The judge found me guilty. Even after I'd testified under oath that I
had committed no crime when standing in front of a bulldozer in a muddy
soybean field being cleared for the new Kansas City Plant, arm in arm
with 13 others. On August 16, we had tried to stop preparation of the
site for the first U.S. nuclear weapons plant to be built in 32 years.
That's what brought us to Judge LaBella's Kansas City courtroom on
October 7.
Many people I've talked to in the past year are not aware that while
President Obama talks about the importance of nuclear disarmament, 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. This summer I joined protests at each of these 3
sites.
On July 4th and 5th I protested at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where a new facility will be built for
manufacturing highly enriched uranium secondaries. On the 65th
anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, I joined a protest at the
Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico, where a new plutonium pit
factory will be built. The following week, on August 16, I was in
Kansas City, where the remaining 85% of unique and critical components
of nuclear warheads will be produced at the new plant. And I knew what
my response had to be to the first nuclear bomb plant to be built in my
adult lifetime - I had a responsibility to try to stop it.
So I stood in front of the bulldozer on August 16 not with the intent to
trespass, but rather to try to prevent a crime from being committed. I
did it as an act of conscience to try to save our planet from the
nuclear threat. I did it because I understand the importance of civil
resistance to bring about nonviolent social change, thanks to the many
powerful examples in our nation's history, and because I understand my
responsibility under international law to prevent war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
As a Jewish woman who has family members who survived the Holocaust, and
some who perished, I have always very seriously regarded the
responsibility of each individual to act to prevent war crimes. I have
wondered what more ordinary citizens could have done to prevent the
deaths of millions in the gas chambers. If a few courageous
individuals, albeit at great risk to themselves, had dismantled a
portion of the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz or other
concentration camps, for instance, they could have saved lives even as
they were breaking the law by destroying property. Certainly there are
times when it is necessary to break a law in order to prevent a greater
crime. And here we are, decades after the killing of so many innocent
people in the Holocaust, decades after the killing of so many innocent
people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with enough nuclear weapons to destroy
life as we know it - and still our country plans to spend billions of
dollars to build more.
Planning and preparing for nuclear war, and producing components for
nuclear weapons at the Kansas City Plant in Kansas City, Missouri is a
clear violation of international humanitarian law.
So I pleaded not guilty to the charge of trespass because I did not break
the law. I acted in a reasonable and nonviolent manner, as is my right
and responsibility under international law, to prevent a crime from
taking place, and to uphold the law. I did because I know that it is up
to each of us, now, before it is too late, to stop a nuclear holocaust.
