I knew that it would be a striking way to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Plowshares Eight direct action at General Electric's King of Prussia Plant That action was, for me and the seven others who hammered and poured blood on Mark 12A warheads being produced under cover of secrecy at that plant, a sign that hope could flicker even in the face of the real threat of nuclear holocaust. Corita Kent took that flicker and caused it to bloom in a splash of purple and white, a radiant burst of hope. It is a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen. But you need enough hope to keep you going. I am trying to make hope.
Flowers grow out of darkness.
So much has changed since 1980. The Soviet Union as enemy is no more. We have managed to make it to a new millennium without a nuclear war or an accidental firing of the death machine. The leaders, once locked into endless threats, are free to let go. Surely when even the generals call for abolition of nuclear bombs, we need not accept their inevitability.