Signs of the times (Stories of engagement)

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Today in our series of portraits of moral engagement, we introduce Dean Hammer, a clinical psychologist and peace activist, who shares with us excerpts from his essay “Beyond War: A Time for Revolutionary Hope,” presented to the Leverett Peace Commission Lecture Series #2—March 4, 2011.]

Ploughshares Eight
Ploughshares Eight (Image used with permission)

The framework for my reflections is constructed from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech delivered at Riverside Church in April, 1967 (a year before his assassination).

Dr. King’s speech was entitled, Beyond Viet Nam: A Time To Break Silence. This vintage oratory occurred during a time of awful blood-letting, much like our current times.

In his wonderful cadence, Dr. King exhorted the audience by stating, “A time comes when silence is betrayal….A new spirit is rising among us… These are revolutionary times.  All over the globe men (and women) are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born…We in the West must support these revolutions.”

While I was a student at Yale Divinity School during the 1970s, I had the very good fortune of meeting Daniel and Philip Berrigan, two radical Catholic peace activists.  These notorious trouble-makers became my mentors and called me into the pathway from Yale to jail.

In Sept. 1980, I joined them and five other friends in a peace witness that came to be known as the Plowshares Eight.  We entered a plant owned by General Electric where components of nuclear weapons were being built.  With household hammers, we disarmed the nuclear nosecone for Mark 12A intercontinental ballistic missiles—beginning a series of over 90 Plowshares actions in the U.S., Europe, and Australia during the past thirty years and leading to time spent in federal prison for my efforts.

From the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya—and yes, Madison Wisconsin– we can hear the drum beat of revolution.  We have our work cut out for us to understand the signs of the times and to join this dramatic movement of liberation and justice-making.

Dean Hammer