Spirit.56 Creative Christianity - Part 1

Spirit.56.297: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 14:31:47 CDT (47 lines)

Here is vignette #1 from today's demonstrations outside the courthouse
in Portland.

The demonstrators circled the courthouse block and tied yellow banners
to the parking meters lining the curb.  The banners read "Police Line,
Do Not Cross - Crime Scene".  This was a reference to the proceedings
going on inside the courthouse where Phil Berrigan was to be sentenced
for his role in the Aegis Plowshares action of last Ash Wednesday.  An
infuriated US Marshall followed the demonstrators around the block,
pulling down the banners.  I followed him, bearing witness.

Later, inside the courtroom, I turned to look at the Marshalls
standing behind us by the door.  I caught the eye of the same
Marshall, who stared me in the face.  I stared back, never blinking,
never averting my gaze.  After about 20 seconds, he nodded his head at
me and I nodded back.  Then I motioned him over and asked his name.
He asked me mine first.  "Barry," I said.  "Gary," he replied.
"What's your last name?" I asked.  "What's your's?" he countered.
"Kort," I said.  "DiMartino," he replied.  "Thank you," I said, "I
want to get it right for the story I'm writing."  "Be sure to get it
right," he said, and backed away.

Here is vignette #2 from today's demonstrations in Portland...

As we stood vigil outside the Bath Iron Works, the Bhuddist drummers
stepped off the curb, followed by the anti-war protesters from Pax
Christi and the Plowshares.  Two Portland Police officers on horseback
pranced forward to meet them.  Officer Swett pointed her finger at the
demonstrators and warned "You'd better move back onto the sidewalk or
you'll be stepped on by the horses."  This act of intimidation and
abuse of a fine, peaceloving animal annoyed the crowd.

Three demonstrators climbed onto a construction trailer parked on the
curb behind the officers and jumped onto the roof of a low shed just
inside the fence of the Bath Iron Works.  There they unfurled a banner
reading "Honor Veterans -- Abolish War".   After a while, some foot
police mounted a ladder against the shed and arrested the three.  The
crowd applauded.

A few minutes later, 3 more demonstrators walked into the parking lot
where the paddy wagon was parked and stood in front of it.  They too,
were arrested.  More cheers, as the news media arrived to cover the
story.  It was a good day to get arrested.

A passing tourist who stopped to see what was going on walked over to
me to ask what the demonstration was all about.  After I explained it,
she picked up a picket sign and joined us.

Spirit.56.298: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 15:37:38 CDT (42 lines)

Inside the Federal courtroom Judge Gene Carter listened to the US
Attorney set forth her position regarding the sentencing of Phil
Berrigan.  At trial, the governent had proven $28,000 in damages to
the USS Sullivans.  In the pre-sentencing report, the Navy disclosed
that it had signed a $37,000 contract with Bath Iron Works to repair
the damage.  But there was one item of damage not covered in the
contract.  Steve Kelly had found one of the missile control computers
and had banged his hammer on a trackball -- a device similar to a
mouse on a desktop computer.  The computer was owned by the Navy, so
the Navy supplied a new trackball for it, which they valued at $3700.
This put the total damages at over $40,000, kicking it up one notch in
the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which would add another 3 months to
the prescribed sentence.  Trouble was, this created a discrepancy
between what had been proven at trial, and what the government was now
claiming as actual damages.  The US attorney was insisting on the
higher figure, which had not been subject to due process.  Judge
Carter was annoyed.  Did the government really want to demand yet
another hearing to prove the extra few thousand in damages just to get
another 3 months tacked onto to Berrigan's sentence.  "Yes," replied
the US attorney.

Next, the US attorney invoked the provision of the sentencing
guidelines covering restitution and supervised release.  She wanted to
recover every penny of damages from the defendants, plus she insisted
they be covered under supervised release.  Judge Carter pointed out
that there was little likelihood Berrigan would ever pay any fines or
restitution.  Nonetheless, said the US Attorney, the government had to
proceed with all avenues of Berrigan's possible rehabilitation.
Berrigan stood up to ask the Judge to sentence him and to give him
whatever extra time was necessary in lieu of recovering damages.  The
Judge admitted he had no authority to do that.

After becoming hopelessly tangled in the rules, and hamstrung by the
US attorney's insistence on extracting every possible pound of flesh,
the Judge said he would give both sides 10 days to submit whatever
memoranda they wanted, and then he would decide on the applicability
of the various elements of the the sentencing guidelines.  This now
postpones sentencing for all defendants, probably for another month.

I can sum up in a word what went on in Federal court today.  It was
pathetic.

Spirit.56.299: Moonbeam (nanwill) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 16:34:09 CDT (7 lines)

Good reporting, Barry. I'm glad the rest of the Press finally made it,
and grateful you were able to witness both outside and inside the
courtroom by your presence there.

What happened inside the courtroom is typical. The wheels of justice
turn slowly, but this pathetic performance may be what God's time
requires.

Spirit.56.300: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 16:56:12 CDT (22 lines)

I didn't mention that Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General under
Johnson was on hand at today's hearing.  Clark spoke only briefly, and
then to assure the Court that Berrigan was still under his Josephite
vow of poverty, had no assets, and would surely give any he had to the
poor anyway.  The government, said Ramsey Clark, had no prayer of
collecting any restitution or fines from Berrigan.  In his remarks,
Clark echoed the words of another judge who called Berrigan "the
conscience of a nation".

Noam Chomsky had been notified just last night and was unable to come
on short noticey.  As it happened, his testimony as a character
witness was not needed at today's hearing anyway.  One observer
thought that Judge Carter's conduct today was largely calculated to
impress Clark.  I thought the judge did his best to dissuade the US
attorney from being obnoxiously overzealous in her demands for the
most severe sentencing admissible under the law.  But in the end Judge
Carter failed and there will now be more process to establish the
government's inflated claims of damage so as to secure an extra 3
months to the sentence.  I thought the US lost a great deal of
credibility by claiming that a computer trackball orginally not listed
as an item of damage cost the Navy $3700 to replace.  But then I
happen to know what a trackball is and how much they really cost.

Spirit.56.301: Kristie Afzali (kafzali) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:13:56 CDT (5 lines)

Why is none of this reported in the mainstream press I wonder? I read
dozens of newspapers and magazines weekly and have heard nothing of
this incident until I stumbled into this conference? Because of the
overtones of Christianity? Or because it's way up in Maine? I really
don't get it.

Spirit.56.302: Frank Vehafric (fvehafric) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:25:59 CDT (10 lines)

You don't get it, really? The media is a business. Media outlets are
owned by businessmen. Most media businesses are owned by corporations
who make big money from the kind of industry that Berrigan is trying
to stop. Their silence has everything thing to do with greed and self
interest and nothing to do with conscience and morality.

It's really quite simple.

Barry, my thanks for being there and keeping us informed. It is
necessary work.

Spirit.56.303: Kristie (kafzali) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 18:05:33 CDT (7 lines)

Yeah I get it. It's hard to pose rhetorical questions in cyber space
isn't it? See. There I go again.

