Ploughshares Update (3 nuns and Catholic Worker 5)

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Saturday July 26, 2003 02:13

by Deirdre Clancy - Catholic Worker

dee_clancy at yahoo dot co dot uk

Today the ploughshares Dominican nuns Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte were sentenced to 18 months, two years and nine months, and three years and five months respectively after a ploughshares action in Colorado. The Catholic Worker five also had a bail hearing today in the Dublin Circuit Court, obtaining a significant relaxation in bail conditions but not a trail date as expected.

Today (July 25th) the Pitstop Ploughshares group (Karen Fallon, Ciaron O’Reilly, Damien Moran, Nuin Dunlop and Deirdre Clancy) appeared in the Dublin Circuit court for a bail hearing and, supposedly, to receive a trail date. After a vigil on O’Connell Street in remembrance of Iraqi casualties in the ongoing war of aggression, we marched with other activists in single file to the four courts carrying symbols of our opposition to the belligerence of the coalition forces. This occurred on a day when the Pentagon took the grotesquely triumphalist (and yet somehow also desperate) step of publishing pictures of two dead bodies from a shoot-out in which a fourteen-year-old child was also killed. Due to appear at 10:30am, the hearing didn’t occur until the end of the morning, due to a delay on the part of the Ennis guards in providing a copy of our new bail conditions. After much to-ing and fro-ing by our harassed legal team between fax machines and photocopiers, the hearing finally occurred.

Judge Hogan was initially puzzled that the case had come before him, and our counsel Giollíosa Ólideadha explained the fact of our transfer to Dublin. Although the judge was initially concerned with the ‘looseness’ of the first proposed bail change, which specifies that we now need only sign on at the Garda Stations twice weekly on separate days, but doesn’t specify the days, he agreed to the proposed amendments to our bail conditions. Technically, it seems, we can now sign on at five to midnight and five past midnight, and that’s it for the week. We also may be allowed into County Clare as long as we seek advance permission from the Superintendent in Ennis. (I’m not sure about braving a phone call to our good friend the Super in order to obtain this privilege, though.)

Other issues discussed include items of disclosure sought by our solicitor Joe Noonan – which I won’t go into detail about - and the question of legal aid for senior counsel, which we hadn’t been granted up until today. Aspects of this latter issue still remain open. We are up in court for mention again on November 3rd, which means that our trial will almost definitely be in 2004. (According to Judge Hogan, the list of cases to be dealt with in the District Court right now is ‘bulging’.)

Thanks to all of the activists who accompanied us today, to our legal team and to our Iraqi friend Zahir, who provided some stirring thoughts before we entered the court.

Sentencing of Ploughshares Nuns

On a separate but related note, there was a vigil outside the US Embassy today from 4pm in solidarity with the three Dominican nuns in the US, who faced sentencing today for a ploughshares action on a nuclear missile silo in Colorado last autumn. The vigil was attended by Nuin Dunlop (the only Pitstop Ploughshares person allowed to go within the vicinity of the US Embassy) and other activists.

Today Jackie Hudson (68) was sentenced to 18 months, Carol Gilbert (55) to two years and nine months and Ardeth Platte (66) to three years and five months. All were convicted in April of obstructing the national defense and damaging government property.

The nuns cut a fence and walked onto a Minuteman III silo site last October. They pounded the silo with hammers and painted a cross on it with their blood. Officials said they caused at least $1,000 in damage. They had until August 25 to report to prison but chose to go immediately.

Before sentencing, the nuns defiantly told a crowd of 150 supporters outside the courthouse they were not afraid of prison. "Whatever sentence I receive today will be joyfully accepted as an offering for peace and with God's help it will not injure my spirit", Platte said. Hudson said: "When someone holds a gun to your head or someone else's head do you not have a right and a duty to enter that arena and stop that crime?"

All three women are longtime anti-war activists. Platte and Gilbert lived in Jonah House, a Baltimore activist community founded by the late peace activist Philip Berrigan. Hudson lived in a similar community in Poulsbo.

For more on ploughshares, see www.ploughsharesactions.org

save preference

Comments (13 of 13)

3 Nuns on CNN website

by redjade

Sat Jul 26, 2003 18:02

more info
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/07/26/nuns.missile.silo.ap/index.html

How are Catholic Workers funded?

by System Brakedown

Sat Jul 26, 2003 20:59

Just Qrious.

