16.02.10 Lenten Vigil for Disarmament on Ash Wednesday at General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works in Bath

The first 2016 Lenten Vigil for Disarmament was held on Ash Wednesday, February 10, outside of the General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath.. 13 Maine peace activists accepted the invitation of Smilin' Trees Disarmament Farm and stood in vigil across from the GD/BIW administration building, under the constant eye of a GD/BIW security guard. When the peace activists tried to hold their vigil closing circle in the parking lot, they were turned away by the GD/BIW security guard. So in turn, they went across the street and held the vigil closing circle on the sidewalk in front of the GD/BIW administration building. The word on the street is that GD/BIW major union, Local S6 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (AFL- CIO) is looking into peaceful conversion.
As people's historian Howard Zinn observed, “We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”