CFR brought me back to Santa Barbara. Thursday at noon. Then I will catch the bus and arrive at the Bankruptcy Court on State Street, which turns into a Federal court on Thursdays.
They were arrested on August 22, 2009 at a night test launch of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (hydrogen bomb delivery system) that went from Vandenberg AFB to Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands. ( The same Marshall Islands that is one of only 3 UN member states to vote with the US against ending the embargo against Cuba every year. The 3rd? mmm - Israel.)
Fr Louis carried a written message that he had been given by the people of Japan, asking the USA to comply with the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. He had just returned from Japan and had met many of the people who had signed the letter. They felt the letter needed to be delivered that night to hopefully help prevent this test. Fr. Louis and Sr. Megan stepped over the line when their requests to deliver the letter to the person in charge where purposely and repeatedly ignored as the hour of the launch grew closer. When confronted they dropped to their knees, reading the letter aloud to the official deaf ears.
The ultimate good vs. evil.
From Desert Voices - The Newsletter of Nevada Desert Experience - Vandenberg and the Ronald Regan Test Range conduct provocative missile and anti-missile tests frequently. Activists and even governments are showing increasing concern about the hypocrisy of the US testing advanced, new missile designs while expressing threatening outrage about primitive tests by North Korea, and threatening Iran (as yet, a non-nuclear armed state) with a nuclear first strike.
This video, made by Ben of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream gives a visual of the mind boggling number of Nuclear weapons the US has available.
The threat or use of nuclear weapons is illegal, and their existence violates every rule of humanitarian law, every principle of human rights to which all nations are committed.
Vandenberg AFB near Lompoc and Santa Barbara is but one site in the US dealing with nuclear weapons.
President Obama talks about the importance of nuclear disarmament, even as he and his administration are planning to replace and rebuild the nation's entire industrial capacity for nuclear weapons production at 3 key sites, with the goal of producing up to 80 new warheads per year for another 50-100 years.
One to be replaced is the Kansas city plant which makes 85% of the nonnuclear parts for nuclear weapons.
It is being planned to quadruple the size of the Los Alamos National Lab that makes the plutonium parts of nuclear weapons.
The US Naval Base Kitsap/Bangor Washington is a storage depot for nuclear weapons. It has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the US. Eight Trident subs are home ported there, and each can carry 24 D-5 missiles, which can each carry 4-6 nuclear warheads.
Another expansion being planned and protested is the Y-12 Uranium Processing Facility at Oak Ridge, TN. The current output of 20 uranium "pits" per year would quadruple to 80 according to government plans.
There is also Yucca Mountain Commercial Nuclear Waste Repository and the Ronald Regan Test Site in the Pacific.
Creech AFB and the NTS in Indian Springs near Las Vegas controls the use of drones, or UAV's, unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Afghanistan and elsewhere, killing a disproportionate number of civilians in remote assassination attacks. This site is located on traditional Native American land. The Shoshones who live here have been exposed to low doses of radiation for over 40 years.
On August 23 the name of the Nevada Test Site was changed to the Nevada National Security Site. The press release from the NNSA states the new name "better reflects the diversity of energy and homeland security activities being conducted there." Neither the old or the new name contains the word 'Nuclear' or the word 'Bomb'.
New activity at the NNSS is raising international alarm with the first "sub critical" nuclear test since 2006. Haruko Moritaki, co director of the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition criticized Obama saying " It is a sign that the US government is poised to maintain its nuclear development and capability while advocating a world without nuclear weapons. Such a contradiction is unforgivable. Furthermore, his approach can give countries like India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea an excuse to hang onto their nuclear arsenals."
The dollar amount we as taxpayers are paying for these weapons is about $5.8 trillion per year. (Although this was found with a quick google search and I think it is quit old and is probably much higher now)
It is very difficult to comprehend figures of this magnitude.
*$5.8 trillion divided equally among everyone living in the US equals a bit more than $21,000/person.
*$5.8 trillion in one dollar bills stacked one atop another would stretch 459,361 miles to the moon and
nearly back.
*If you attempted to count $5.8 trillion at the rate of $1/second, it would take almost 12 days to reach
$1 million, nearly 32 years to reach $1 billion, 31,709 years to reach $1 trillion and about 184,579
years to reach $5.8 trillion.
I think that would pay for a lot of food, social security, education and health care.
Back to the trial.
The two accused, one a 80 year old nun and the other a 78 year old priest were fined $500 and $1000 respectively. The priest the higher amount because he had 'been in this courtroom and before this judge in the past'. The judge stated she did not know about the sister's record. I am sure she would be surprised.
They did each get to make a statement, not during the trial but at the sentencing. It seemed they could speak as long as they wanted and say anything they wanted. They are both very articulate and told very compassionate and moving stories of how they came to be doing what they are doing.
Fr. Vitale told of when he was a young man flying bombers for the air force he was given an order, and when questioned given an assurance, that it was indeed an enemy plane and the the correct target to shoot down. For some reason they did not shoot it down and when they later saw the plane the passengers were indeed, not only civilians but little old ladies smiling and waving.
They both emphasized how these weapons of mass destruction are against International Law. And how, the tests are damaging the coral, the fish and the environment in the oceans where they are landing.
It was interesting that as the judge went through the steps she needed to comply with in sentencing, she said one factor she must consider is what the sentence needed to be in order to be a deterrent. She stated she did not feel that anything, including jail time would actually deter either one of them, especially because in their statements they declared they were willing to do anything for the rest of their lives to draw attention to and stop these atrocities.
So thankfully, no jail.
Another interesting observation was the obviously complete nativity of the two young women who had detained them. They did not appear to know anything about the missile being tested. Right down to if it had even been launched that night.
Blind obedience. To be involved in such goings on and be so oblivious to the consequences.
So in the end, Fr. Louis was fined $1000 (plus a $10 blah, blah fee and a $25 blah blah fee) and Sr. Megan was fined $500 (plus a $10 blah blah fee and a $25 blah blah fee) and nothing changes.
I am sure it will not be easy for these two senior citizens who have dedicated their lives to doing good and living simply to come up with these large amounts of money.
And nothing changes.
The fish and coral reefs will continue to be damaged by missile test launches. The people of the Marshall Islands and the Native Americans in Nevada will continue to suffer. The citizens of the US will continue to pay huge amounts of tax money toward the further development, making of, deposing of, moving, cleaning up after, testing, protecting, and launching these true weapons of mass destruction.
The world will continue to look at us as hypocritical, ignorant and unforgivable. And Fr. Louis and Sr. Megan's punishment money will go to help support our broken system.
And nothing changes.
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