I also happen to think that reporters are just too lazy to leave their
NYC apartments and LA homes to travel to some godforsaken place like
Maine. Doesn't make for good visuals. And not as much cool stuff to
expense.

Spirit.56.304: Frank Vehafric (fvehafric) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 18:12:46 CDT (2 lines)

Sorry, my rhetoric alert must have been turned off. I am easily
aroused in these matters.

Spirit.56.305: I completely understand. (kafzali) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 18:18:03 CDT (0 lines)

Spirit.56.306: Bill Marshall (gideon) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:03:10 CDT (2 lines)

Maine is anything but a God forsaken place, as anyone who has been
there will attest. Barry, thanks for the info and your presence.

Spirit.56.307: Moonbeam (nanwill) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:41:12 CDT (7 lines)

"The conscience of a nation"... I like that. And it's true.

As for the $3700 trackball, a goldplated one might go for $500
(that's on top of the state-of-the-art $120 model) -- doesn't this
sound like the USAF's thousand-dollar toilet seats from several years
ago? Can the Plowshares lawyers or the judge rebut these insanely
inflated figures?

Spirit.56.308: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:44:51 CDT (20 lines)

Bath Iron Works is owned by General Dynamics which has a lot of
corporate clout and a lot of political clout.  They are very much part
of the Military Industrial Complex, which accounts for $250 Billion of
your tax dollars every year.  The US spends more on defense than the
next 7 countries combined.

The local press was there today, but after 22 years, Phil Berrigan's
work is no longer front page news.  Marching today with Pax Christi
and the Plowshares was meaningful to me.  The march was led by
Buddhist drummers and the Pax Christi people carried banners depicting
Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.  Coming face to face with US
Marshalls, the Federal Protective Service, and the Portland Police,
one appreciates just how much firepower the government is willing to
aim at those who pray and witness for peace.  But the irony is that
the fear and terror was on the faces of the authorities who dreaded
having to play the role of the fascist in the full glare of the media.

You can tell by looking at someone if their adrenalin is pumping, and
I was close enough to see it on perhaps 4 law enforcement officials
out of a dozen.  We prayed for them.

Spirit.56.309: Doyle Burbank-Williams (doylebw) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:47:03 CDT (9 lines)

I want to relate another instance of Christian witness happening now.
In Omaha, a United Methodist pastor has challenged their church law by
performing a union ceremony for a lesbian couple, who were both
members of that church. The local media delights in reporting the
ecclesiastical proceedings beginning against the pastor, withou
mentioning the other members of that congregation who support the
action. Neither do they speak of the thousands of UM lay and clergy
who want that denomination to change its bigoted doctrine and welcome
all people. The mill is poised to grind another prophet.

Spirit.56.310: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:50:11 CDT (12 lines)

I daresay no one except myself saw through the sham at the time of the
hearing this morning.  The US attorney mistakenly referred to it as a
Tracking Ball, which no one has ever heard of, yet no one -- not the
Judge, not Berrigan's attorney -- asked what it was.  I asked Phil
Berrigan's wife, Liz McAlister, what a Tracking Ball was and she said
she had no idea.  I found out later from a local cable access news
person who had photographed it that it was an ordinary computer track
ball.

If the defense were to demand that the prosecution exhibit the damaged
track ball, I daresay I could look up the model number in the
Kensington catalog and find its street price.

Spirit.56.311: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:50:41 CDT (2 lines)

I've just been invited to a gay marriage, but I don't know who will
officiate.

Spirit.56.312: Doyle Burbank-Williams (doylebw) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:54:27 CDT (3 lines)

It seems that the issue of how the church responds to the homosexual
community is very indicative of how deeply they believe (or don't) in
the universality of God's love.

Spirit.56.313: Moonbeam (nanwill) Wed, 17 Sep 1997 21:59:20 CDT (1 line)

That says a lot, doesn't it...

Spirit.56.314: Letter to Judge Carter (moulton) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:53:03 CDT (79 lines)

                       Barry Kort
                 12 Mitchell Grant Way
                  Bedford MA 01730
                   (617) 275-4468

                                           September 18, 1997

Honorable Gene Carter
Federal Courthouse
Portland Maine

Judge Carter:

I am a writer and computer professional who attended yesterday's
hearing on the sentencing of Phil Berrigan.  I am covering the story
for the Internet community.  I have a 25-year background in computer
and communication technology.

I was puzzled by the US attorney's reference to a $3700 "Tracking
Ball", a computer device that I had never before heard reference to.
I am quite familiar, on the other hand with "Track Balls" which are a
variety the so-called "mouse".

I later learned from another journalist who covered the original story
and who photographed the damage to the USS Sullivans that the item
which Steve Kelly had banged his hammer on was indeed a computer
"Track Ball".

Track balls are manufactured by only a few companies, and the industry
leader is Kensington Technology Group of San Mateo California.  The US
government buys computer equipment from selected vendors, and
Kensington is one of the preferred vendors for track balls.  Since the
late 1980's the government has purchased nearly all computer equipment
"off the shelf" because experience has shown that commercial off-the-
shelf equipment is superior in quality, reliability and price to
custom specified items.  I know this because I onced worked at MITRE,
a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) which
certifies vendors and products for Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS)
purchase by the Department of Defense.

I looked up the product line of Kensington and other manufactors who
produce top of the line track balls.  Kensington's top of the line
model lists at retail for $125 and is readily available by mail order
for under $100.   No amount of money can buy a trackball superior in
quality or reliability to Kensington's top of the line model.

Your Honor, I have reason to believe that the government's assertions
of the amount of damages sustained from the Plowshares action of last
spring is a sham and perpetrates a fraud upon the Court, upon the
defendants, and upon the US taxpayers.  I am frankly alarmed and
embarrased that our government would expose itself in this case in
such a transparent and shameful manner.

I would respectfully suggest that the Court require the government to
produce as an exhibit the damaged track ball, identify it by
manufacturer and model, and research the retail price of the item.  I
believe such a requirement would reveal that the government has
grossly overstated its replacement value for the purpose of unjustly
increasing the amount of penalty and restitution which the US attorney
so ardently seeks.

I am more than willing to lend my services as a Friend of the Court to
assist in the research and clarification of the value of the damaged
track ball.

Very truly yours,



Barry Kort, Ph.D.
MuseNet K12 Project
BBN Systems and Technologies
GTE Internetworking Division

Copy to:
Plowshare Defendants
Claudia Sharon
Ramsey Clark
Noam Chomsky

Spirit.56.315: Moonbeam (nanwill) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 11:04:05 CDT (1 line)

:::: applause! ::::

Spirit.56.316: Barry Kort (moulton) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:52:47 CDT (5 lines)

You can read today's story in the Portland Press at

      http://www.portland.com/news/story8.htm

This URL will probably only be good for at most a day.

Spirit.56.317: Barry Kort (moulton) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 16:49:56 CDT (4 lines)

The six demonstrators arrested yesterday at Bath Iron Works spent 24
hours in jail and were released today.  Judge Wheeler was sympathetic
to their nonviolent act of free speech to protest the construction of
nuclear weapon destroyers in the heart of Portland.

