Hello friends with your hearts of peace,

I'm heading to Georgia Oct. 18 - 25 for the Kings Bay Plowshares trial which begins in the Federal District Court in Brunswick, Georgia on Oct. 21.  The defendants face an incredibly disproportionate maximum sentence of 25 years for breaking into the Kings Bay nuclear sub base and spreading around blood, etc. and hammering on a monument of a Trident missile on the 50th anniversary of MLK's death. See www.kingsbayplowshares7.org for details.

I've been arrested in Washington with 3 of them over the years, yelling from the gallery of the House and Senate against Gitmo and torture.  Of course, the threatened penalties were peanuts compared to this.  So you see they are my dear friends.  And I know the others as well.  Small world.

On Sunday, the eve of the trial, we'll be having a Festival of Hope, poster below.  Don't you love it?  Defendant Mark Colville has this to say about hope: "Hope is the spiritual force that carried us to Kings Bay, and, in my view, the only defense for our action there. Soon it will become clear whether or not hope is admissible evidence in the Brunswick Federal court." This quote comes from an essay he wrote for the Catholic Worker newspaper this summer. I've attached it.  By the way, he had to send it out on a series of postcards because that's all they were allowed to write from their jail cells in Georgia!  All of them are out on bond right now, except Fr. Steve Kelly, who had another case open. 

Anyway, enjoy the poster and please go to the website or Facebook page to share word of their trial.  They have gotten precious little attention in this soul-withering era.  Donations are another way to help.  See the website.  And it's not too late to join me there.  About a hundred activists will be sleeping in cabins and tents in a nearby camp. (Think 4-H camp!)  They're still hoping for more.  We'll be demonstrating at the naval base and in front of the courthouse.  There will also be a tribunal mid-week. Sounds intriguing. I'm just showing up and following the leader...