The Military Path Our Country Is On Endangers Not Only Our Democracy But Also The Sustainability Of The Planet

Illustration by Anthony Freda

Opening statement from Zumwalt 12 defendant Richard "Brown" Lethem who goes on trial February 1 for obstructing a public way:

My action taken on June 18, 2016 on the public way was calculated not to block but to open a doorway for my country to regain its moral equilibrium and sanity. 

My position which will be made clear in my personal statement, is based on two unalterable things. The first one is my Quaker faith-based moral opposition to all preparation for war. 

The second is my firm and thoughtful conviction that the military path our country is on endangers not only our democracy but also the sustainability of the planet.

Some of the Zumwalt 12 at their arraignment in West Bath District Court, August 1, 2016

#Zumwalt12 Message: Dive$t From The Pentagon! No Taxes For War!

Joyful defendants prepare for their arraignment August 2, 2016.

The Zumwalt 12 were arrested for civil disobedience June 18; all pled not guilty as charged.

"Group of activists arrested at BIW plans to take fight against war spending to trial"
by Amanda Hill, WCSH reporter

Zumwalt 12 poet Jason Rawn

Notes on arraignment August 2, 2016
June 18, 2016
Satanization of a Zumwalt destroyer
(but they call it a "christening")
Bath Iron Works (owned by war profiteers General Dynamics)
paid for by suckas
(Ha, ha! Looks like "suck ass"!
Ha, ha! I love poetry!)
3 $4 billion weapons of mass destruction
And they (General Dynamics) had been looking for
$6 million in tax breaks
from non-rich payers of taxes

"Obstructing a Public Way"
Class E misdemeanor
(max: 6 months, $1,000)
smilingly monkeywrenching
"unreasonably", "lawful order"

We can allow them to do what they do!

STOP THE WAR$

Supporter Palma Ryan on Aug 2 with a message of hope.

Aug 2 #Zumwalt12 Arraignment For Civil Disobedience In Bath BIW @GeneralDynamics

Zumwalt 12: Bruce Gagnon,  Dud Hendrick, Cynthia Howard, Constance Jenkins, Tarak Kauff, Richard Lethem, John Morris,George Ostensen, Joan Peck, John Peck, Jason Rawn, and Russell Wray, 

The Zumwalt 12 will be arraigned on August 2 following their arrest at the Bath Iron Works ‘Christening’ of a $4 billion destroyer ship.

After the Zumwalt 12 sat down in the street and were arrested at Bath Iron Works on June 18 they were taken to police headquarters and charged with ‘Obstructing a public way.' Their arraignment will take place in West Bath District Court at 1pm on August 2.

The Zumwalt 12 intends to plead not guilty and will seek a unified trial.  Bar Harbor attorney Lynne Williams will represent the group.

Statements from some of the Zumwalt 12 about their action.

Connie Jenkins: “We felt we were carrying out our responsibility as citizens to use the first amendment to speak against expensive and provocative US endless wars.  As we can see from the recent “Chilcot investigation” in the UK, that found the legal justifications for military action were far from satisfactory, we in the US have a legal and moral responsibility to stand against these wars – and to prevent the next ones.”

Dud Hendrick: "This destroyer, the Monsoor, is another piece, another symbol, albeit a small, but expensive one, of how misguided our leaders are.   How wed to imperialism and world domination they are. The price tag on this destroyer is $4 billion and rising.  Alternatively, we could enable 40,000 students to attend four years of college debt free.  Whether we call it socialism or not, that would seem to make more sense than building one more warship to better arm a country that already spends more than the next seven biggest spending countries and already has the world’s most powerful navy by far." read more on Common Dreams

Bruce Gagnon: "We wanted to "interrupt the celebration of endless war and corporate profit" going on inside the event. All the Maine big wig elected officials were there - Republican and Democrat alike - all on their knees begging for more $$$$ to build more damn warships while the rest of the nation is put on life support.

