asked, "Will you pray for me?" We prayed together as she cried. It found that poverty was at the root of her crime.

She had broken her probation because she couldn't pay the fine for the bad checks she had written for groceries. "I was in hiding. My boyfriend found me and beat me up. The police arrested me—-not my boyfriend—-because of the warrant on me. I miss my children."

"Flo" was homeless and had been drinking. As I started to walk around the cell to stretch my legs, she followed me. I did a few arm-swinging exercises. She did likewise. Soon, everyone joined in, and we had an aerobics class going. They longed for a little direction, a break from boredom and hopelessness, even for a few hours.

One woman, locked in a separate cell, moaned and yelled continually. "She's violent," "Stephanie" said. I started to sing and she became quiet. Then Stacey, Stephanie, Flo, and Mary started singing too. Flo asked, "Do you know Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"?

"Sure do." And so we all sang. To cheer things up, I started to sing alternate words: "Swing low, sweet Cadillac … a brand-new El Dorado comin' after me …" We were all laughing, and an officer came to see what was so funny. He looked perplexed. When they came to release me, everyone started crying again, so we had another prayer. They had surely blessed me with their sincerity and authentic emotions. They taught me about gratitude and humility.

I think of my cellmates every day since then, and pray for them the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I pray they have someone to lead them in dance, song, and prayer; someone to call friend; and yes, someone to pay their bail.

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Walk/ride from current nuke-parts plant to new site

Break out your comfy old shoes on Memorial Day and walk all/part of the nine miles from the current nuke-parts plant in KC to the shiny new one, 70 percent constructed. The walk starts at 8 a.m. at Bannister & Wayne (park on Lydia, south of Bannister). Then we head south on Holmes and go east on Mo. Hwy. 150, arriving at about 11:30 a.m. at Thunderbird Road.

Needed: both walkers and riders (to offer water, to give a lift to the weary). This walk/ride commemorates those who've died:

• from contaminants from the current plant,
• from the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, and
• from lack of resources (health care, food, shelter) because our country prioritizes the care and feeding of war and nukes over human needs.

We'll also publicize two possibilities: converting the new plant to projects such as wind or solar energy, and keeping KC from future financial deals for nuke-parts production. For info, contact PeaceWorks Board Chair Henry Stoever, henrystoever@sbcglobal.net, 913-375-0045.

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SANE plea to Congress

by Lu Mountenay

"I would like to plead not guilty by reason of sanity," said PeaceWorks member Charles Carney, who on Nov. 6, 2011, was one of five civil resisters to KC's new nuclear weapons parts plant. This sane message is reflected in a bill introduced recently by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and 34 other members of the House of Representatives: H.R. 3974, the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act.

The purpose of the bill is "To reduce the number of nuclear-armed submarines operated by the Navy, to prohibit the development of a new long-range penetrating bomber aircraft, to reduce the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles operated by the Department of Defense, and for other purposes." Sounds sane, right?!

The findings in the bill include this: "… the United States continues to maintain an enormous arsenal of nuclear weapons and delivery systems that were devised with the Cold War in mind." The U.S. has approximately 5,000 nuclear warheads that are deployed or deployable. This obsolete Cold War-based approach to "nuclear security" comes at significant cost: hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years. Does this sound sane to you?

The findings of the bill continue, "The national security interests of the (U.S.) can be well served by reducing the total number of deployed nuclear warheads and their delivery systems, as suggested by the Department of Defense" (January 2012). … The Government Accountability Office has found that there is significant waste in the construction of the nuclear facilities of the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) of the Department of Energy." Doesn't this sound sane?

After all, what is our biggest national security threat? "Our national debt," according to Admiral Mike Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2010). This bill finds, "Economic security and national security are linked, and both will be well served by smart defense spending." How sane!

Let members of the House of Representatives know you support the SANE Act and want them to cosponsor it. For more info, see http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas.

—Lu Mountenay serves on the PeaceWorks Board.

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City Council unanimously passes peace initiative

The KC, Mo., City Council unanimously passed a peace initiative March 22, a petition on planning for alternative work for local employees making parts for nuclear weapons. This was one of two peace initiatives for which PeaceWorks members gathered signatures last fall. The measure provides for the city to make contingency plans for production of other products and for the retraining of workers at both the new Botts Road plant (in south KC) and the current plant on Bannister Road.

"Success!" says petition coordinator Rachel MacNair. "All the hard work of all the volunteers who collected thousands of signatures has paid off."

