This article appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of the Massachusetts Peace Action newsletter.
Six staunch members of our peace delegation were arrested at the gate of Hanscom Air Force Base on Memorial Day weekend, while protesting the role of the base in nuclear war planning. In a deliberate act of civil disobedience, they “crossed the line” to deliver a letter to the base commander objecting to research and development underway at the site. They were promptly handcuffed by Lincoln police and led away.
This action followed months of planning by Mass. Peace Action and other groups. In September 2017, I ran across what appeared to be an innocuous article in the local paper: “An airbase without a runway: What does Hanscom do?” It turns out that Hanscom is the location of the Program Executive Office for Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) which seeks to upgrade the communications system that would be used by U.S. forces in a nuclear war.
When I read this, red flags went up. As a Bedford resident, I know that Hanscom has been able to keep itself under the radar for years. Even many local anti-nuclear activists had no idea this was happening in our own back yard. Many people think that struggles around nuclear policies play out only in distant capitals, not in places like the leafy suburb of Lincoln, Massachusetts. Alarmed, I came up with the concept of a “Shout Heard Round the World” protest in an effort to publicize this dangerous program.
So on Sunday May 27, despite gray skies and 50-degree temps, about 40 activists assembled at the Minuteman Statue in Lexington. We distributed leaflets throughout the downtown, then morphed into a flashmob, freezing in place for two minutes to highlight the fact that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock to two minutes before midnight. We then marched 3.5 miles from the Lexington Battle Green to Hanscom, with drumming, chanting monks from the New England Peace Pagoda leading the way and Veterans for Peace banners flying overhead. At Hanscom, speeches by Jonathan King, Joseph Gerson, Elaine Scarry, myself, and others were heard (and recorded by police).
“The US government is spending $1.7 trillion of our tax dollars over the next 30 years to ‘upgrade’ our nuclear forces, leading to a dangerous new arms race,” said Jonathan King, a Mass. Peace Action board member. “This money could fund free college and free health care for every American.”
The six people arrested were: John Bach of Arlington and Cambridge Friends Meeting, John Schuchardt of the House of Peace in Ipswich and Veterans for Peace, Patricia Ferrone of St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Laura Evans of Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport, Jerald Ross of Chelmsford, First Parish Bedford and Massachusetts Peace Action, and Dan McLaughlin of Cambridge. They were released on personal recognizance and appeared in Concord District Court on May 29. All charges were dropped.
Our protest was covered by several local papers, the Statehouse News Service, and the Seattle Times. Plans for a similar action on Patriot’s Day 2019 are underway.
Six staunch members of our peace delegation were arrested at the gate of Hanscom Air Force Base on Memorial Day weekend, while protesting the role of the base in nuclear war planning. In a deliberate act of civil disobedience, they “crossed the line” to deliver a letter to the base commander objecting to research and development underway at the site. They were promptly handcuffed by Lincoln police and led away.
This action followed months of planning by Mass. Peace Action and other groups. In September 2017, I ran across what appeared to be an innocuous article in the local paper: “An airbase without a runway: What does Hanscom do?” It turns out that Hanscom is the location of the Program Executive Office for Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) which seeks to upgrade the communications system that would be used by U.S. forces in a nuclear war.
When I read this, red flags went up. As a Bedford resident, I know that Hanscom has been able to keep itself under the radar for years. Even many local anti-nuclear activists had no idea this was happening in our own back yard. Many people think that struggles around nuclear policies play out only in distant capitals, not in places like the leafy suburb of Lincoln, Massachusetts. Alarmed, I came up with the concept of a “Shout Heard Round the World” protest in an effort to publicize this dangerous program.
So on Sunday May 27, despite gray skies and 50-degree temps, about 40 activists assembled at the Minuteman Statue in Lexington. We distributed leaflets throughout the downtown, then morphed into a flashmob, freezing in place for two minutes to highlight the fact that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock to two minutes before midnight. We then marched 3.5 miles from the Lexington Battle Green to Hanscom, with drumming, chanting monks from the New England Peace Pagoda leading the way and Veterans for Peace banners flying overhead. At Hanscom, speeches by Jonathan King, Joseph Gerson, Elaine Scarry, myself, and others were heard (and recorded by police).
“The US government is spending $1.7 trillion of our tax dollars over the next 30 years to ‘upgrade’ our nuclear forces, leading to a dangerous new arms race,” said Jonathan King, a Mass. Peace Action board member. “This money could fund free college and free health care for every American.”
The six people arrested were: John Bach of Arlington and Cambridge Friends Meeting, John Schuchardt of the House of Peace in Ipswich and Veterans for Peace, Patricia Ferrone of St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Laura Evans of Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport, Jerald Ross of Chelmsford, First Parish Bedford and Massachusetts Peace Action, and Dan McLaughlin of Cambridge. They were released on personal recognizance and appeared in Concord District Court on May 29. All charges were dropped.
Our protest was covered by several local papers, the Statehouse News Service, and the Seattle Times. Plans for a similar action on Patriot’s Day 2019 are underway.
Michelle Cunha is the assistant director of Mass. Peace Action.