We called for the conversion of BIW to build rail, solar, wind, and tidal powers systems so the future generations can have a life. The Pentagon is the recipient of the golden treasure chest that the pirates in Washington have grabbed. Nothing good can happen until we take the national treasury back.

We don't need a war with Russia and China. We are dealing with fascists now and we must move into the streets quickly. We found a lot of support from the law enforcement crowd today - one police officer told one of the Zumwalt 12, "You all are the conscience of the community."

Resist and survive.....you are not alone!"

Arrests underway in Bath at General Dynamics' BIW shipyard on June 18, 2016.

John Morris: “We will seek a unified trial so that we can communicate with the greater community why we did what we did at BIW on June 18.  These arrests for non-violent civil disobedience carry on the long tradition of such actions at the shipyard.  We want to see BIW converted to build commuter rail systems, solar, wind, and tidal power which are urgently needed to help us deal with climate change.  We have taken these steps in order that our children and grandchildren can have a real future.”


This poster state the rationale for the action:

The Costs of War: Crumbling Infrastructure, Moral Injuries #GDAMS

Photo source: Portland Press Herald

Martha Spiess produced this video of speakers at Portland, Maine's Global Day of Action Against Military Spending (GDAMS) on April 19, 2016.



The final speaker, Bruce Gagnon from Bath, talks about an action at General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard on June 18 where yet another destroyer will be launched. Bruce also mentions the crumbling infrastructure in Maine that does not get fixed with the money flowing to the Navy to build more and more costly weapons of mass destruction. (He also subsequently issued this correction: In my words I made one factual mistake.  I said space technology is costing $100 million per year, I meant to say $100 billion per year.)

A particularly relevant point as the crumbling infrastructure in Bath recently caused a vehicle driven by a mother carrying her 12 year old son to plunge through a deficient guardrail on an viaduct near the BIW shipyards. The SUV fell and crushed a pickup truck on the street below. 

Miraculously, no one died.

Maine has a lot of days when weather events make our roadways slippery, and April 4 was one of them. Dennis Hoey reported in the Portland Press Herald:

After the accident, the Maine Department of Transportation closed the viaduct to all traffic for about two hours. The department said its road crew had salted the road just a few minutes before the crash because snow was falling. “We don’t know yet if speed was a factor. We don’t know if roadway surface was a factor,” Field said. He said alcohol does not appear to have been a factor.

Now the state's Department of Transportation (DOT) is being investigated for its failure to respond to two dire warnings by its own inspectors about the state of the guardrails on the viaduct. Initially, the DOT insisted the guardrails were in fine condition but digging by actual investigative journalist Matt Byrne turned up a scandal. From his April 22 report in the PPH:

State failed to act on inspector’s call for repairs to Bath bridge where SUV fell 40 feet
Dozens of railing bolts were broken or missing nuts on the viaduct where the SUV carrying a mother and child from Windham broke through the barrier on April 4.

Photo source: Portland Press Herald

What does all this have to do with war taxes paid to the federal government?

As I note in the video above, Maine taxpayers sent $148 Billion to the Pentagon for its base budget in Fiscal Year 2015, plus an additional $88 Million to the Overseas Contingency Fund to continue its many ongoing wars. How many viaduct bolts and crews to install them would that have funded? 

The roadway in question is within sight of the BIW shipyards, and its workers are among the 18,000 vehicles traveling over it every day.

The state and the town of Bath both give massive tax relief to General Dynamics, an out of state Pentagon contractor that builds weapons of mass destruction at great profit to its shareholders each year.

As Rosie Paul says in her introduction in the video above, people pay their taxes in the belief that they are contributing to the common good: roads, schools, health care and the like.

As polls indicate time and again, taxpayers would prefer to spend money on things like viaduct bolts and not on things like another mansion for the owners of General Dynamics. 