Spirit.56.318: Moonbeam (nanwill) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 16:52:34 CDT (5 lines)

Thanks for the pointer to the local newspaper story, Barry. I'm glad
the Press got there, but your reporting was better. Theirs lacks
context, proving that Web links can't substitute for good writing.

And it's heartening to hear that the judge has a heart.

Spirit.56.319: Barry Kort (moulton) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 17:47:56 CDT (12 lines)

The state judges have been sympathetic.  It is the Federal Judiciary
which has been throwing the book at the Plowshares.

The Portland Press did get the name of the Assistant US Attorney,
Helene Kazanjian, which I was unable to get.  I'm also glad the
Portland Press mentioned the bit about the Judge ridiculing the US
Attorney, which prompted us to laugh 3 times, whereupon the Judge
chastised us for reacting to his barbs. We didn't mind.  It made for
more good story.  Note that the Portland Press also characterized
Judge Carter as being "annoyed" at the US Attorney's intransigent and
ridiculous position regarding the 3 technical points upon which she
managed to hang up the whole process for another month.

Spirit.56.320: Moonbeam (nanwill) Thu, 18 Sep 1997 19:25:05 CDT (2 lines)

Thank you for the blessing of your presence and witness there. You are
a good person, Barry, and you did a good job.

Spirit.56.321: J Hines (jhines) Fri, 19 Sep 1997 09:52:24 CDT (9 lines)

I've visited Phil Berrigan, Steve Baggarly, and Steve Kelly, often
this summer, often with Barry Kort. What always surprises me, and
other visitors too, about our visits-- the almost tangible peace and
serenity of the prisoners. They have practiced civil disobedience
against the bad law that protects heinous first-strike nuclear
weapons, they are willingly paying the price of their disobedience in
jail. . .and they have achieved their own personal joy. Phil Berrigan
is as luminous a man as I have ever met. . .it is as if the sun sines
from within him. If peace and joy are criteria of the truth. . .

Spirit.56.322: Moonbeam (nanwill) Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:27:52 CDT (1 line)

John, how good to see you here!   (((((((((((John))))))))))))

Spirit.56.323: Barry Kort (moulton) Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:37:37 CDT (3 lines)

Contrast the peace and serenity of the plowshares defendants with the
nervous unease of their jailers, who obviously sense their historic
and unjust role in this case.

Spirit.56.324: Moonbeam (nanwill) Fri, 19 Sep 1997 17:01:09 CDT (4 lines)

A wise column on the power of compassion to change things, by Jim
Wright, a Texas Democrat:

http://www.startext.net/today/news/columnist/jwright2.htm

Spirit.56.325: Barry Kort (moulton) Fri, 19 Sep 1997 19:17:40 CDT (4 lines)

Great column today by Bill Nemitz on the pathetic and ridiculous
procedings last Wednesday in the Berrigan sentencing hearing...

     http://www.portland.com/nemitz/bn091997.htm

Spirit.56.326: Barry Kort (moulton) Fri, 19 Sep 1997 19:26:21 CDT (3 lines)

For those of you who missed Thursday's Portland Press news story on
Berrigan, it's up on http://www.portland.com/thnews/story8.htm for a
few more days.

Spirit.56.327: Diane Fields (picnic) Mon, 29 Sep 1997 22:08:21 CDT (3 lines)

This seems to have ended on  9/19.  Surely there is more.  I have
also seen nothing in my local paper and have been following it here.
Thanks Barry.  Is there more?

Spirit.56.328: Moonbeam (nanwill) Mon, 29 Sep 1997 22:34:17 CDT (1 line)

See Spirit.14.158, and the previous 10-20 posts.

Spirit.56.329: Moonbeam (nanwill) Mon, 29 Sep 1997 22:35:11 CDT (1 line)

Sorry -- posting:Spirit.14.158 --

Spirit.56.330: Barry Kort (moulton) Tue, 30 Sep 1997 02:14:23 CDT (3 lines)

The Boston Sunday Globe carried a feature story in their magazine
section on July 27th.  I've haven't been over to the library yet to
dig it up.

Spirit.56.331: Barry Kort (moulton) Tue, 21 Oct 1997 09:18:08 CDT (50 lines)

This morning, John and I attended the Evidentiary Hearing in the
Prince of Peace Plowshares case, in which Assistant US Attorney Helene
Kazanjian was scheduled to prove that the actual damages to the USS
Sullivans was in excess of $40,000 rather than the $28,000 originally
established at trial.

In an unexpected move, the government back-pedaled and punted today's
hearing, admitting that they could not muster the evidence after all
to prove the higher level of damages.

Notwithstanding the Purchase Orders which the Navy had awarded to Bath
Iron Works to repair the damage to the ship, Attorney Kazanjian had
intended to call as her witness not the US Navy which procured the
repairs, but the Bath Iron Works which carried them out.  But Bath
Iron Works refused to testify, claiming that the amount they charged
the Navy was proprietary information and that it would put them at a
competitive disadvantage to disclose the actual cost of labor and
profit in the repair contract.  According to Attorney Kazanjian, the
Navy in fact paid BIW $37,000 to mop up the spilled blood and to buff
out the scratch marks in the missile hatch covers.  Previously, BIW
had testified that it would cost them $27,000 to do that work.

The clear suggestion was that BIW and the Navy had agreed to a
contract figure that was embarrassingly high and that would give
competing shipbuilders ammunition for taking future contracts away
from BIW.

I had brought along my own Kensington Track Ball, ready to testify as
an Expert Witness, that the $3700 the Navy paid to replace the damaged
one far exceeded its true cost.  But since the government punted, and
since I didn't testify, I ended up showing my track ball to the TV
reporter for Portland's ABC affiliate, to better inform their viewers
about one of the details of the case.  I explained that the computer
track ball which Steve Kelley had banged his hammer on was similar to
the one I had with me, and that any civilian could buy the same model
at retail for under $100.  If the Navy paid $3700 for one, as Attorney
Kazanjian asserted, then someone made a tidy $3600 profit.

The matter of damages is now moot.  The Court has it on record that
the damages are $28,000, and that sets the bracket in which Judge Gene
Carter must sentence the defendants.  He promised to move quickly to
sentencing, perhaps as early as next week.

From where I sit as an observer, reporter, and sometime expert on the
value of replacement computer parts, it appears to me that the Judge
is embarrassed by the exposure of this case, which has focused local,
national and international attention on matters ranging from the
Nuremburg precedents to controversial tax breaks and profiteering in
the Maine defense industry, to wasteful and inefficient use of Federal
judicial processes.

Spirit.56.332: Frank Vehafric (fvehafric) Tue, 21 Oct 1997 09:54:20 CDT (3 lines)

Which probably means that he will drop the hammer on the defendants in
order to prove that the case was serious enough to merit all this
attention, though, of course, I hope he doesn't.

Spirit.56.333: Barry Kort (moulton) Tue, 21 Oct 1997 18:33:30 CDT (3 lines)

One of the standby attorneys recited an epithet about Judge
Carter:  "Mean Gene, the Time Machine".  I, too, hope he
doesn't live up to his reputation.

