Editor’s note: This commentary is by Robin Lloyd, of Burlington, a peace activist who is co-chair of the Disarm Committee of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – US, and a member of the board of TowardFreedom.org.
The treaty to make nuclear weapons illegal, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, will come into force on Jan. 22. Peace activists around the world will be celebrating this event, but Vermonter Martha Hennessy will not be able to join us. She began her 10-month sentence on Dec. 14 at Danbury prison for entering the highly restricted domain of the Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia, home to six nuclear Trident submarines.
I recently reread the sentencing statement she offered the court: “I have thought long and hard and prayed about how to convey the reality of my nonviolent, sacramental action against nuclear weapons at Kings Bay Naval Base.”
I struggle too to comprehend the preposterous reality of these nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Look at the graphic below created in the early ‘80s by Vermonter Jim Geier, portraying the graceful efflorescence of nuclear warheads across the then Soviet Union. The number of warheads may have changed due to the START Treaty, but the impact remains the same: These submarines are the most destructive weapons systems created by mankind.
The Trident submarine base at Kings Bay, Georgia, shares with Seattle, Washington, the location of the greatest number of kilotons of harnessed radioactive violence in the world. Each of the 170-meter-long vessels can carry 24 Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which can be fired from underwater to strike at targets more than 7,000 miles away, depending on the load.
As a Trident II missile reenters the atmosphere, it splits into up to five independently targeted reentry vehicles, i.e., nuclear warheads. In short, a full salvo from one Trident submarine — which can be launched in less than one minute — could unleash up to 120 nuclear warheads to wipe dozens of cities off the map. These are the nightmare weapons of the apocalypse.
The military-industrial state that has built up this odious system must protect such devastating power, with electric fences, speedboats and harsh punishment for those who find such violence objectionable.
I read that Martha poured blood on a wall. And she or one of her fellow Plowshares 7 took a mallet to “beat swords into plowshares.” I wonder whether she actually got to touch the flanks of a missile itself, the most sacred tool of the arsenal of patriarchy? Just being in its proximity is a blasphemy according to the authorities, and merits lengthy prison sentences.
I “crossed the line” at another institution held “sacred” by our government. Fort Benning, Georgia, is where Latin American soldiers were, and probably still are, taught torture techniques to subdue citizens pleading for justice. Thirty-eight of us took the step onto the base in 2005, the year George Bush was elected president for a second time. As a result I spent three months in Danbury in 2006.
So we are two prisoners of conscience from Vermont who have done time at Danbury. Other POCs who have spent time there are Teresa B. Grady, from Ithaca, New York, and Ardeth Platte, a Dominican nun who fought for nuclear disarmament and became the inspiration for a character in the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.” She stated after using her own blood to smear a cross on a 100-ton missile lid: “Every movement of our bodies was a liturgy.”
Prisons are the third institution – next to nuclear bases and military forts – that are given oppressive power by the U.S. government. If you violate the borders of the first two, you get thrown into the third.
Even from prison, I hope Martha will join us in spirit out here on Jan. 22, celebrating the “coming into force” of the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons (https://www.icanw.org/), ratified by the parliaments of over 50 nations of the world. The giant ship of public opinion is shifting, and we are hoping that more nations will join the treaty, and that the nine nuclear nations, that have so far refused to sign the treaty, will be pushed and shamed by public opinion so that, like the outlawing of slavery, nuclear warfare will be made obsolete, and the enormous funds maintaining this floating potential holocaust will be released to serve the needs of humanity.
You will find us at a celebration vigil at the corner of Main and South Prospect, Burlington from 8:30-9 a.m. Friday.
