BK/NY – Tuesday, March 31 – Letter-writing to Y12 Plowshares Prisoners

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, March 31st, 2015
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free
March is one of those months where NYC ABC is lucky enough to host three letter-writing dinners. This upcoming Tuesday, we will be writing a trio of radical Catholics. We know what you’re  thinking— is this some kind of April Fool’s joke? Radical Catholics exist? Let us assure you that they do and they have been trespassing at military sites and smashing up equipment belonging to the military and war profiteers for over 25 years now.

We will be joined by Carmen Trotta of the Catholic Worker, who will speak about the case. Carmen has served on the National Committee of the War Resister’s League and is a founding member of Witness Against Torture.

The three activists we are writing– Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Gregory Boertje-Obed, are from the Plowshares movement. In 2012, the three cut holes in the fence of  the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  Once inside the “secure” area, they hung protest banners on a uranium storage site, poured human blood and spray-painted the walls with anti-war slogans. In May 2013, the activists were convicted on the charges of damaging property & intending to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of the United States. Walli and Boertje-Obed were sentenced to just over 5 years in federal prison, while Sister Megan is serving a 3 year sentence at nearby MDC Brooklyn.
More information: transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com

We expect to see you on Tuesday. If you can’t make it, please take the time to write letters (and send books) to the prisoners:
Megan Rice #88101-020
MDC Brooklyn
Post Office Box 329002
Brooklyn, New York 11232

Michael R Walli #92108-020
FCI McKean
Post Office Box 8000
Bradford, Pennsylvania 16701

Gregory Boertje-Obed #08052-016
USP Leavenworth
Post Office Box 1000
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048

The deal, as always, is that you come bringing only yourself (and your friends and comrades), and we provide you with a delicious vegan meal, information about the prisoners as well as all of the letter-writing materials and prisoner-letter-writing info you could ever want to use in one evening. In return, you write a thoughtful letter to a political prisoner or prisoner of war of your choosing or, better yet, keep up a long-term correspondence. We’ll also provide some brief updates and pass around birthday cards for the PP/POWs whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks thanks to the PP/POW Birthday Calendar.

Directions:
Getting to The Base is simple:
From the M Train:
Central Avenue Stop: Walk east on Myrtle Avenue (away from Hart Street, toward Cedar Street). We’re about two blocks down on the south side of the street.

Knickerbocker Avenue Stop: Walk west on Myrtle Avenue (away from Harman Street, toward Himrod Street). We’re about three blocks down on the south side of the street.

From the L Train:
DeKalb Avenue Stop: Walk south on Stockholm Street (away from Wyckoff Avenue, toward Irving Avenue). We’re about four blocks down, at the intersection of Stockholm Street and Myrtle Avenue.

From the J Train:
Myrtle Avenue Stop: Transfer to the M train and follow the above directions.