Spirit.56.334: Barry Kort (moulton) Sun, 26 Oct 1997 15:52:20 CST (33 lines)

Back in Posting:297, I told you about the street demonstrators who got
arrested the day Phil Berrigan was orginally to have been sentenced in
Judge Carter's courtroom.

One of those arrested was Kevin Wyer, a supporter of the Plowshares
who has been especially active in organizing the local demonstrations.

One of the consequences of being arrested was that Kevin and the
others who were arrested were barred for six months from visiting the
Plowshares in jail.  Nevertheless, Kevin shows up there at visiting
time to hobnob with the other visitors who are still allowed in to
see the prisoners.  Kevin was there this morning, when John and I
arrived for the 8 AM visiting hour.

Just as we were being ushered in, another would-be visitor arrived, a
young woman coming via car and ferry a long distance to see someone
unrelated to the Plowshares who had just been incarcerated at the
Cumberland County Jail.  She was late because she didn't know the way.
The guard, Correction Officer Sutherland, refused her admission,
pointing out that she was 2 minutes late.  Kevin put up a fuss,
demanding to see the Supervisor, who eventually came out and -- after
some unpleasant words with Kevin -- let the young woman in to see the
prisoner she had come so far on a cold Maine morning to visit.

All this happened after John and I had gone into the visiting room, so
we didn't witness it firsthand.  When we came back out to the lobby, I
asked the guard what happened to Kevin Wyer.  "He left," replied the
guard.  "Voluntarily?" I asked.  "No," came the reply.

We found Kevin sitting in his car in the parking lot, and chatted with
him briefly.  He said the supervisor threatened to arrest him if he
came back inside again.  I have a hunch Kevin is going to do something
a bit more dramatic tomorrow to get himself arrested again.

Spirit.56.335: Barry Kort (moulton) Mon, 27 Oct 1997 16:39:51 CST (15 lines)

Well, I was wrong. It wasn't Kevin.  Around 2PM, while Judge Carter
was sentencing Mark Colville, 9 demonstrators chained themselves to
the gate at Bath Iron Works and were arrested.  Four of them were
students at nearby colleges.  The authorities released the youngest 2,
who were only 17.  The other 7 will be arraigned tomorrow, most likely
on charges of criminal trespass.  The action stunned the workers at
BIW who were used to seeing old codgers in the weekly vigils, but were
now confronted with actions by young people, some of whom are too
young to be arrested as adults.

I arrived at the Cumberland County Jail in time to speak with the two
17-year olds, twin brothers who were remarkably unruffled by the
experience.  I invited them to write their story for me to post here.
The other two students are twin sisters, who are organizing other
students in peace vigils.  I'm hoping to get their story, too.

Spirit.56.336: Frank Vehafric (fvehafric) Mon, 27 Oct 1997 18:27:38 CST (1 line)

Maybe this is where it starts.

Spirit.56.337: Barry Kort (moulton) Mon, 27 Oct 1997 21:06:39 CST (2 lines)

Swords into Plowshares started with Isaiah, quite some time ago.  This
is a goal that will most likely not be achieved within our lifetime.

Spirit.56.338: Curtis (cbeaird) Mon, 27 Oct 1997 22:41:17 CST (10 lines)

Could be that the Swords into Plowshares may require the Revelation
treatment before it moves forward.. ie "..and the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away and the sea was no more." ( written as
Letterman prattles on in the background, the stock market heads into
the dumper to the tune of 500 + points and the man on the six o'clock
news jabbers the 90's version of "the sky is falling, the sky is
falling.")

Press on

Curtis

Spirit.56.339: Moonbeam (nanwill) Mon, 27 Oct 1997 23:16:55 CST (7 lines)

Curtis, you remind me of the one significant thing Calvin Coolidge
ever said for posterity:

"Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unrewarded talent.
Education alone will not: The world is full of educated failures.
Persistence alone is omnipotent."

Spirit.56.340: Witness of Bill Slavick (moulton) Tue, 28 Oct 1997 18:23:55 CST (72 lines)

There were two character witnesses at Phil Berrigan's sentencing.  One
was his older brother Dan Berrigan. The other was Bill Slavick, a
Portland resident and peace activist.  Here is a transcript of Bill
Slavick's remarks to Judge Gene Carter, in support of Phil Berrigan...


What can you say of Phil Berrigan's character with regard to the
action at Bath Iron Works on Ash Wednesday?

I first met Phillip Berrigan about 30 years ago and I had been
following his activities for a decade or more before.  I was quite
familiar with his Church -- faithful to the early Gospel tradition of
the nonviolent Jesus, schooled by Dorothy Day's pacifism and soup
kitchen, reinforced by the Second Vatican Council's recognition of
primacy of conscience regarding war, and far out front in the American
church in seeking respect for blacks.

I wouid measure his character by the highest standard -- love of God
and neighbor, which translate into doing God's will by forming his
conscience faithfully, following his conscience whatever the cost,
respecting God's creation, working for justice for his fellow human
beings Ñ being a good citizen, which means respecting the law as it
serves justice and social order.

I knew few people living -- Jean Bertrand Aristide may be one -- who
freely risked or sacrificed as much as Phil Berrigan in fidelity to
conscience and service of his neighbor.  I've seen and heard no report
of Phil Berrigan ever putting self before the needs of his neighbors,
near and far.  His life is a love song of neighbor.

He is not a wasteful consumer of the world's goods.

And he is an heroic citizen.  When the law and public policy are at
the service of justice and the common good, he lives in harmony with
the law and policy.  When they are not, as in the obvious waste of
hundreds of billions of dollars for unneeded arms and indefensible use
of arms and funds, as in Vietnam, Panama, the Gulf, funding the contra
terror, Salvadoran death squads, Guatemalan military genocide, and
arming Indonesia's genocide in East Timor -- all of which are at the
expense of well over a billion hungry people, who, in the earliest
tradition, have a moral claim on those wasted monies, Phiilip Berrigan
accepts his responsibility to actively oppose such evil, knowing that
he cannot, in conscience, evade his moral responsibility to act any
more than any of us can by claiming that the evil is beyond his power
to overcome or by acquiesing in the state's false morality that, since
the evil can, conceivably, be effectively opposed through the
political process, he has no responsibility to act outside that
process, however long the evil continues and however serious it is,
and is obliged to obey laws that serve to sustain and even further
that evil.

A $3700 track ball is emblematic of that collusion, greed, and
government acquiesence in it.

In that circumstance, the state and those responsible for its evil are
criminal, not Jesus who challenged the corrupt Temple system, not a
Henry David Thoreau who refused to pay taxes for the Mexican war and
legalized slavery, and not a Martin Luther King or a Phil Berrigan.

His character is to be compared to the fireman who deliberately risks
and sacrifices his life to rescue a child.  That is, in acting to
convert genocidal weapons into plowshares, he is of heroic character,
worthy of society's highest praise.  And history will, in my judgment,
concur in such an assessment.  We honor Jesus, not Pilate; Thomas
More, not Henry VIII; Bartolomeo de las Casas, not the greedy and
brutal conquistadors; Count von Stauffenberg, not Alfred Krupp;
Archbishop Romero, not Roberto d'Aubisson.  Consistently, of course,
this state's only response to such an heroic challenge has been to
jail the consciences of the country in order to protect the true
criminals.

