HOPE AND HAMMERS

We come to Electric Boat today with hope and hammers of peace. Before us is Trident.

Trident, the ultimate threat to life.  One Trident submarine, armed with 192 warheads, now prowls the sea.  Soon, with 408 warheads, it will carry the destructive force of 2,040 Hiroshima bombs. Eleven are funded, thirty desired; with them as the centerpiece of its massive nuclear arsenal, the U.S. government advances its policy of 'first strike'. With Trident, the lie of deterrence is made evident, for this weapon's purpose is to initiate the holocaust with a strike of incomprehensible destruction.

Trident, the ultimate lie, is posing as the defender of freedom and peace.  Who is free while billions are stolen from the hun­gry, the homeless, the oppressed of our world? What peace can there be while this Beast inhabits the sea?  In the cries of those who already suffer from the Bomb resonate the lamentations of the uncountable future victims of nuclear annihilation.

Trident: the ultimate blasphemy against God and humanity.  In its demonic capacity to destroy the world it threatens God's qood creation.  We respond with the pouring of our own life's blood, lest innocent blood be shed.  We have set before us the choice of life or death, of God or Trident. We cannot serve both.

And so we come, with hope and hammers.

Hope -- that God's good creation might not be destroyed. Hammers, that the cries of the victims might be given form by our deeds.

Hope, that the murder of millions of innocent lives might be thwarted. Hammers, that we might give shape to our refusal of complicity with this genocidal injustice.

Hope, that our act will be repeated at other sites of  warmaking and death by all who love peace, love life. Hammers, that we might beat this nuclear sword into a plowshare.

"I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse.  Therefore, choose life, that you and your children may live"  (Deut. 30:l9)

With this act of disarmament we reject the State's law of death, and choose God's law of life, for ourselves, for our children, for our world.