Anti-war nuns and nuclear disarmament

Monday, October 9th, 2017

Two elderly nuns, who are veteran peace campaigners, say they are “more hopeful than ever” that nuclear weapons will be eliminated.

“We trust, we believe, we know that we are well on the way to a nuclear-free world and future,” Sister Ardeth Platte (81).

Yesterday she and Sister Carol Gilbert, 69, presented a copy of the new United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to Peterson Air Force Base personnel in Colorado.

They’ll repeat the action today at Colorado’s Schriever Air Force Base.

“We want the citizens of Colorado to know about this treaty,” Gilbert said. “The treaty would make nuclear weapons illegal.”

“We’re coming as peacemakers and peace advocates, to teach and show our concern,” Platte said.

“Our politicians could be heroes of these times, if they start working with nations rather than against nations.”

Platte, who is a Dominican nun and Gilbert live at the Catholic Worker-affiliated Jonah House in Baltimore.

Fifteen years ago Platte, Gilbert and Jackie Hudson were arrested at the Weld Co. Minuteman III missile silo while attending a civil disobedience protest. They poured vials of their own blood on the rails leading to the silo and drew crosses on the silo’s hatchet door. Hudson has since died.

In 2003 the three protesters (pictured above) were sentenced to between 31-41 months in federal prison for trespassing on the N8 Silo.

“We’re in an extremely dangerous time,” Platte said. “A strike could be launched from Colorado within 15 minutes and go 7,000 miles to its target within half an hour. It would be total devastation.”

Source