On a Peace Convergence A wrap-up of what happend when 350 people came to protest the launch of a weapon of mass destruction BY JACK AND FAY BUSSELL

Two-hundred-seventy-five peace activists departed Library Park, in Bath, Maine, at 9:30 a.m., August 9, for the front gates of Bath Iron Works to present an alternative to the "christening" of another weapon of mass destruction, the Aegis Destroyer USS Momsen. By the time the procession arrived at the front gate our numbers had swelled to almost 350 activists. It was a peace procession quite unlike any other seen in this area. Led off by a "Swords into Plowshares" banner, followed by a large Native American drum played by six people and six giant peace doves floating above the procession carried by 18 stalwart folks, Washington Street became, at least for a short while, the road to peace.

Hosted by Maine Veterans for Peace, activists began gathering at 7 a.m. in Bath for a Convergence for Peace. By 8 a.m., ceremonies were under way. Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space; Kathy Kelly, Voices In The Wilderness; and Liz McAlister, Plowshare activist from Baltimore’s Jonah House all spoke about peace and the need to halt production of weapons of war; followed by Maine’s Raging Grannies, who sang three songs. The Convergence then began preparing another ship for launching, the peace ship, USS Philip Berrigan. Decorated by over 200 people and loaded with cargo that should be going to Iraq rather than what is, our ship was full of food, medicine, dolls, flowers, statements of peace and love, poems, and prayers — for those Iraqis who are dying or will die from our aggressions and for our soldiers, our sons and daughters, dying in the hundreds, a million miles from home, and who will die in the thousands, when the effects of depleted uranium–poisoning takes effect. Christine James and Molly Wilcox dedicated this new flag ship of Maine’s Peace Navy.

After an easy .75-mile walk, the procession arrived at BIW’s front gates. Although there was no public announcement of attendance at the BIW ceremony, it is believed that for the first time ever peace activists outnumbered those inside BIW.

Just before 10 a.m. a group of activists took over the front gate of BIW shutting down the facility until BIW security and Bath police arrested 13 people. Arrested for "criminal trespass," they were soon released on their own recognizance. During the non-violent civil disobedience action Art Laffin, of Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house, in Washington, DC, discussed the action and why they were doing it. Two folk singers, Lizzie Dickerson and Laura Simon, took over for awhile. Behind it all was the constant beat coming from the large Native American drum. Baseball Fans For Peace dropped a 60-foot banner, "Why More Weapons?," from the Route 1 bridge over the Kennebec River, closely watched by the Coast Guard protecting the Kennebec River exclusionary zone around BIW.

At 10:55, using the large drum and a countdown from the drummers, the Convergence went silent and everyone fell to the ground remembering those people who died on that fiery morning 58 years ago. A Buddhist bell was rung in the silence. At 11:05 we began chanting as our sound system failed. At 11:30 we had our closing circle and dispersed.

Bath Iron Works, a shipyard that has the professional capability, and capacity, to produce for peace has chosen to build for war in the form of the Aegis Weapons System. A $900-million piece of equipment whose only function is to kill or destroy. This nuclear-capable Arleigh Burke class destroyer, USS Momsen, is the 42nd to be built, with 19 more planned. On board are 56 nuclear-capable Tomahawk cruise missiles, each with a 250kt warhead. This equates to 933 Hiroshimas, or 700 Nagasakis, on board one ship. In contrast, the US Navy has two hospital ships.

Sadly, BIW chose to use a Christian ceremony, in effect a blessing, for the naming of this ship. Blasphemous in the extreme, it is a message to the world that "God is on our side."

There was a second and even more serious message to other nations. Nagasaki was the center of Japanese Christianity and ground zero was the Catholic cathedral. Seventy-five thousand souls died immediately in the blast and another 75,000 were consigned to lingering and painful deaths from radiation, wounds and burns suffered at detonation, at 11:02 a.m., August 9. This second message, so very, very clear, was that if we, the United States, will insult our allies by "christening" a weapon of mass destruction on a day, at the exact hour, when the only nation to have used atomic weapons did so, just think about what we will do to countries who are not our allies.

So, $900-million for one warship, while thousands of Maine school children go to school hungry. Forty-two nuclear-capable warships while senior citizens have to make choices between food or medicine and the only decent paying jobs for organized labor are within the military-industrial complex, building whatever horrific weapon our Department of War thinks up next.

It is time, past time, to abolish war, to stop the killing, to bring our sons and daughters home from the killing fields, forever.

—In peace, Jack & Fay Bussell, Maine Veterans For Peace.