MacNair says this petition's passage is important for federal nuclear weapons policy because:

• The measure helps to remove one obstacle to stopping new nuclear weapons production: a fear of job loss if the federal government cuts back on refurbishment of its weapons. "We need not panic upon hearing that federal policy has changed, which would be good news in every other way. We've prepared for the possibility of change," says MacNair.
• The petition helps set up a self-fulfilling prophecy to make such a change in policy more likely, suggests MacNair.
• The measure offers a precedent and example to campaigns in other cities. "Submitting citizens' petitions is a strategy that works, rather quickly and efficiently," says MacNair.

The other initiative, "Removal of City Financial Involvement in Production of Nuclear Weapons Components," is lingering in committee due to heated debates and is scheduled to come before the Committee on Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Wednesday, March 28, at 1:30 p.m. on the 26th floor of City Hall.

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Resister: 'Not guilty by reason of sanity'

PeaceWorks member Charles Carney, one of five Nov. 6 civil resisters to KC's new nuclear weapons parts plant, told a judge Jan. 17 that he would not simply plead guilty of trespass and request community service. "I would like to plead not guilty by reason of sanity," Carney told Municipal Court Judge Elena Franco at the hearing. He asked for two minutes to explain his plea. Franco said no but arranged for a trial at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 21-- Carney's day in court.

Three other defendants submitted pleas of guilty and received sentences of 25 hours of community service in their local areas. They are Jim Hannah of Independence, Mo., a PeaceWorks Board member; Erica Weiland of Seattle; and Kima Garrison of Portland, Ore. A fifth trespasser, Jason Rawn of Union, Maine, spent the night of Nov. 6 in jail, and was released on time served.

After the hearing, Carney said that as a psychiatric social worker, he assists people with mental illnesses, helping them secure housing and work. "While I see drastic cuts in funding for those who struggle with mental illness, the state has no problems with funding the real insanity--that of the escalation of nuclear weapons," he said. "I personally don't feel I did anything wrong" in trespassing at the new plant site Nov. 6

PeaceWorks members and KC Peace Planters can offer Carney "court support" Feb. 21.

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City clerk receives signed petitions re making parts for nukes in KC

Rachel MacNair (right) hands in both piles of petitions to City Clerk Vickie Thompson-Carr (middle) and another office clerk (left).
Photo by Ann Suellentrop

KC Peace Planters, a coalition including PeaceWorks, turned in petitions for two ballot initiatives on Nov. 14 to the city clerk of Kansas City, Mo. The next step in the process is for the election board to verify the signatures; once that's done and sufficient signatures are verified, hearings start with the City Council.

"We need 3,572 signatures on each petition to be verified in order for them to qualify for council hearings and the April ballot," says PeaceWorks member Rachel MacNair, coordinator of the petition drive. "We gathered around 5,000 signatures on each petition." For comparison purposes, MacNair notes that in the earlier petition drive, the single petition gained about 5,000 signatures, and once the unverifiable signatures were eliminated, the initiative still had about 800 signatures to spare.

Here's what the new initiatives provide for:

Summary, Petition 1
Remove city financial involvement in production of nuclear weapons components

1. Kansas City won't make any more contracts for producing parts for nuclear weapons or finance their production in the future.
2. Kansas City will divest itself of the municipal bonds for producing nuclear weapons parts, to the extent allowed by law.
3. No local agency will own the plant.
4. If the court knocks down any provision, that provision can be cut off and the rest remain.

Summary, Petition 2
Safeguard jobs with contingency plans for nuclear weapons facilities

1. The city will make detailed contingency plans for converting the local nuclear weapons plants to other work in case the plants are no longer to be used for making parts for nuclear weapons.
2. Renewable energy production is an option to be considered.
3. The plans will be updated annually.
4. The plans will be available for public comment.

Click here for full legal language of the ordinances on the petitions.

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Trespass vs. nuke-parts production in KC caps war resisters' meeting

By Susan Miller & Jane Stoever
Photos by Robyn Haas

"No tax bucks for nuclear bombs!" This was the chant of 46 protesters Nov. 6 at the country's first new, huge plant to "modernize" nuclear weapons. The five-building facility, under construction on Mo. Hwy. 150 in southern Kansas City, Mo., will replace the current, 62-year-old Kansas City Plant. Products of the current and future facilities include nuclear bombs' non-nuclear parts such as triggers and radar. The new KC Plant is the first of three new facilities for the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, with the other two in Los Alamos, N.M. (think plutonium) and Oak Ridge, Tenn. (think uranium). "We make the gun, they make the bullet," Ann Suellentrop told the war tax resisters during their Nov. 4-6 meeting in Kansas City, Kan.

At the new site for nuke-parts-making, five people crossed the line from the public right-of-way to the facility property and were arrested. The trespassers included Jim Hannah, a PeaceWorks Board member from Independence, Mo., and four current or former administrative committee members of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC): Charles Carney of Kansas City, Kan.; Kima Garrison of Portland, Ore.; Erica Weiland of Seattle; and Jason Rawn of Union, Maine.

