We are calling for people of faith to practice Gospel Obedience and to resist the construction of a new Nuclear Weapons Plant at 150 Hwy and Botts Rd in south Kansas City. On the weekend of April 29-May 2, Holy Family House and Cherith Brook Catholic Workers will be hosting the Midwest Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance Retreat here in Kansas City. Catholic Workers from all over the Midwest will be coming together to put our faith into action by resisting Nuclear Weapons. Along with those coming from out of town, we greatly need participation from local Kansas City residents. The weekend will consist of a focus speaker, roundtable discussions, opportunities for spiritual reflection and prayer, Nonviolence training, and we will conclude the weekend with a nonviolent action on Monday May 2nd.
An urgent need has grown in Kansas City to resist the production of Nuclear Weapons. The Kansas City government has subsidized a new federal Nuclear Weapons Production Plant with $815 million in municipal bonds, over and above the National Nuclear Security Association’s (NNSA) annual budget. The new Plant’s selected 180-acre site at 150 Hwy and Botts Road was mostly used for soybean farming. However, the Kansas City government declared that area “blighted” so that it could use bond authority under Missouri state law designed to fight urban blight to give NNSA a new bomb plant. Taxpayers will pay an estimated $4.5 billion over 20 years for the new Kansas City Plant, which the City will own until private developers pay the bonds back through a lease-to-purchase scheme backed up by a virtually certain revenue stream from the federal government. This new Plant will replace an old Nuclear Weapons Plant, also in Kansas City; which has significant environmental and worker health concerns. We want to ensure that these matters are handled promptly and comprehensively.
We are deeply saddened by this act of planned violent destruction of human life, the misuse of funds intended for our blighted neighborhoods in which we live, the disregard for the health of workers and the pollution of our streams, fields, and air. We need your help to stop the future production of parts for nuclear weapons. We need you to pray with us, act with us, and be with us the weekend of April 29-May 2, 2011.
We encourage you to discern and pray about how God might be calling you to participate in these events. Here are some options:
1) You may come to the scheduled round-tables and listen to the speaker,
2) You may participate in the nonviolent action on Monday morning,
3) You may also choose to practice gospel obedience by risking arrest at the action, and
4) we hope that you are able to participate in all three of these. If you choose to risk arrest on Monday, we request that you at least participate in the nonviolence training that we are offering on Sunday afternoon. A schedule of the weekend is below.
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The Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat:
The Hope of Easter and a Disarmed World
April 29—May 2, 2011
@ De La Salle Education Center
3740 Forest Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64109
Please consider:
Civil disobedience
Talk to your community, family & work place about committing civil disobedience with us on May 2, 2011
Coming early to create Art, Puppets & props
Come to Kansas City the week of April 22 to help us with preparations. We especially need artists and experienced builders. 10 people are welcome to stay at Cherith Brook and Holy Family House. Please call if interested!
Your Hosts:
Cherith Brook Catholic Worker
816.241.8047 cherithbrookkcmo@gmail.com
Holy Family House Catholic Worker
816.753.2677 holyfamilycw@gmail.com
If you need special sleeping arrangements, please let us know in advance!
Thank you for leading this initiative of resistance. Living with this bomb factory in our midst has numbed most of us into passive acceptance. "Not in my backyard" may be self-serving but it is a step, and not taking this first step should weigh on our consciences. . .
ReplyDeleteThis retreat was an amazing experience for me, and for everyone who attended, I believe. I signed up to be a "peacekeeper" at the demonstration tomorrow morning, and hope to be able to make some video clips of the proceedings as events allow.
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