Thanx 4 Asking!

by Ciaron - Dublin Catholic Worker

Sat Jul 26, 2003 22:28

Donate to the Ploughshares Defense Fund by making cheques payable to "Ploughshares Defence Fund"
c/o Ploughshares
134 Phibsborough Rd. Dublin 7 Ireland.

I see

Mon Jul 28, 2003 02:31

So are the CW totally dependent on voluntary donations from the public?

Shame

by Dan

Mon Jul 28, 2003 04:08

What a proud display of American justice - now they send three nuns to jail in their desperation to protect their disgusting weapons. Shame.

Funding

Mon Jul 28, 2003 09:50

Well it differs man (for this to be a mutual interchange I guess I dshould be asking about your funding uhhh?)....I've got a fulltime job, 2 of us have got casual work and two have had no income since release from prison.

Where does your question come from...another good question. Are you overwhelmed by the photographs of our expensive infrastructure in pulling off the spectacular on Friday......most props (laminated posters, bsanners, flower) were donated...pretty cheap really.

Many folks (lawyers, musicians, the guy who was supposed to have done our press release but may not have got around to it etc.) donate their skills for free.

Catholic Worker traditionally accepts no money from the state, in the U.S. it refuses to register as " a non-profit statu charity" organisation (so donating to it is not even tax deductable).some communities who run heavy shelter and soup kitchen scenes live off donations and dumpster diving....others will compliment this with part-time work or have community industries (house painting, soap making, coffin construction, bakiing etc etc)

Funding only limnited by oines imagination. Don't confuse work with having a job. Some work (kid raising) is not consider a job and some jobs (weapons manufacture) should not be considered work!¬

Further info on the Sentenced Plowshare Nuns

by Mary Ann Grady - Ithaca Catholic Worker

Mon Jul 28, 2003 09:56

Ithaca, New York, USA

Today, Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson were sentenced
for breaking into a federal missile silo in Colorado, smearing it with their
own blood and pounding on it with hammers. The Dominican nuns said the act
symbolized that they would rather pour out their own blood than have U.S.
weapons take the blood of another.

The day began in Colorado with a press conference in front of the Federal
building at which the nuns read their pre-sentencing statements; they would
not read them in court. Instead, in solidarity with women around the world,
they decided to dress as Women in Black and remain mute in the courtroom.
It proceeded with the Judge deciding to consolidate the sentencings -
despite his prior refusal of that motion.

Once in court, arguments were made by both sides on the length of sentence.
The prosecutor and the probation office requested sentences ranging from 5
to 10 years in prison. The nuns' attorneys argued that when the guidelines
for sabotage were set to mandate lengthy sentences, the actions defined
under "sabotage" in no way included what the nuns did. The legal precedent
is that of Daniel Sicken and Sachio Ko Yin who, some years back, were
sentenced in the same court for a similar action. Their judge - Judge
Miller - granted downward departure at sentencing saying: "There is sabotage
and then there is sabotage!" The prosecution appealed the judge's decision
and lost; the 10th circuit court of appeals upheld the judge's decision. The
damage in the prior case was far more substantial than that of which the
nuns are convicted.

Sr. Jackie Hudson was sentenced to 30 months in prison
Sr. Carol Gilbert was sentenced to 33 months in prison
Sr. Ardeth Platte was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

In addition, a period of 3 years supervised release follows their prison
sentences; no fines were imposed but restitution of $3,081.04 was. They were
ordered to self-surrender but refused and were taken immediately into
custody. Supporters in the packed courtroom chanted: "Close the silos; free
the nuns!" and the courtroom was cleared.

The day began in Baltimore with reading and reflecting on the scripture
passages for today. The passage from 2 Corinthians 4: 8ff was a gift for
today; it reminded us that the nuns (and through and in solidarity with
them, we ourselves) are afflicted, but not constrained; perplexed, but not
driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not
destroyed.

We are grieved that the nuns will have to serve that kind of time for an
action that was totally symbolic; but we are relieved that it is not the 8 -
10 years that the prosecution was demanding. The nuns were and are prepared
to accept prison, however much they - and we - believe that they committed
no crime, certainly no major crime. "We had no criminal intent at any
level," said Sr. Ardeth Platte, a member, with Sr. Carol Gilbert, of Jonah
House. "We accept the consequences of our actions joyfullyI know it will be
a long journey, but we're not afraid." Platte said.

