9/28/09

Peace Activist Morse to Speak at LRCC on October 7

Photo: Long-term peace activist, Macy Morse, will be speaking at LRCC on Wednesday, October 7, at 12 noon, and at 6:30 p.m. in the Hugh Bennett Library. The title of her speech is "Peace Action Then and Now: Swords to Plowshares," based upon the 1983 "Plowshares" protests at the AVCO nuclear weapons plant in Wilmington, MA. The public is cordially invited to attend.

Lakes Region Community College (LRCC) welcomes long-term peace activist, Macy Morse (Portsmouth), who will be speaking on Prescott Hill Wednesday, October 7, 12 noon, and at 6:30 p.m., in the College’s Hugh Bennett Library. The title of Morse’s presentation is "Peace Action Then and Now: Swords to Plowshares," based upon the 1983 "Plowshares" protests at the AVCO nuclear weapons plant in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Excerpts from the trial of Morse and other "Plowshares" activists will be shown.

A New Hampshire resident and mother of 13 children, Morse has been involved in politics and peace activism for more than five decades. She worked in the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, serving as a delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Morse’s strong opposition to the Vietnam War and her belief that people of conscience can and must make a difference in the world led Morse to a series of protests against war, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear power plants.

For acts of civil disobedience Morse was arrested in 1976 with other members of the ""lamshell Alliance” for protesting the Seabrook nuclear power plant, at the Pentagon in 1980 with Reverend Philip Berrigan, and in 1983 with six others from the "Plowshares" group in Wilmington. More recently, Morse has participated in acts of civil disobedience against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the offices of Senator Judd Greg (2002) and Congressman Jeb Bradley (2005).

"The LRCC community is pleased to welcome Macy Morse to the College," says LRCC President, Dr. Mark Edelstein (Laconia). "She will be an interesting speaker and perhaps a somewhat controversial one as well. The College welcomes a diversity of views on social and political issues."

Morse served as a U.S. delegate to the "Greenpeace Conference on Nuclear Free Seas" in 1991. She has been honored with the War Resister’s League Annual Peace Award and Rivier College’s Thomas Merton/ Dorothy Day Award. Morse has also received the 2005 Peace Award from the Seacoast Peace Response, and in 2006 was listed among the "Women of Distinction" by New Hampshire Magazine.