Garrison and Weiland were released four hours after their arrest on $100 bonds; their wrists still showed handcuff marks, but they talked about the guards' respect for them. The other trespassers decided not to post bond and were held about 24 hours, with Carney and Hannah released on signature bonds. Rawn went free with "time served"-- no court date, no fine, no community service--facilitated by lawyer Henry Stoever. The court date for the others is Jan. 17.

Right after his release, Carney e-mailed supporters, "It was an ordeal, but nothing compared to what the political prisoners around the world go through." Noting Rawn's need for gluten-free food, Carney said Rawn "essentially went through a forced 24- hour fast. (Can't eat bologna sandwiches, go figure!)" Carney, local coordinator for the NWTRCC annual meeting, added, "What a gift to be able to converse with these two 'mensch' (Rawn and Hannah) for the last 24 hours."

Before the trespass, several people shared reflections on the new nuke-parts production site, a former soybean field.

"Big things are expected from this little bean field!" said Hannah. "Take a look: This project is gargantuan. The administrative office alone is larger than KC's new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. And the manufacturing plant covers 17 acres--equivalent to 13 football fields! The Kansas City Star reported a million dollars a day is being poured into this project. A billion dollars will be spent to construct the buildings, and another four billion dollars operating it for the first 20 years. Five billion dollars! It would be like writing a million-dollar check five thousand times. That's not peanuts, and certainly not soybeans! You could buy a lot of good with that money. Or a lot of death and destruction."

Weiland encouraged the protesters to begin and continue resisting war taxes, giving the results of a survey she conducted during the NWTRCC meeting. Among the 17 survey respondents, 12 have lived or are living below the taxable level and 9 have filed or do file tax forms while refusing to pay some or all of their taxes. The respondents reported 432 years total of resisting war taxes and/or refusing to pay, plus 180 years of resisting/refusing to pay the telephone tax that goes to the military. The respondents have resisted paying $359,610 in income taxes, and out of that amount, the Internal Revenue Service had collected $94,000. Weiland also named what respondents said were positive consequences of war tax resistance: having a cleaner conscience, belonging to a community of resisters, living in line with their values, and feeling empowered.

Bill Ramsey of St. Louis, a NWTRCC leader, trespassed at the new nuke- parts production site Aug. 16, 2010, when he joined about 75 trespassers and saw 14 arrested after stopping Caterpillars at work in the former soybean field. At the Nov. 6 demonstration this year, Ramsey read his poem about that 2010 action:

Soybeans have given way
to busy yellow Cats.
Beans plowed under as
Cats go round and round,
pushing and packing good earth,
clearing the way for a new generation,
for the planting of sanctioned terror,
a second round of readiness,
to threaten all generations.

The merry band of folks
like mice file into a field,
meandering toward the Cats,
sowing wildflowers as they go.
Through deep mud they trod
into the forward path of one Cat
and securely surround it.

Then one detains another Cat
and the worker Cats fall silent
across the field's expanse.
While the Cats are waylaid,
the mice will play.
And for a portion of minutes,
the only movement
across this piece of earth is
the silent sprouting of wildflowers.

Susan Miller of Hesston, Kan., is a former administrative committee member of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. Jane Stoever of Overland Park, Kan., is a PeaceWorks Board member. Robyn Haas is web developer for PeaceWorks and The National Catholic Reporter.

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War tax resisters gather in KC, call attention to new nuke-parts plant

By Susan Miller & Jane Stoever
Photos by Susan Miller

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) held its annual meeting Nov. 4-6 in Kansas City, Kan., with the theme, "Plant Peace—Resist War Taxes!" The meeting at the First Central Church of the Brethren culminated in a demonstration against the nuke-parts production facility being built in southern Kansas City, Mo.

War tax resisters, on Nov. 5, discuss the demonstration they'll participate in the next day.

PeaceWorks member Charles Carney, part of the NWTRCC administrative committee, coordinated the national meeting, which about 15 PeaceWorks members attended. Carney kicked off the meeting with musings on unilateral disarmament. The first time he heard that phrase, in 1982, it was not from a peace activist, a college professor, or a socialist, but from Catholic Archbishop Ray Hunthausen. "He said our faith impels us to be the ones to disarm first," said Carney. "As archbishop of the state of Washington, he said he hoped 500 or 5,000 or half a million Catholics would refuse to pay all or part of their taxes as a way of ending nuclear proliferation. He courageously stated that he himself was going to refuse to pay half his taxes in the coming years." That put Carney on the war tax resistance path.