                                         --William H. Slavick

Spirit.56.341: Mark Colville's Statement (moulton) Tue, 28 Oct 1997 18:52:40 CST (124 lines)

                 Mark Colville Sentencing Statement

As I said back in February at the arraignment, my disarmament action
at Bath Iron Works was dedicated to a brother-in-law, Clifford Weed,
who at that time was dying in agony from a cancer caused by his
exposure to Agent Orange nearly 30 years ago. Cliff was an ambulance
driver in Vietnam, risking his life to evacuate the bleeding and
dying from these killing fields, some of them burned bare from our
napalm, which was produced in major chemical companies in the US.  He
died in June, a few weeks before his son's (and my godson's) second
birthday.  Of course, on the day Cliff joined the ranks of over 200
million peopie killed in Wars in this century, I was here in
Cumberland County Jail, paying the price for refusal to cooperate with
the national insanity of nuclear weapons.  I missed Cliff's funeral,
but I hope and trust that from where he is now, he understands.

Also, I throw a kiss to my grandmother, who died in July.  Anagusta
was 100 years old, a lover of life, and quite influential in my
formation as a Catholic, which in so many respects is the reason I am
standing here today.

Incidentally, Ms. Kazanjian's quick success in persuading the court
that the US Navy is a victim in this case and her insistence that we
pay thousands in restitution has struck some members of my family as a
kind of cruel joke.  My sister and brother-in-law fought for years
with the Veterans Administration to achieve the recognition of being a
victim of Agent Orange.  The end result was a check for $853.37.  This
was in restitution for six years of unrelenting pain, for the death of
a husband, for a child growing up without a father!

Yes, there are plenty of victims in our case, but can we all just stop
for a moment and have a good laugh at the idea that the Navy is one of
them? After all, the Navy's ability to threaten, coerce, terrorize and
exterminate people all over the globe remains unchanged. These
floating arsenals of flying extermination ovens, called Aegis
destroyers, are still being built in your district, Judge, at a
billion dollars a piece, while nearly half of Maine's children
experience hunger on a regular basis.

The Navy has received full support in this courtroom for its
possession with intent to use nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles,
despite the fact that the law -- moral, international, Constitutlonal --
forbids this.  And the people of this country -- the majority of them,
anyway -- have still not as yet come to act on the convictions that
most of us share, namely, that all nuclear weapons must be dismantled
and that our government is utterly powerless to do so. As much as I
would like to claim otherwise, the Navy's position as bastion of
Empire, a mortal threat to humanity, and worldwide victimizer, remains
intact.

This nation has become a runaway armament factory. We sell weapons To
162 out of 182 countries of the world, in many cases to both sides in
the same war.  We are the most violent people in the history of human
civilization, both in terms of arms proliferation and body count.  For
the past 52 years since we became the first and oniy nation ever to
use nuclear weapons -- and that on defenseless civilian populatians --
we have held a nuclear gun to the head of all humanity.  And yet we
throw up our hands in exasperation at our inability to stem the tide
of violence in our own streets, in our own homes and schools, which
seems well on its way to destroying us from within.  My family and I
encounter the victims of this violence every day in our Catholic
Worker ministry in New Haven CT, as we share a common table with
homeless veterans, battered women, drug addicts and their children the
mentally ill, refugees.

So it is from that experience that I want to ry out to my daughters
Keeley and Soledad, who are here in the courtroom and understand what
is happening to their father today, and to my son Justin, who is too
young yet; i want to say before them and all of the next generation
that we have got to find a way out of this mess.  We have all, each of
us, got to examine our roles in this demonic madness, whether it is a
passive one of silence, apathy, and denial -- as I have played for too
much of my life -- or an active role such as you, Judge Carter,
intentionally or not, are playing by your court justifying the
building, possession, and intent to unleash on the world weapons which
will eliminate all life, and by your punishing of those who deny these
weapons' right to exist. We have all got to come to a simple,
thoughtful, nonviolent and persistent decision that we will not play
our part in the end of life anymore. We will neither participate in
nor permit the theft of our childrens' future. Such a decision takes
courage and involves hardship. Nevertheless, it is inescapable. Fifty-
two years is enough. This government is helpless to disarm. We must do
it ourselves.

And as fate would have it, my act of disarmament at Bath Iron Works,
of which I am obviously proud, has presented you with several
opportunities to exercise the kind of leadership on which the future
of our children depends.  But thus far you have failed to do so.  You
failed at the trial by not even permitting the jury to hear the law --
our defense based on international law, which is binding in this
court, according to the US Constitution. (Let us not forget that even
members of the jury itself were troubled by the unfairness of the
trial.)  You failed to prevent these federal marshals from denying
large numbers of people access to this courtroom that they might
witness our attempt to expose the government's criminality to public
scrutiny. You failed by allowing us to remain in jail for eight
months, instead of being free to pursue our vocations to public
nonviolent resistance and service to the poor.

And now I come before you again, and you have yet another opportunity
to exercise just judgment, moral judgment, not beholden to politics,
to the Pentagon, or to the insanity in which our government expects
you to play your role like a good functionary. I am not a particularly
good or virtuous person, nor do I claim to have apprehended all truth.
But I do know that what we did at Bath Iron Works -- the hammering of
swords into plowshares -- was right. It was responsible. It was good
parenting. It was required by Jesus Christ, the God of my faith, who
commanded us to ]ove our enemies. A court that punishes such an act
stands condemned. Therefore, with respect, Judge Carter, I advise you
that if you choose to punish me, you will do so without my consent and
without my cooperation. When released from prison, I will pay no
restitution; I will report to no one, nor will I allow my conscience
to be supervised. I have put my hand to the plow. I have decided to
resist this government's obsession with violence and to do what is in
my power to defend its many, many victims.  Now it is your turn.

I am inviting you today to refuse this role as a functionary, to
reclaim your identity as a judge to change your allegiance from death
to life, and in so doing, to change a bit of the world.  I invite you
to refuse to punish me, to give me your blessing, and send me back to
where I am needed, living the life of a nonviolent resister, servant
to the poor, husband, and father.

Thank you for listening.

Spirit.56.342: Frank Vehafric (fvehafric) Tue, 28 Oct 1997 20:09:03 CST (1 line)

I am speechless.

Spirit.56.343: Moonbeam (nanwill) Tue, 28 Oct 1997 20:40:23 CST (1 line)

I am humbled.

Spirit.56.344: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 29 Oct 1997 07:32:14 CST (3 lines)

You can view Sylvia Gilman's sketches from Monday's sentencing at

    http://www.musenet.org/~bkort/plowshares/sentencing.html

Spirit.56.345: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 29 Oct 1997 19:23:06 CST (8 lines)

During the noon hour, between the morning sentencing of Susan Crane
and the afternoon sentencing of Steve Baggarly, the local peace action
demonstrator marched to Bath Iron Works where they spilled blood upon
the entrance sign and again blocked the main gate with their bodies.
Five demonstrators were arrested, including the same two college
students arrested and held on Monday.  Assuming they are arraigned
tomorrow morning in the County Courthouse, I hope to be there to cover
it.

