Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares Nuns - Sixth Anniversary at Missile Silo N-8

On Oct. 6, 2002, Sisters Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, and Ardeth Platte donned "Citizens' Weapons Inspection Team" jumpsuits and went into the missile silo restricted area of Minuteman III silo N-8 near Rayner, Colo. where they prayed and spilled blood. After their arrest, the Justice Department made the unusual decision to charge them with a felony, which had almost never been done in 25 years of Plowshares actions. The trial only served to raise the publicity level, culminating in the documentary film Conviction. The sisters finished prison sentences two years ago.

On Saturday, Sept. 27, Carol and Ardeth went to the N-8 silo with a small group of Denver and Colorado Springs supporters to hold a brief vigil. They even got to meet and swap stories with a sheriff's deputy involved in their arrest. Carol's speech about her activities in Michigan and Colorado is below:



More videos (sound affected by prairie wind) include Ardeth's introduction to everyone, an overview of the silo site, placing police tape across the gate, Bill Sulzman's description of a missile launch, and the nuns concluding with their "Sacred the Earth" song. They swear they'll keep plugging away until strategic nuclear weapons are obsolete. There's sure a lot of them left in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska!

Vigil at N-8

Five years ago at Minuteman Missile Silo N-8 in New Raymer, Colorado, three nuns were arrested for pouring blood on a silo lid, and had the book thrown at them by a federal government tired of civil disobedience. Sixty-two years ago this July 16, the Trinity test was conducted at the north end of the Alamogordo Test Range in New Mexico. To commemorate both events, 50 members of Colorado peace groups went to New Raymer July 14 to urge the federal government to "uproot, not upgrade" the Minuteman missiles in Colorado and Wyoming. Far too many U.S. citizens think we are closer to global disarmament now that the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union has reverted to the authoritarian but open Russian Federation. Let's look again at the Nuclear Posture Review, Stockpile Stewardship, and other U.S. national security documents. Let's pay attention to Russia's July 14 decision to pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty because of the U.S. position on nuclear disarmament. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was right to set the Doomsday Clock ahead. We are nowhere near nuclear disarmament.