Fatigue of Resistance: Hiroshima Day, King of Prussia, PA

 

Fran Sheldon

by C.R. Spicer

At noon on August 6, in heat index values of 100 degrees, six people gathered at the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania facility of Lockheed Martin to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and rebuke Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest war profiteer.

 

Chief among U.S. war contractors, Lockheed Martin is developing and building Trump’s “Golden Dome,” a multi-billion-dollar Star Wars continental defense system, at the King of Prussia site, and their sibling sites across the country. The Congressional Budget Office reported in May 2026 that it will cost $1.2 Trillion to develop, deploy, and operate over 20 years. previously described as costing $175 billion over time.

The 38th consecutive witness to mourn the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and model the urgency of abolishing nuclear weapons. They waved peace flags, carried protest signs, and tolled the historic peace bell of the Brandywine Peace Community.

 

”We are dying,” said Robert Smith, co-founder and coordinator of the Brandywine Peace Community. Since 1978, he has co-organized protests at the King of Prussia site. "Everybody that made up Brandywine Peace Comunity is dying. I have Parkinsons and wondering when I'm going to go." 

In particular, attendees marked the absence of  plowshare priest Fr. Rick Sieber, OFM. "He was very much apart of the witness over the past 40 years at the King of Prussia Lockheed Martin site," Smith said, who was arrested with Paul Sheldon and Fr. Pat Sieber (deceased's brother) at the King of Prussia site on the 80^th anniversary of Hiroshima.  Participants Bill Hartman and Christopher Spicer attended a memorial mass for Fr. Sieber held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Camden, New Jersey before the program.

 

Following the program, two crossed onto Lockheed Martin property to deliver their message to the company’s employees.  Both were cited for trespassing.  Paul Sheldon of Lansdowne Meeting and Media, Pennsylvania was arrested attempting to deliver workers a copy of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “ He gave the copy to their head of security instead. Christopher Spicer, father of three, was arrested with a poster of a Hiroshima child. 

Spicer Arrest

Spicer is from the Paulist Center of Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts, where the State Senate, on the final day of the term Aug. 2,  passed S.3247, the Back from the Brink resolution declaring support for the TPNW, now awaiting passage in the House to catch up the CA, OR, RI legislatures and the Maine Senate and the NJ Assembly. In 2018, Somerville City Councilor Mark Niedergang helped Spicer carry forward a BftB resolution to add Somerville among the first U.S. cities dedicated to prevent nuclear war. 

Spicer, a 2026 Masters in Fine Arts in nonfiction graduate from Lesley University, is also pending trial alongside co-defendant Steve Baggarly for the "Sacred Seven" action in 2025. The Nuclear Resister reports how seven protesters were arrested practice of the "Washing of the Feet" Holy Thursday blocade of the Engineering Building at Electric Boat Submarine Builders in New London, Connecticut. 

Fran Sheldon ringing bell of Brandywine Community

Links:

https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2026-05/62379-golden-dome.pdf

"Massachusetts Calls U.S. to Join the Nuclear [Ban] Treaty" https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/massachusetts-calls-for-u-s-to-join-nuclear-treaty/

Please share the good news and share the details of the BftB position with this link: https://preventnuclearwar.org/our-five-policy-solutions/

"Board of Aldermen Approves a Call to Prevent Nuclear War" https://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/87489

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Resolution S.3247

 WHEREAS, the existence of more than 12,000 nuclear weapons worldwide poses a grave and existential threat to the citizens of the commonwealth; and

 WHEREAS, the residents of the commonwealth have expressed their deep concern about this continuing threat over many decades through town meetings and city council resolutions and the filing of bills and resolutions with the general court; and

 WHEREAS, the policies and actions of states may lead the way and inspire important changes nationally and internationally; and

 WHEREAS, the commonwealth played a leading role in ending the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union in the 1980s, by adopting a nuclear freeze resolution and encouraging other states to follow its example; and

 WHEREAS, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force as international law on January 22, 2021, has been signed and ratified by 70 countries; and

 WHEREAS, the legislatures of California, Oregon and Rhode Island, the Maine state senate and the New Jersey assembly, and 21 cities and towns in the commonwealth have taken action to denounce the threat of nuclear war by endorsing the national Back from the Brink platform, which calls on our federal leaders to embrace the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to take immediate steps to prevent nuclear war by actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first, ending the President of the United States’ sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear attack, taking United States nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert and canceling the plan to replace its arsenal with enhanced weapons, mindful of prioritizing national security; now therefore be it

 RESOLVED, that the general court urges all members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to co-sponsor House Resolution 317 and Senate Resolution 323, which call for the United States to adopt the policy provisions of the Back from the Brink platform; and be it further

 RESOLVED, that copies of these resolutions be transmitted forthwith by the clerk of the Senate to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from the commonwealth in the Congress of the United States, and to the governor of the commonwealth.

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This info, the bill's history, sponsors, committee votes, etc. are available at: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/S3247 

Note the the "Primary Sponsor Summary" is:

This resolution declares the Commonwealth’s support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and directs the legislature to take action towards the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

I called Sen President Spilka's office and left a message thanking her. 

Bill Hartman (Bob Smith and Paul Sheldon)

Melissa Smith

Rear Entrance only un-covered company sign

Fran Sheldon beneath "Lockheed Martin Making a Killing" sign