Spirit.56.346: Barry Kort (moulton) Wed, 29 Oct 1997 19:34:40 CST (17 lines)

One of the things that tries one's soul is the ubiquity of
obliviousness.  The extent to which so many of us are unaware, out of
touch, not paying attention is frankly alarming.

But I saw in Judge Carter something I hadn't seen before.  In him I
saw Studied Obliviousness.  It's not that he was merely unaware.  He
had conciously walled himself off from international law, treaties,
World Court opinions, the Nuremberg Precepts, moral issues, theology,
and other considerations that make us human beings and not automata.

In Judge Carter's courtroom, US National Law was the single prevailing
source of consideration and there was no place to invoke any higher
laws or moral issues.

There is a name for a belief system in which National Law takes
precedence and supercedes all other considerations.  That belief
system is called Fascism.

Spirit.56.347: Article by Bill Slavick (moulton) Wed, 29 Oct 1997 21:56:14 CST (146 lines)

This article originally appeared in Church World.


         Plowshares Sentencing Deaf to Challenges of Conscience

In Judge Gene Carter's Federal court Monday, at the sentencing of
three of the Prince of Peace Plowshares, it was as if two ships had
passed in an impenetrable fog.  For Helene Kazanjian, the Assistant US
Attorney, the issue was vandalizing the USS The Sullivans and, to use
her word, "terrorizing" the sleeping crew by waking them and
dangerously splashing blood about the ship.  For the Plowshares, it
was the need of the state to recognize that US arms and their use in
the service of Empire are evil in their violence and theft of billions
in food from the poor.  The real question the prosecution and Judge
Carter would give no hint of recognizing, much less addressing: what
is the state's proper (just, fair) response when it acts against
justice and the common good, occasioning millions of deaths, hunger,
and disease; is deaf to citizen protests, apparently incapable of
ending its massive violence, and citizens' consciences oblige them to
act to stop that evil?

In the end, Judge Carter's sentences could have been generated by
a computer programmed with the sentencing guidelines; the faceless
computer might have appeared more humane.  Seventy-four year old
Phillip Berrigan,  who has already served eight years for his acts of
conscience, was given two years; Rev. Stephen Kelly, SJ, the
guidelines maximum, 21 months; Mark Colville, father of three young
children, 13 months.  All received two-years of supervised release and
were obliged to provide restitution of $4703.89 each.  Steve Baggarly,
Susan Crane, and Tom Lewis-Borbely were to be sentenced Wednesday.

It was clear that Judge Carter had already made up his mind to let
the Federal guidelines do his walking in the yellow pages.  He
parried former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark's insistence that
federal guidelines regarding restitution were designed for common
crimes of selfishness, greed, and lust, not people trying to prevent
injury and to end war and who had taken vows of poverty.  "To consider
them in the same way as ordinary criminals is to overlook their unique
contribution to humanity," Clark observed.

Regarding their acts, Clark enlisted Thomas Jefferson, who had
warned that to punish conduct of people who act on conscience, except
when necessary, is a mistake, observing that the Plowshares seek to
prevent the genocide of the planet.    Carter likewise avoided
acknowledging, at Clark's repeated chiding, that he was free to honor
their motives by ignoring the guidelines, having only to give his
reasons.

Acting for Berrigan, Clark called William Slavick, coordinator of
Pax Christi Maine, and Phil's brother, Jesuit father Daniel Berrigan,
as character witnesses.

Slavick characterized Berrigan as an heroic citzen in accepting
his responsibility to actively oppose the state when it acts contrary
to the common good, whatever the cost to him.  "In that circumstance,
the state and those responsible for its evil are criminal--not Jesus
who challenged the corrupt Temple System, not a Henry David Thoreau
who refused to pay taxes for the Mexican war and legalized slavery,
and not a Martin Luther King or a Phil Berrigan."  Emblematic of that
criminality, he noted, is Bath Iron Works charging the Navy $3700 for
a $100 computer track ball (which revelation may have contributed to
BIW refusing last week to provide evidence in support of the claimed
damages to the USS Sullivans).  He compared Berrigan's effort to
eliminate genocidal weapons to the heroism of a fireman who
deliberately risks and sacrifices his life to rescue a child.
"Consistently, of course, the state's only response to such an heroic
challenge has been to jail the consciences of the country in order to
protect the true criminals."

 Brother Dan recalled their mother's response to his call with the
report of Phil's first arrest: "You're out and Phil is in?" she asked.
"We obviously come from a criminal family, and are criminalized by the
Jesuit order--criminalized by conscience," he observed laconically.
He then noted Bath Judge Joseph Field's characterization of Phil as
"the conscience of this generation."

Clark added that Phil "believes that he has a duty under
international law not to be silent in the face of threats to human
existence to act non-violently to save us all."

Addressing the court, Phil recalled UN Secretary U Thant's
observation that "if the American people knew the truth about the war
in Vietnam, they would stop it," noting that they didn't so they
didn't stop it.  After the Cuban missile crisis, he had embarked on a
search for the truth and come to a good part of it.  "God did not
provide one law for those in power and another for human beings, like
you and I; if it is criminal for me to kill, it is criminal for my
government to kill."  He then observed that if the prosecutor and
Judge Carter understood the import of our $14 trillion spent on arms
since 1946, our 50-odd interventions, and the World Court's
criminalizing of nuclear arms, they would not have conducted
themselves as they had in the trial and would pursue their jobs
differently.  "The US must stop killing and engaging in exploitation
and get on with saving the world's people and places."

Fr. Kelly was quite brief at his sentencing, calling as character
witnesses the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Baghdad shelter
victims of an Aegis missile.

Mark Colville read a moving statement that evoked the memory of
his Vietnam veteran brother-in-law who died of Agent Orange after six
years of unrelenting pain. He had received only $853.37 in
compensation from the Veterans' Administration after a long fight to
gain recognition of his victimization as cause to laugh at Ms
Kazanjian's characterization of the Navy as victim and her demand for
full restitution.  He observed that the Aegis destroyers built in
Maine cost $1 billion "while nearly half of Maine's children
experience hunger on a regular basis."

Noting that nuclear weapons are now forbidden by international
law, Mark complained that our government appears powerless to rid
itself of such arms while becoming "a runaway armament factory,"
selling weapons to 162 out of 182 countries.  "We have got to find a
way out of this mess." he pleaded.

Colville urged Carter, after his failures to allow a defense based
on international law, to exercise just, moral judgment by refusing his
appointed role as functionary, reclaiming his identity as a judge, and
changing his allegiance from death to life.  "I invite you to refuse
to punish me, to give me your blessing. . . ."

Some 65 supporters braved wind, cold and rain to vigil outside the
courthouse before the sentencing, sang "We Shall Overcome" in the
courtroom after Fr. Kelly's sentencing, and half that number vigiled
at the Bath Iron Works dry dock following the sentencings. As Colville
was sentenced, nine Plowshares supporters, College of the Atlantic
student Jessica Stewart of Falmouth, University of Maine student
Audrey Stewart of Orono, high school students Josh and Justin Jackson
of Jefferson, Michael and Mary Donnelly of Portland, Francis Crowe of
Northampton, MA, and Hattie Nestel and Marsha Gagliardi of Athol, MA,
chained and handcuffed themselves to the BIW gate.  All were arrested.

