An Iowan would have really been paying attention to nuclear abolition issues to have heard of the trial of the Disarm Now Plowshares 5 in a federal court in Tacoma, Washington last week. The corporate media did not cover the trial here and our information has been limited to press releases from blogger Leonard Eiger, web sites hosted by nuclear abolitionists, the National Catholic Reporter and Washington State media outlets with a web site.

The story goes like this. Anne Montgomery, 83, a Sacred Heart sister from New York; Bill Bischel, SJ, 81, a Jesuit priest from Tacoma Washington; Susan Crane, 67, a member of the Jonah House community in Baltimore, Maryland; Lynne Greenwald, 60, a nurse from Bremerton Washington; and Steve Kelly, SJ, 60, a Jesuit priest from Oakland California, cut through the chain link fence surrounding the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base outside Bremerton Washington during the night of the Feast of All Souls, November 2, 2009.

They then walked undetected for hours nearly four miles inside the base to the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific (SWFPAC). This top security area is where the Plowshares activists say hundreds of nuclear missiles are stored in bunkers. There they cut through two more barbed wire fences and went inside. They put up two big banners which said “Disarm Now Plowshares: Trident Illegal and Immoral,” scattered sunflower seeds, and prayed until they were arrested at dawn.

The Disarm Now Plowshares 5 were arraigned on October 8, 2010 in U.S. District Court, Tacoma, Washington before Magistrate Judge Karen L. Strombom.  The five were charged with trespass, felony damage to federal property, felony injury to property and felony conspiracy to damage property. Their trial began on December 7 and on December 13, they were found guilty on all counts. They await sentencing, which is scheduled for March 28, 2011.

After the verdict was read and Judge Settle was about to dismiss the jury, Steve Kelly stood and announced that the defendants would like to bless the jury. Steve and all of his co-defendants stood with their hands raised in blessing as he said, “May you go in peace and have a safe, happy holiday.” For more information on the trial click here or here.

Iowa does not have any known nuclear weapons storage sites. In fact, of Iowa's more than 3 million residents, a small fraction of a percent are active in the nuclear abolition movement, if one can really call it a movement. The  acts of the five brave souls in November 2009 speak volumes to to the condition of the nuclear abolition movement. We are reduced to small bands of activists carrying out acts of civil disobedience in a disjointed and desultory fashion. While some Iowans are supportive of the Disarm Now Plowshares 5, most don't know about them and don't care. More is the pity.

Iowans tend to forget that the United States has been the only country to use nuclear weapons. We avoid thinking about the atomic bomb detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly innocent civilians. Most are unaware that the world court declared nuclear weapons to be illegal and the United States delinquent in fulfilling our promise to disarm under the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty we signed and ratified.

If nuclear weapons are the “ultimate human degradation” as some suggest, we have forgotten the words of the prophet Isaiah 2:4, who said, “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Across Iowa, small groups of activists demonstrate against militarism and our wars. In Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, the Quad Cities, Dubuque, Sioux City, Iowa City and others, they gather with signs and stand vigil. We can and should join them, but it is not enough. For instead of activists, what we need is a movement, one that can't be ignored by our fellow citizens or by the corporate media.

As we consider the Disarm Now Plowshares 5, and the lack of media coverage of their witness, we respect and support them, understanding that we have a long path to walk towards nuclear abolition.