Carney also noted that it disturbed him in 1982 when Secretary of State Alexander Haig said, "Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes." Carney soon was claiming the maximum number of legal allowances—nine—so taxes would not be withheld from his paycheck. He said, "What a freeing thing: to be able to lay down my sword and shield. What a freeing thing: to tell the government, to tell the military- industrial complex, to tell Wall Street, 'No. You can't have my money. All my checks will be written out to the people.'"

Protesters of the new nuke-parts plant (behind them) hold aloft their message to drivers on Mo. Hwy. 150 in southern KC.

PeaceWorks member Beth Seberger of Kansas City, Kan., spoke at the NWTRCC meeting about her lifelong war tax resistance. She began by not paying the $18 she owed the IRS in 1970. "I had two older brothers serving in the Air Force in the war," she said, "but I had been more influenced by Martin Luther King and his example of nonviolent resistance. I was seeing many young men my age struggling with their consciences over what to do about the draft."

Seberger said she asks her employers to keep her income below taxable levels and use the rest of her salary for projects otherwise unaffordable. "I have helped in the development of the Kansas City Interfaith Peace Alliance, Episcopal Social Services, Catholic Charities Refugee Services English as a Second Language program, and Literacy Kansas City," says Seberger. "I've also been able to give shelter now and then for folks in need." A video of Seberger's talk is online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-bhrTVCgWk.

Bill Ramsey of St. Louis reported that the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow Account (http://seanacc.org/escrowaccount.htm) has been moved from Seattle to St. Louis. He encouraged deposits to the account from across the country.

NWTRCC coordinator Ruth Benn of New York invited meeting participants to send photos, captions and stories about local actions to her for the NWTRCC newsletter ( http://www.nwtrcc.org).

Kima Garrison and Jason Rawn are processed by police after their arrest.

Naomi Paz Greenberg of New York, who serves on the board of Conscience and Peace Tax, said that April 15, "Tax Freedom Day," is a good time to point out that taxpayers are in fact working for the government, doing military service, for a long part of each year. Asked why she resists war taxes, she said, "Over one hundred members of my family were killed in the Holocaust. I can't inflict that on others."

The NWTRCC group and KC-area peacemakers protested at the new nuclear weapons parts production site on Nov. 6 with signs such as "Plant beans, not bombs" and "War taxes are killing us." The demonstrators tied bright yellow cards saying "I won't pay taxes for nuclear bombs" to the fence enclosing the former soybean field. Several persons spoke, including Daniel Woodham, a North Carolina farmer. He said people should nurture what they plant if they want it to grow and should not nurture the KC nuclear plant with tax dollars.

Writer/photographer Susan Miller of Hesston, Kan., belongs to the Heartland Peace Tax Group. Jane Stoever of Overland Park, Kan., writes for PeaceWorks.

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Sign new petitions

Prevent more KC funding of nuke-parts plants; require plans for alternative jobs

By Jane Stoever

Kansas City, Mo., voters can sign two new petitions to keep the city from further financial involvement in making parts for nuclear weapons and to require the city to plan for alternative jobs in case the nuke-parts jobs are discontinued.

"While we did gather a sufficient number of signatures to place a previous measure on the ballot, the City Council declined to place it on the ballot, and the judge at the Circuit Court was concerned about the involvement of federal agencies," says Rachel MacNair, Ph.D., coordinator of the petition drives. "Because our attorney advised us that the nature of federal litigation was such that we could get a measure on the ballot more quickly, cheaply, and surely by using all that we had learned in this process and running another initiative campaign, we decided that this was the better route."

The first petition is based on this premise, says MacNair: If the city's financial involvement in the new plant turns out not to be enough to give city voters a say over the new plant, it is nevertheless still true that city voters have a say over the city's financial involvement. With City Council approval, the city sold up to $815 million worth of municipal bonds to private investors last year to fund the new nuke-parts facility on Mo. Hwy. 150, near Grandview. Furthermore, the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, a state-chartered agency whose members are all appointed by KC mayors, holds the title to the massive new facility.

The financial arrangement with city ties is important because the bypassing of proper U.S. Congress appropriations procedures, says MacNair, means "the city is doing more than merely participating in building weapons of mass destruction. It is enabling a set-up that might not happen with more federal attention and accountability."

The first petition is "Removal of city financial involvement in production of nuclear weapons components," and the second is "Safeguarding jobs with contingency plans for nuclear weapons facilities." A supporters' petition--for persons outside the city--enables a wide range of people opposed to KC's commitment to nuclear weapons production to voice their concern. A brochure* outlines reasons for the petitions. (*Note on printing the brochure: to create a 3-panel folded brochure use the first and second pages; for two-sided flat handouts use the first and third pages.)

If you'd like to pitch in and obtain signatures for the petitions and/or the supporters' petition by early November, contact MacNair at 816-753-2057.

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Nuke-parts plant resisters testify in court

by Jane Stoever