The day ended on a frustrating note.  After the Plowshares'
anticipated return to the Cumberland County Jail, Phil Berrigan's
wife, Elizabeth McAllister, and their children went to the jail to
visit him before returning to Baltimore, only to be told that they
could not see him, too few guards being on duty to handle the visit.
Shortly thereafter, a visiting priest learned from another Plowshare
that Phil was not there, having been taken instead, after sentencing,
to the Windham Correctional Facility.  The greatly disappointed
Berrigans returned Monday evening to Baltimore.

All of the Plowshares will likely be moved to Federal penitentiaries
within the week.

                                    William H. Slavick

Spirit.56.348: Susan Crane's Statement (moulton) Thu, 30 Oct 1997 14:06:53 CST (183 lines)

Susan Crane's Sentencing Statement

October 29, 1997-- Federal District Court, Portland Maine


                     Thou Shalt Not Kill

On Ash Wednesday our Plowshares community went to Bath Iron Works,
boarded a guided missile destroyer, and using our own blood and
household hammers began to convert the weapons and navigational system
of the ship. We went to enflesh the words of the prophet Isaiah, to
beat swords into plowshares. We went on the ship in a spirit of love,
and it is with that same spirit that I am here in the courtroom today.

Our witness is about saying no to death; no to nuclear weapons, no to
weapons of mass destruction.  It's about saying yes to truth and
justice, faithfulness and hope, obedience and love, nonviolence over
violence in resolving conflict. It's about saying yes to conversion:
conversion of weapons and of hearts.

Our witness is about truth; but it was difficult to talk about truth
in this courtroom where good is seen as evil, and evil is misnamed as
good.

The court looks at our disarmament witness and brands us criminals,
says the good that we did was wrong, and the truth doesn't matter. The
truth of international law, Nuremberg Principles, the World Court
decision, the teachings of our faith, even the commandments aren't
relevant.

This same court says that nuclear weapons are good and acceptable.
Planning for war -- a whole economy mobilized around warmaking, with
its roots in larceny, is defended by this court.  Nuclear war will be
legal. Indiscriminate destruction of men, women and children, military
and civilian, considered legal. Burnt incinerated flesh -- all legal.

In John's Gospel, there is a story of the Good Shepherd who takes care
of his sheep, in contrast to the hireling who runs away when danger
comes, so that the wolf and the thief are able to harm the flock.  All
of us in our daily lives -- including our work -- have a choice to
treat people entrusted to us with care and compassion -- like a
shepherd, or to simply "do our job;" hide behind the rules of the
institutions and be merely a hireling.

The German judges who sent innocent people to concentration camps, who
presided in closed courtrooms, not allowing the prisoners any
defenses, justified themselves by saying, "I'm just doing my job."
They were hirelings.

We may not be building concentration camps here today in the US, but
we are building flying ovens to incinerate people-- like the missiles
for the USS The Sullivans.

You, Judge Carter, have kept the public out of parts of our trial,
severely limited  public access to other parts of the trial, and did
not allow us to use any affirmative defenses. You were just doing your
job, and have acted as a hireling.

Yet traditionally a judge insures justice for the widow, orphan,
stranger, and the voiceless.  A judge at every level of government has
a responsibility to uphold international and national law.  Justice
isn't a neutral word.  A Judge isn't neutral. Justice has to do with
justice for the poorest, the lowest person, the least.  You have
distorted the concept of justice so that this court appears like just
another face of the Pentagon; your court has defended the greed, the
immorality of the defense contractors. This court has defended larceny
from the poor.

One of the commandments of our faith is Thou Shalt Not Kill.

Our Plowshares action was about obedience and faithfulness. Obedience
to the nonviolent God of love, Obedience to the command "Thou shalt
not kill."  A suggestion or a command? Absolute, or to be used only
when convenient?'

Thou Shalt Not Kill

We are all brothers and sisters -- you, Judge Carter are my brother,
and you, Helene, are my sister.  There is that of God in each of us,
we are each loved by our Creator.  How can we plan to kill others who
are loved by God? We are told to treat everyone as our loved ones; as
our sons and daughters, mothers and father. Yet here in this country
we take half of every federal income tax dollar and spend it on the
military.  The military exists to kill people.  That's its mission.
Regardless of the deliberate confusion of calling missiles
Peacemakers, or calling the war department the defense department, and
naming destroyers after priests, the actual job of the military is to
kill people and that is what they train to do. But how can we even
think of killing someone who is loved by the God who loves us all?

The United States government is making a mad house out of the world.
The third world countries, the poor in the US, are being sacrificed so
that we can build bigger and better weapons. The government terrorizes
the world with weapons, and now we find ourselves being terrorized.
The violence has come home. Women and children suffer domestic
violence, a section of our country, including many youth, have no
hope, and see gang activity and violence as a normal way of existence.
There are more and more random killings, more and more bombings, more
hand guns in the schools and neighborhoods.  But unless the violence
in high levels stops, there is little chance the violence at the
bottom will stop.  Americans, who are the experts in killing others,
are finding that we are killing ourselves. We who terrorize the world
find that we are terrorized.  Martin Luther King called violence an
"endless downward spiral of despair and death."

And anyone who disagrees with this sort of violence and terrorism
finds themselves in front of this court and in jail.  Now you, Judge
Carter, in our trial took a clear position in defense of these weapons
of mass destruction.  But today you have another chance to review
international law and the US constitution; to consider the world court
decision against nuclear weapons, to remember the roots of your faith,
and to defend the poor and powerless of the world.

Thou Shalt Not Kill.

The US government isn't able to restrain itself. The leaders, the
judges, the politicians of this country should be helping the people,
serving them, guiding them, speaking up for nonviolence. But instead
they are helping themselves, pasturing themselves, eating the food,
drinking the drink, wearing the clothes that belong to the people.
They are ignoring justice; greed is their only guide.

We ask the court to listen to our arguments that are on the side of
life, that suggest that there is a way out of the generational
violence that we find ourselves in the middle of.

Thou Shalt Not Kill.

This command is a prohibition of killing anyone.  Anywhere.  The
decision of life  and death is not one for us creatures to make.  Life
is a sacred gift.  All creation is sacred.  The environment must not
be poisoned.  Also it's not right to kill our elders, to kill children
or soldiers in Iraq, to kill people in Iran, or Granada, to kill Mumia
Abu Jamal, or anyone else on death row, to kill children in the womb,
and it's not  a response to God's love to plan to do any of these
killings. We all look with sadness and moral outrage at the pictures
of the bombed federal building or the Cambodia killing  fields. That
same outrage needs to extend to military murders in Iraq, or death by
slower methods caused by lack of medicine and food in Cuba and Iraq
because of a US embargo or because we are using more than our share of
the world's resources to maintain our consumer lifestyle.