Its current CEO formerly worked for the CIA and while working for General Dynamics was married to a staffer on the House defense appropriations subcommittee. This is  typical of the revolving door between government and the private sector. So much for democracy. So much for the common good.

Photo credit: National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee

Peace Delegation Will Attempt To Enter BIW Warship "Christening' Ceremony" Oct 31 #mepolitics

Protest sign in South Korea where a world heritage soft coral reef on Jeju Island was entombed in concrete to make a port for Aegis destroyers built by war profiteer General Dynamics at their Bath Iron Works shipyard.

Representatives from state and national peace groups will attempt to enter the scheduled BIW "Christening" ceremony of a new Aegis destroyer on Saturday, October 31. The group intends to deliver a letter addressed to Maine’s elected officials who will be present at the event to give their ‘blessings’ to another expensive and destabilizing warship launch.

 

Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein will be among speakers at the protest rally outside BIW on the corner of Washington and Hinckley Streets from 9am to noon.  

At the end of the event, organizers will send a delegation from the rally to attempt to enter the shipyard in order to deliver an “Open Letter to Maine Elected Officials” who will be speaking at the launch. The letter reads:

 

On this day another Navy Aegis destroyer is being "Christened" at Bath Iron Works and many of Maine’s elected officials will be present to give their official blessings.  These very expensive warships are outfitted with offensive cruise missiles and so-called "missile defense" interceptors that in fact are key elements in Pentagon first-strike attack planning.  The Aegis warship program is not about defending our nation but in fact these ships are being used to provocatively encircle the coasts of China and Russia.

Under the former Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia these "missile defense" interceptors were outlawed because they were highly destabilizing to world peace – they gave one side a clear advantage and an incentive to attack first.  In 2002 Washington unilaterally pulled out of the ABM Treaty which has only resulted in a new arms race.

Today many of our elected officials will talk about the jobs that come from building warships at BIW.  What they won’t say is that the Navy ship building budget is unsustainable and that very soon the nation will hit the economic wall as aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and destroyers are all over budget.  In fact studies done by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Economics Department have long shown that military spending is the worst way to create jobs – military production is capital intensive.  That means we get fewer jobs building weapons for endless war than any other job creation program.  The studies also reveal that if commuter rail systems were built at BIW we’d nearly double the jobs – something every politicians should be demanding.

We do have a serious problem today and that is to immediately deal with climate change and the growing acidification of the Gulf of Maine.  Increasing, due to warming oceans, the lobsters and other fish are moving further north to colder temperatures.  That means Maine’s fishing industry will be hit hard.  If Maine is to survive economically we need a crash program to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet.  Building rail systems, solar, wind turbines and tidal power systems would create more jobs and help us deal with the coming reality of climate change.

It is morally wrong for the US to think it can control the world.  The idea that the US is an ‘exceptional’ nation, better than the rest of the world, must give way to a humility where we see our place in the world as one nation among many.  We don’t have a right to control and dominate the world on behalf of corporate interests.

We call on all of Maine’s elected officials to find the courage to stand up and represent the future generation’s desire for life on our Mother Earth.  Our children and grandchildren cannot survive by us building more destroyers for endless war.  We need a future that is sustainable, practical and peaceful.  We don’t believe that Christ, the Prince of Peace, would come here and give his blessing to more war and violence.

The October 31 peace rally at BIW comes a week after the conclusion of the 16-day Maine Walk for Peace: Pentagon’s Impact on the Oceans that began in Ellsworth and followed U.S. Hwy 1 South to Portsmouth.  

During the walk community suppers were held each night and people were invited to come to BIW to protest the "Christening" of the Navy destroyer on October 31.  

Thousands directly witnessed the walking protest that called for an end to the militarization of the oceans.  The public was overwhelmingly supportive of the walk, which also demanded the conversion of the weapons industry to sustainable production so that we can deal with our real problem – climate change.

The October 31 rally is sponsored by: Midcoast PeaceWorks; Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm; CODEPINK Maine; and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.