Why pray for peace but pay for war?

By Judy Adams and Cherrill Spencer
Peninsula/Palo Alto, CA WILPF Branch

May 2022

Marchers on the 15^th arrived at the Lockheed Martin facility at the top of the hill, a mile from their starting point. Afterward, they stood on both sides of the road with signs and banners while cars, trucks, and bicycles passed by. The Grannies led us in song. We delivered a petition with 4000 signatures to the guards and read part of the petition aloud afterward. It urged Lockheed Martin to immediately convert from weapons manufacturing to “peaceful industries” for economic, environmental, and survival reasons. We felt the spirit of other groups taking the same action. Two Pacific Life members read a statement by Daniel Berrigan and the text of Isaiah Isaiah 2:4 from the Bible: “He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Photos were taken in front of the sign at the gate, including our WILPF “End the Nuclear Era” banner supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, held by Judy and a Palo Alto Granny. Take a look at more pictures here. We refreshed ourselves for the mile walk back down the hill by cutting into a pentagon-shaped cake to symbolically cut the Pentagon’s budget and redirect it to peaceful production. We closed the day knowing that we had much to do to end weapons production but had others share the task.

The following Friday (April 22), Judy returned to the Palo Alto street corner where she organizes weekly vigils for WILPF; she recalled the past vigils she attended there as a new member of WILPF during the Vietnam War and remembered another 22^nd, January 22, 2021, when the Pacific Life community joined us after their traditional fourth-Friday Lockheed vigil to support our celebratory vigil of the entry-in-force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. So on April 22, Cherrill represented WILPF at the Pacific Life continuation of the “Stop Lockheed Martin” campaign at their regular vigil outside Sunnyvale’s Lockheed Martin.

The protestors took a short walk from the large blue sign identifying the facility to the plant gate, watched by several nervous security guards. Before and after the walk they listened to readings from America in Peril by Robert Aldridge, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays by Henry David Thoreau, and Other Essays by Thoreau. Cherrill and Judy have previously demonstrated with the Community, and the connection guarantees more work in coalition. The Community’s goal is “Ending Nuclear Weapons and War-Making Through Nonviolent Direct Action” We encourage branch members to plan to attend one of their Friday vigils to get to know them and their dedication as we stand together for peace.