The sisters believe nuclear weapons are the "taproot" of social and economic
injustice because the billions of dollars spent on them could go to programs
for the poor and needy. Standing against militarism, they say, is a way to
challenge skewed priorities that cause orphanages and soup kitchens to exist
in the first place.

The Nuns' "crimes" revealed that we in the U.S. accept rule by our own "evil
tyrants who threaten and use weapons of mass destruction and ignore
international law." Even more shocking to the current "might makes right"
school of "law," the Nuns showed that together we could nonviolently
accomplish complete nuclear disarmament one weapon at a time starting with
open declaration and inspection.

We have no news yet of where the nuns will be taken. We expect they will
spend some time in a local or transitory facility before being taken to the
federal prisons where they will serve their time. We will be in touch when
we have an address for them.

Below are the statements Carol and Ardeth made this morning in front of the
courthouse, having determined not to speak in court.

SENTENCING STATEMENT - SISTER CAROL GILBERT, OP
JULY 25, 2003

For many months I have pondered what to say, if anything at all. St.
Francis once said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words."
It seems that today a few words are necessary.
For the past ten months we have tried to cooperate with these courts. We
have been asking since day one - what are the charges? What is Title 18,
U.S. Code,
Section 2155, if not sabotage?
We are not saboteurs. Today, we ask no more questions.
We know something is very wrong with a system that can incarcerate us for
years in prison for inspecting, exposing and symbolically disarming
America's Weapons of Mass Destruction.
We know we should be acquitted for upholding the United States Constitution
that declares all laws and treaties to be the supreme laws of the country.
Article 6, Section 2 of the United States Constitution "declares this
constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof, and all Treaties made, or which shall be made under the
Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land and the
Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution
or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
We should be acquitted for upholding International laws which this court has
deemed unnecessary but which is bound to enforce under Article 6, Section 2
of the U.S. Constitution. It hurts to hear the prosecutor continue to call
Frances Boyle a "self-professed international law guru."
We should be acquitted for upholding the highest law - God's Law.
Judge Blackburn talked a lot about law. He didn't want this to be a
political trial but a case about law. So did we. That was our deepest hope.
But, we were not the ones that turned this into a political trial nor will
we make of ourselves political prisoners - that will be the prosecutor
and judge.
We have read in the press and in our pre-sentencing reports that the lengthy
sentence is for deterrence - both for ourselves and others.
But, what the government fails to recognize is that long prison sentences
will only energize the movement. As a tee shirt in upstate New York reads,
"You can jail the resister but not the resistance." We will not be silenced.
During our seven months in the Clear Creek County Jail we received thousands
of letters from the United States and international community, over a
thousand signatures from people who stand in solidarity with us and more
than 650 letters were sent to the judge asking for compassion and justice.
There have been four plowshares actions since ours - one of them in the
United States.
This Memorial Day, four plowshares activists enfleshed the Isaiah and Micah
prophecies on the USS Philippine Sea in New York harbor during fleet week
naming themselves Riverside Ploughshares. No charges were filed.
No, Judge Blackburn needs no more words from us. Judge Blackburn needs no
character witnesses this morning. What Judge Blackburn needs is to listen to
his God. He needs to heed these words from one of my church's social justice
documents, Gadium et spes. # 16. "Deep within their consciences men and
women discover a law which they have not laid upon themselves and which
they must obey. It's voice, ever calling them to love and to do what is good
and to avoid evil, tells them inwardly at the right moment: do this, shun
that. For they have in their hearts a law inscribed by God. Their dignity
rests, in observing the law, and by it they will be judged. Their conscience
is people's most secret core and their sanctuary. There they are alone with
God whose voice echoes in their depths."
Tomorrow, non-violent citizens in Colorado will inspect and expose
America's weapons of mass destruction, the Minuteman 111 , with others
joining in solidarity in other states and others exposing other weapons
systems at other sites.
Resistance will not be deterred. You cannot silence truth. Truth will be
spoken. Law will be upheld.
Judge Blackburn and the prosecutor need to reflect on the story in the Acts
of the Apostles of Gamaliel - Chapter 5 vv. 17-42.
Gamaliel was a Pharisee, a member of the Council, and a teacher of the Law.
He was highly respected by all the people.
As Peter and the other apostles were taken to the Council and high-priest,
Gamaliel cautioned the council not to take any action against the men. He
said, "if what they have planned and done is of human origin it will
disappear, but if it comes from God, you cannot possibly defeat them."
Someday history will prove what we did on the early morning of October 6,
2002 - inspecting, exposing and symbolically disarming a Minuteman 111, a
weapon of mass destruction was legal.
Until that day I will continue being led where I would rather not go. I will
continue to resist with every fiber of my being so that not one child will
ever ask, "Why were you complicit?" .
Lastly, a few words about fear. I don't fear going to prison. I don't fear
loss of freedom to move about. I don't even fear death. The fear that fills
me is not having lived hard enough, deep enough and sweet enough with
whatever gifts God has given me.
The demons are banished by light and like the prophet Micah, this is what
God asks of us, only this - " To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk
humbly with our God."
There is a story told of Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit priest, prophet and friend
that he was once asked to give the commencement address at a prestigious
university. He stood up, walked to the podium and said, "Know where you
stand and stand there" and then he sat down. My friends, "know where you
stand and stand there." (Bow)

