Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Members of the Pacific Life Community from California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Nevada and Arizona met in St. David, Arizona from March 3–6 for their annual gathering and nuclear weapons protest. Two members of the faith-based network were arrested on Ash Wednesday, March 5 during a nonviolent resistance action at the Raytheon weapons factory in Tucson, Arizona.
In April, 2020 the Pentagon named Raytheon in Tucson as the sole-source contractor for a $16 billion dollar program to develop and produce the Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) missile, an all-new nuclear-armed cruise missile to be launched from the wings of warplanes. Production of this missile violates the spirit and letter of the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in January 2021. The Treaty’s Third Meeting of States Parties was taking place at the United Nations in New York City the same week as the Pacific Life Community gathering and action.
Forty people of many faiths gathered in a circle outside of Raytheon’s Hermans Road entrance, where they received ashes in repentance for the nuclear weapons work being done there. Those who planned to cross onto Raytheon property – Elizabeth Murray, John Heid and Mark Dellamano – stepped into the circle to receive blessings, including from Buddhist monks Rev. Senji Kanaeda and Rev. Gilberto Perez of the Nipponzan Myohiji Buddhist Temple on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The three nuclear resisters then began to slowly walk down the road into the Raytheon plant, facing the exiting traffic while carrying a sign that read, “Raytheon nukes will reduce us to ashes”. The rest of the group remained near Nogales Highway, holding colorful signs for workers and passing traffic to read.
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Just as Murray, Heid and Dellamano reached the gate, a barricade was lowered across the road. They knelt in prayer in the road and their supporters also knelt outside the entrance. Dellamano soon turned around and joined the others holding signs outside the entrance. Raytheon security arrived and placed security cones around them for their safety. Heid and Murray decided to walk around the barricade to continue sharing their Ash Wednesday message for a nuclear-free future with the workers. As soon as they did, Raytheon security officers pulled up in several vehicles and told the two activists that they were trespassing on Raytheon property. Before long, Pima County sheriff’s deputies arrived. After attempts to convince the activists to leave on their own accord were unsuccessful, the sheriffs placed the pair in their vehicle, telling them they would be taken to jail. But they were never handcuffed, and their sign was not taken away. A few minutes later, the deputies pulled into the area where the rest of the group were holding their signs. Heid and Murray were both given citations for trespass with a court date in early April, and released there at the roadside.
John Heid stated, “While there are many pressing issues in these times, the doomsday clock keeps ticking. The nuclear weapons industry quietly metastasizes before our very eyes. If we don’t pay attention and resist, nukes will have the last word. The very last.”
Elizabeth Murray, a member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and the Stewardship Council of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, wrote:
“The Pima County Sheriff engaged John Heid and I in what can only be called a military-style psyop. He tried very hard to convince us that our action at Raytheon was pointless, useless and ineffective, saying we were accomplishing nothing, that we would be far more effective if we joined our fellow PLC members in demonstrating outside of Raytheon’s entrance.
“The Sheriff warned us that if we stayed, he would be taking us to jail, and no one inside Raytheon would notice or care. “Do you really think you are going to change the minds of anyone in there?”, he asked, pointing to Raytheon headquarters. At the same time that he was saying this, Raytheon employees entering and exiting the Raytheon compound were looking over to see what was going on amid the flashing lights of the security and Sheriff vehicles. A startling majority of drivers noticed our sign and waved to us or gave thumbs-up in support. It occurred to me then that the Sheriff was expending a significant effort to get us out of there because we WERE being effective – and perhaps embarrassing or annoying Raytheon corporate executives with our cheeky act of resistance!
“I thought about people like the late Trident nuclear engineer Robert Aldridge, a Lockheed engineer who left his job once he became aware he was working on a first-strike nuclear weapon, and who was instrumental along with James and Shelley Douglass in establishing the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action. I also thought about several members of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action who formerly worked at Bangor Base – home to eight Trident nuclear submarines – after receiving leaflets from Ground Zero members which had influenced them. As a former CIA employee I, too, had been very curious about those who came to protest U.S. policies outside our building. All of this reinforced my determination to stand firm in our expression of resistance to Raytheon’s deadly nuclear weapons production. It may indeed be possible that our action reached the hearts, minds and consciences of some employees inside Raytheon – in ways we may never know.”
The Pacific Life Community is a network of spiritually motivated activists from U.S. Pacific coast and other western states who engage in anti-nuclear direct action. They protest at different nuclear weapons-related sites each year on or around March 1, which is Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific Day and the anniversary of the Bravo nuclear bomb detonation by the U.S. at the Bikini Atoll in 1954.
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa