P E R S P E C T I V E : S m i d e L i n e s
Breaking: Kings Bay Plowshares 7
Story Is Highly Unprofessional PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
The seven Catholic Worker activists convicted in the 2018 civil disobedience at the Kings Bay Naval Submarine
Base in Georgia face potentially long prison sentences.
BY SUSIE DAY
Dear Mainstream News
Media —
I’m talking to you, New
York Times, Washington
Post, MSNBC, CNN, and all your upstanding,
highly professional conglomerate
cohorts.
Thank you one and all very, very
much for not covering the trial of the
Kings Bay Plowshares 7 .
Huh, you ask? Trial? Kings Bay?
Plowshares 7? What Kings Bay Plowshares
7? What trial?
Exactly. I totally appreciate your
putting the kibosh on this one.
It would have been highly unprofessional
if even one of you had paid
any serious attention to the hackneyed,
been-there story of seven geriatric
Catholic Worker activists who
chose April 4, 2018 — the 50th anniversary
of Martin Luther King’s assassination
— to cut through a fence
and enter the Kings Bay Naval Submarine
Base in Georgia, where they
threw bottles of their own blood onto
military plaques, hammered statues
of nuclear missiles, and spray-painted
twee little messages like “Love One
Another” on sidewalks.
Then, as if they hadn’t embarrassed
themselves enough, they presented
KINGSBAYPLOWSHARES7.ORG
an “indictment” charging the
US government with crimes against
peace. All because they wanted to
prevent a nuclear war that could wipe
out life as we know it on this planet.
I mean, seven funky old white
Catholic hippies? Could there be anything
more uncool? These spiritual
moonbats have been carrying out
turn-your-swords-into-plowshares
protests for nigh onto 40 years now.
We’re talking over 100 actions: the
sneaking, throwing, hammering,
spray-painting, government-property
besmirching. Followed, of course, by
the lengthy prison terms.
After the verdict came down on October
24, Bill Quigley, a Plowshares
attorney, stated that the defendants
had spent two years in prayerful
practice before deciding to carry out
this action. Too bad God didn’t tell
them to hire a PR manager fi rst.
You’re right, Mainstream News,
this story is simply not newsworthy.
The fact that, after their arrest at
the naval base, many of the defendants
were kept in jail without bond
for months before trial ; the fact that
the judge refused to allow arguments
of necessity, justifi cation, or international
law ; the fact that the base
harbors at least six nuclear ballistic
missile submarines, each containing
20 Trident thermonuclear weapons,
any one of which, if launched, would
incur 1,825 times more destruction
than the atom bomb dropped
on Hiroshima ; the fact that all seven
defendants were convicted on all
charges—– three felonies and one
misdemeanor — these facts obviously
make for awkward run-on sentences,
which are very hard to tweet.
Then, when you add in the fact that
these seven are well past middle age
— the youngest 57; the oldest a few
days away from 80 — and that they
face a possible 20 years, which could
amount to a death sentence in prison,
you’ve got a really unsexy story there.
So thanks for catching that.
Of course, Mainstream News Media,
your decision not to pay any
mind to this Plowshares thing goes
far beyond your disinterest in these
seven nerdly peace-mongers. Although
you may still be confused
about how to cover “climate change,”
you at least have come to the realization
that the prospect of nuclear annihilation
— a prospect that has only
increased since the fi rst atom bombs
were dropped in 1945 — has simply
become old news. Unprofessional.
Too boring for words.
OK, maybe “boring” isn’t the word
I’m searching for. How about “unthinkable?”
“Unimaginable?” The
point is, you’ve fi nally fi gured out it’s
impossible for your audience — we
who buy the products you advertise
— to allow nuclear holocaust into the
realm of the speakable. Compared to
witty adverts of Geico car insurance,
who wants to be woke to that?
So, given that our inability to contemplate
nuclear war — or accident
— is something you guys want to cultivate,
it’s much better that you steer
us into fi xating on breaking news
updates like Russia-gate or the World
Series or that woman who climbed
into the lion exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.
After all, Donald Trump, with absolute
presidential authority to order a
nuclear fi rst strike , has been pissing
on arms treaties and considering renewed
underground testing, not to
mention pursuing an overall military
buildup . How much better, then, that
➤ KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES 7, continued on p.23
Victoria Schneps-Yunis
CEO & CO-PUBLISHER
Joshua Schneps
FOUNDING EDITOR IN-CHIEF
& ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Paul Schindler
editor@gaycitynews.com
DIGITAL EDITOR
Matt Tracy
matt@gaycitynews.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Duncan Osborne
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Donna Aceto (Photography)
Christopher Byrne (Theater)
Susie Day (Perspective)
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Kelly Jean Cogswell, Andres Duque,
Steve Erickson, Andy Humm,
Eli Jacobson, David Kennerley,
Gary M. Kramer, Arthur S. Leonard,
Michael T. Luongo, Lawrence D. Mass,
Brian McCormick, Eileen McDermott,
Mick Meenan, Tim Miller,
Donna Minkowitz, Christopher Murray,
David Noh, Sam Oglesby,
Nathan Riley, David Shengold,
Ed Sikov, Yoav Sivan, Gus Solomons Jr.,
Tim Teeman, Kathleen Warnock,
Benjamin Weinthal, Dean P. Wrzeszcz
ART DIRECTOR
Marcos Ramos
ADVERTISING
Ralph D’Onofrio
718-260-2524
rdonofrio@schnepsmedia.com
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Gayle Greenberg
Andrew Mark
Jim Steele
Julio Tumbaco
Miriam Nieto
Jay Pelc
Laura Cangiano
Kathy Wenk
Jeannie Eisenhardt
Lenny Vigliotti
Elizabeth Polly
CO-FOUNDERS EMERITUS
Troy Masters
John Sutter
Please call 212-229-1890 for
advertising rates and availability.
NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863
Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, and Transgender NYC, is published
by Schneps Media. Send all inquiries to: Gay City
News, One Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn,
NY 11201. Phone: 212.229.1890 Written permission
of the publisher must be obtained before any of
the contents of this paper, in part or whole, can be
reproduced or redistributed.
All contents © 2019 Schneps Media
Gay City News is a registered trademark
of Schneps Media
Fax: 212-229-2790
© 2019 Schneps Media
All rights reserved.
FOUNDING MEMBER
November 7 - November 20, 22 2019 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
link
link
/KINGSBAYPLOWSHARES7.ORG
link
link
link
link
