Plowshares Nuns, Sister Carol Gilbert, OP, Sister Jackie Hudson, OP, and Sister Ardeth Platte, OP, know what it is like to risk their personal safety in speaking out for peace. On October 6, 2002, they entered a missile site near Greeley, Colorado. They cut through two gates to enter the silo area. They hammered on the tracks used for the silo lids to open the silo itself. They also used their blood to make the sign of the cross on the tracks and on the silo. They concluded their witness with a liturgy. They were arrested and imprisoned. Jackie received 31 months, Carol 33 and Ardeth 41 for their nonviolent act of civil resistance to protest nuclear weapons. Though they are now out of prison, they are still paying the legal consequences of their actions. They are restricted to travel in their respective states, and they will not be able to join in the actions of nonviolent resistance at the Capitol on September 26 and 27. However, they will be there in spirit and they invite others from all around the United States to continue the resistance against the powers that lead to war, and join in the actions being promoted and planned by the Declaration of Peace (http://www.declarationofpeace.org) and the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (http://www.iraqpledge.org).

The Declaration of Peace is a national campaign that thousands of people around the country are joining to pressure Congress to develop a comprehensive and rapid plan for peace by September 21. If there is not a plan in place by September 21, there will be massive nonviolent actions in Washington, DC, and around the country to show our determination for a peaceful world. We follow in the footsteps of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Sister Carol Gilbert, Sister Jackie Hudson, Sister Ardeth Platte, and many others.

Tuesday September 26, 2006

Nonviolent resistance action at the US Senate in Washington, DC. Organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (www.iraqpledge.org)

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Meeting place: Upper Senate Park

10:30: Interfaith ceremony and rally

11:30: Interfaith religious procession around the Capitol, followed by peace presence and nonviolent resistance, including risking arrest at the US Senate in Washington DC.

Register at http://declarationofpeace.org/regform-nvcd

For more information, contact Steve Cleghorn at jsc1949@msn.com

Wednesday September 27, 2006

Nonviolent resistance action at the US House of Representatives in Washington DC.

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Meeting place: Upper Senate Park

10:30: Rally

11:30: March/procession

Nonviolent resistance, including risking arrest.

Register at http://declarationofpeace.org/regform-nvcd

For more information, contact Danny Malec at dm@globalcalliraq.org

A message from Sisters Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, and Ardeth Platte

Times of great injustice call for acts of conscience and courage. In the loving spirit and discipline of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and others, we call on people to engage in acts and campaigns of noncooperation and active nonviolent resistance to the U.S. government, the military, the corporate merchants of war, and all institutions that feed the continuing conflict in Iraq.

To the millions who have marched, lobbied Congress or otherwise protested the war in Iraq, we call on you to continue your opposition, and to join together with others in nonviolent resistance to this immoral and unjust war. Our democratic voices of dissent joined with an unprecedented anti-war movement around the world. We must now build an equally unprecedented movement to nonviolently resist this war and bring it to an end. As the carnage increases and the military quagmire deepens in Iraq, the prospects for peace may seem dim and the momentum of war strong. But now more than ever is a time for dissent, not despair; for deepened commitment to peace, not complacency with war; for strengthened resistance, not weakened resolve.

To all who are sick of heart and conscience over the death and destruction in Iraq, we call on you to join us in nonviolent resistance to this war. For the sake of our humanity; for the sake of justice; for the sake of peace in Iraq, we must act now. And we cannot rest from our campaign of nonviolent resistance until our demands of peace and justice are met.