ELOCUTION AT SENTENCING BY ARDETH PLATTE, O.P.
In front of the Federal District Court House on July 25, 2003

While we were at home at Jonah House, we opened our liturgy with the music,
"Here I am God. Is it I God? I have heard you calling in the night. I
will go God, if You lead me. I will hold your people in my heart ." We
closed the liturgy with: "Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come
follow Me and I will give you rest." Faith and the words of the stanzas to
these hymns record key notes in my journey of life - in waging peace, led
on a quest
for a world without war ever again,
in an attempt to stop the crimes and sins of government in my name,
in disarming weapons of mass destruction and stopping the merchant- sales
of the killing machines and technology sold to other nations, and calling
for a design of a global economy that will assure people in the entire world
all basic human necessities of food, shelter, education and health care,
etc.

With a vision for disarmament, a mandate to speak truth, and a mission to
halt the sinfulness, illegality and criminality being touted in my name, I
march to the Drummer of my soul Who instills faith rather than fear, trust
not hopelessness, and love instead of hatred and enemy relationships made
through endless threats, innuendos, propaganda, and permanent warmaking.

This journey has included numerous direct actions over decades: forums,
vigils, lobby, processions, demonstrations, boycotts, and civil resistance
in various areas of the country. Our social analysis, along with the need
to unmask urgent and sometimes secretive matters, has led me into nonviolent
symbolic public actions of resistance, such as:
1. Christ lives, disarm! Easter Sunday, 1992...entered into a nuclear
bunker.
2. Weep for Children Plowshares,1996...at the launching of the 18th Trident.
3. Gods of Metal Plowshares, 1998...bomb bay area of a B-52 used in Iraq.
4. Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares, 2000...the Milstar receiver and an
F-18 used in bombing Iraq.
5. Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II, 2002...Minuteman III
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile at N8, threatened and prepared to be
used.

Sisters Carol, Jackie and I believe that we had a responsibility to
inspect, expose, and symbolically disarm this weapon of mass destruction to
avert a crime of our government and uphold the laws of the United States,
not break them. Don't people claim today that the citizens of Germany
should have blocked the trains carrying people to the crematoriums,
dismantled the ovens, or done something to stop the mass murder of people by
Hitler? How will future generations judge all of us?

I find the charges in the Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II bogus.
Ours was a simple, measured, nonviolent, symbolic action wherein the
liturgical rituals were crystal clear.
What were the fears within the prosecutor to call for an "in limine" motion
that silenced us on all the laws so pertinent to the threats to use the
Minuteman III? What fears were within the judge to grant the silencing?
Being stripped of our law defenses made the trial a farce.

The elements of the charges were not substantiated beyond a reasonable
doubt by the prosecutor. The jury did not recognize the ongoing change in
the wording of the charges throughout the trial: from an indictment under
sabotage by a grand jury, citing a specific intent to obstruct the national
defense, then use of vandalism and trespass, and finally use of destruction
of national defense premises recorded on the verdict form. Even the
government's witnesses claimed under oath that the national defense was
never jeopardized. How can a national offensive first strike weapon be
launched as a national defensive weapon? Deliberation by the jury seemed
brief and without researching answers to the complexities in such a serious
case. Are we charged with sabatoge? Yes! Isn't that the reason I face 92
to 115 months in prison?

