News Release  April 1, 2014

World’s Largest Peace Group Celebrates 100 Years of NON-VIOLENCE

For release 4/1/2014

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) joined with kitsap County’s Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and other allies to permanently close the Bangor Nuclear Submarine Base and open the Northwest Regional Center for Nonviolence Training.

Rear Admiral Smith, the current commander at Bangor, said, “Thank you FOR and GZ.  We couldn’t do this because we’re under the command of our civilian leaders.”

President Obama, now in his second term, along with the newly appointed Secretary of Peace, Rachel Maddow, attended the ceremony.  “I hope that we, as peace-loving Americans, can use this center as a model for transforming other defunct military gases in the U.S. and around the world,” said the president.

Friends,

I previously shared nearly all the documents carried onto Bangor Submarine Base by those engaged in the November 2nd Disarm Now Trident Plowshares Action.  There is one last document, written by Father William Bischel, that I would like to share.  It speaks to not only the heart of someone who has spent his life caring for those in need and working for justice, but also to the very heart of the violence from which we must extricate ourselves in order to build a world at peace.  This gentle man of God speaks truth far more powerful than any weapons.  Read “Lethal Force” below.

Blessed are the Peacemakers,

Leonard

It was the thinking of the “us” and “them”, the “evil people”, in our hearts and minds that drove the arms race that drove humanity ever so close to the brink of self destruction, and ironically it is those same hearts and minds that can (and must) undergo a sea change in order to bring us back from the brink.  As Susan states in her letter, besides the blood, hammers and sunflower seeds they brought with them that cold, clear morning under a bright moon, they brought something far less tangible, and yet perhaps much more important, “disarmed hearts in hope of a disarmed world.”

May we all hope and pray (and work) to disarm our own hearts so that we may then disarm the hearts of others.  Here is the entire, unedited text of Susan’s letter.

Friends,

Seattle’s KOMO News did a story today on the Disarm Now Trident Plowshares Action, interviewing Susan Crane, Lynne Greenwald and Anne Montgomery. Watch it below and hear them tell about the action – what they did, and why. What drives them? “Hope” and “Faith”.

Peace,

Leonard

Click here to read the KOMO story, ‘These weapons can wipe out everything’.

Friends,

The Bible (Luke 4.24) tells us that no prophet is ever welcome in his (or her) hometown or country. That is as true today as it was in the time of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Let’s face it. People just don’t want to hear that God is displeased with their behavior, and that they really need to change their ways (just like those crazy Israelites). So, what’s a prophet to do??? Keep at it, that’s what.