Could peacemakers lives be that expendable? Will the punitive measures
taken against dissenters, enforced under Patriot Bills I and II, be so harsh
that any lawlessness on the part of government officials will go
unchallenged in the future? Who will be courageous enough to reveal the
lies and stop the murderous conduct in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who will demand
an end to U.S. interventionism? Who will stand in behalf of the people
contaminated by depleted uranium? Who will be there for prisoners illegally
detained in Guantanamo? Who will teach the treaties and U. S. Constitution
and who will demand the implementation by every court of the land? Who will
bring nonviolence into the forefront for conflict-solving?

The sentencing consequences are exaggerated; the prosecutor and probation
offices' research is skewed. Why would multi-hundreds of letters and more
than 1,000 solidarity communications have no effect for downward departure?
Why has the prosecutor's statements to the press been considered
acceptable - that a long sentence for us will deter others. Four plowshare
actions have been carried out since ours - one on Memorial Day on the USS
Philippine Sea with the use of blood poured out on the bomb hatches and
hammers used in the same symbolic way? Yet no charges were brought forth.

How will we wage the struggle together to keep democracy alive, to bring
our nation from its killing mode to a life-giving mode, to keep the tenets
of the beatitudes, commandments and Sermon on the Mount practiced by the
nation as well as by us as individuals? Tomorrow's direct action at the
silos and bases to inspect, expose and demand disarmament is a bold and
worthy beginning. We join you in spirit with deepest gratitude. Whatever
sentence I receive today will be joyfully accepted as an offering for peace.
With God's help it will not injure my spirits. In the sacred moments or
years of imprisonment, I will remain with you in prayer and walk together
with you for the good of all humanity and creation. My love and gratitude
always.
Mary Anne Grady Flores
Ithaca Catholic Worker
Vieques Support Group
514 N. Plain St.
Ithaca, N.Y. 14850
607-273-7437
mgrady@lightlink.com
La Cocina Latina Catering

"Because we want peace with half a heart, half a life and will, the
war making continues. Because the making of war is total - but the making
of peace by our cowardice is partial." Father Daniel Berrigan

"There comes a time when silence is betrayal." MLK

"If you think you're too small to be effective,
you've never been in bed with a mosquito."
-- War Resisters' League

The previous poster

by robby

Mon Jul 28, 2003 23:40

I see the previous poster has discovered cut'n'pasting!

Close the silos, free the nuns

by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Tue Jul 29, 2003 01:48

A great Poster, thanks Mary Ann Grady.
A great courtroom shout.
A motto not to forget over the next 6 and a half years
Brave Sisters.
I salute you from across the Atlantic

Keep up your spirits, Catholic Workers

Tue Jul 29, 2003 01:55

The drudgery of courts doesn't suit your humanity.
They drag you there time after time and draw out the agony.
Keep up your spirits. Enjoy the freedom these extra months provide. Hold your heads high. You are a brilliant lot.

Funding....

Tue Jul 29, 2003 02:46

OK. I just heard a rumor that CW were funded by Opus Dei, that's all. Rumors, huh?

Doing the Work of God

by haha

Tue Jul 29, 2003 07:38

"CW were funded by Opus Dei".

That's the funniest thing I've heard for a while. As if far right Catholics would fund anti-war direct action!

I don't think so, somehow.

by Ciaron

Tue Jul 29, 2003 09:52

Kasey Kasem (voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo) put $US 20,000 to bail me outta jail once...I didn't ask about his political psosition on everything.

So maybe we'd take money form anyone and redistribute it. Dunno have to think about that...I guess Food Not Bombs takes food from anywhere, dunno have to ask!

I think one CW took a fridge from and Air Force Base in the U.S.....after a bunch of CW's were busted the commander told them to drive their truck 'round back and he gave'em a fridge.

So yeah if you're listening Opus Dei, send a cheque.

Number of comments per page

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Voltaire Network

Ploughshares Update (3 nuns and Catholic Worker 5)

Comments (13 of 13)