I am just an ordinary person: parent, school teacher, somewhat active
in the community helping out at a soup kitchen.  I'm not that
different from anyone else.  I know that I have broken all of the
commandments; yet I keep struggling in the hope of forgiveness.  But I
still dare to stand tall and say that murder and killing is wrong.  It
doesn't take a philosopher or theologian, or a morally exemplary
person to figure that out.

The commandment forbids the intentional taking of human life. There is
nothing that Jesus said or did that allows us to kill another person.
And all though the gospels, the nonviolence of Jesus comes through.
Our defense has to be nonviolent. We can use nonviolent tactics, we
can fight with the weapons allowed to us: the spirit of truth and
love. But we are not allowed to murder others.

Our nonviolent conversion action at Bath Iron Works was reasonable and
common decency demanded that we act.  These weapons have no value,
they ought not to exist.  They do nothing to enhance human life.
Actually, they have a negative value. The resources used to build them
is stolen out of the mouths of hungry children.  And these weapons
offer us false security.  We look to them for safety.  They are idols,
gods of metal, worth no more than dirty rags to be thrown to the bats
and moles.

I have written to you, Judge Carter, that I do not plan to pay
restitution -- that in good conscience I can't pay to restore the
guided missile destroyer -- and I do not plan to allow a probation
officer to limit or control my friendships, living arrangements or my
conscience.

I imagine that you -- like most people -- want peace.  Perhaps you
even agree in some way with our nonviolent action.  If you agree, you
have a chance today to make a statement for disarmament and life...
and you might want to let me free today.  If you disagree, if you
believe that I am a criminal as I stand before you, and deserve
punishment, then you should know that I do not have any remorse.  I
hope that my faith will sustain me to continue saying yes to life and
no to death when I am released, regardless of whatever prison time you
may give.

Let us remember the covenant:  Thou Shalt Not Kill.

Spirit.56.349: Barry Kort (moulton) Thu, 30 Oct 1997 14:33:32 CST (29 lines)

Today in County Court, 3 of the 5 arrested at yesterday's
demonstrations at Bath Iron Works were arraigned on charges of
criminal tresspass and blocking a public way.  They each pleaded no
contest and were released for time served overnight in the Cumberland
County Jail.  Each made a moving and heartfelt speech before the
court, setting forth their feelings about disarmament and how they
came to act on their conscience.  Judge Broderick and the other court
officials listened attentively and respectfully and appeared to be
moved by their sincerity and eloquence.

The remaining two defendants, Jessica Stewart and Audrey Stewart, who
are college students, were held over for a second day in the
Cumberland County Jail.  They will be arraigned tomorrow morning on
charges of criminal mischief.  They are charged with spilling blood
upon the sign over the entrance to the Bath Iron Works.  According to
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Leddy, BIW plans to ask for
restitution for the cost of cleaning the blood off the sign.  If the
Stewart sisters plead not guilty, BIW will have to testify in open
court, under cross examination, and prove damages.  This may be
difficult since the rain had washed most of the blood off the sign
before I arrived on the scene, moments after the incident.  Three
times I asked the leaders of the demonstrations to point out the
blood, but I was unable to see any sign of it remaining on the BIW
entrance.  Also, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that BIW
officials asked any of the peace demonstrators to clean the blood off
the sign before or after pressing charges.  So if the case goes to
trial, it will be yet another chance to see how BIW figures their
costs of operations, and how much profit and overhead they build into
their charges for labor and cleaning supplies.

Spirit.56.350: Barry Kort (moulton) Thu, 30 Oct 1997 16:36:03 CST (4 lines)

Today's story in the Portland Press will probably only be up until
tomorrow's edition comes out...

           http://www.portland.com/news/story8.htm

Spirit.56.351: Barry Kort (moulton) Thu, 30 Oct 1997 17:23:28 CST (18 lines)

I finally found Tuesday's story in the Portland Press at

    http://www.portland.com/tunews/story4.htm

However, a typo in the above page prevents you from seeing the
accompanying photo.  A corrected version of the same page is at:

    http://www.musenet.org/~bkort/plowshares/PortPress.Tue.html

Today's story is at

     http://www.portland.com/news/story8.htm

but by tomorrow it will be moved to the archive page at

     http://www.portland.com/thnews/story8.htm

These stories will only be archived for a week.

Spirit.56.352: Barry Kort (moulton) Fri, 31 Oct 1997 17:09:28 CST (40 lines)

The Stewart twins looked the government straight in the face, today,
and the government blinked.  The Assistant DA, Christopher Leddy, told
Judge Bowdoin that the case against them had been dismissed, after
they had spent two days in jail awaiting arraignment for their role in
an anti-nuclear demonstration on Wednesday.

Bath Iron Works had called in the Portland Police on Wednesday to
arrest Jessica Stewart and Audrey Stewart, the 18-year old twins from
Yarmouth, after they had spattered blood upon the entrance to the BIW
plant where the Navy warship USS The Sullivans is currently being
outfitted for a radar nosecone.

The two were facing charges of criminal mischief had BIW gone forward
with their complaint.  But it was clear that it would take two or
three months for the case to come to trial, during which time the
state would have to detain them at the Cumberland County Jail, since
the Stewart twins were refusing to sign the normal contract for
personal recognizance release.  The prospect of keeping two bright
college students in the slammer over Christmas did not sit well with
officials who are becoming increasingly impatient with BIW's
questionable practice of calling for arrests and then not following
through with their complaints when the arrested parties plead not
guilty.

In the Federal case just concluded against Philip Berrigan, BIW had
balked at testifying on behalf of the government, which needed to
prove actual damages in order to secure stiffer sentences than would
otherwise have been handed down by Judge Gene Carter.  In that case,
BIW complained that their testimony would have revealed to their
competitors sensitive information regarding the breakdown of their
Navy contracts between labor, materials, and profit.  Some observers
interpreted that as further evidence that BIW was profiteering from
their relationship with the Navy, and extending that profiteering to
seek unjustified restitution over and above actual costs.

As a result of questions raised about the actual damages, along with
other issues regarding the fairness of the trial and the fairness of
the sentencing, Ramsey Clark is urging the Plowshares defendants to
appeal their conviction and sentences.  The defendants have 10 days to
file written notice of appeal.

Spirit.56.353: Moonbeam (nanwill) Fri, 31 Oct 1997 18:40:16 CST (1 line)

Do you have a feeling for whether they'll appeal, Barry?

Spirit.56.354: Barry Kort (moulton) Fri, 31 Oct 1997 18:51:57 CST (12 lines)

It may be dependent on whether they can raise the funds to mount an
appeal.  At trial, they didn't press the issue of damages, arguing
instead that the ship had no value or negative value.  However, the
recent evidence that the government may have colluded with BIW and the
Navy to unjustly inflate the damages and to award contracts fattened
with unreasonable profit have raised a few eyebrows.  One ground for
appeal would be Judge Carter's failure to hold the government to a
standard of evidence and proof that would normally be required in a
case of property damage where the victim seeks restitution.  Had this
been an insurance case, the victim of the loss would have had to
adhere to a higher standard of proof of loss than that which the judge
required of the Navy.

Spirit.56.355: Sean Donahue's Statement (moulton) Sat, 01 Nov 1997 16:13:04 CST (91 lines)

Sean Donhaue is one of the demonstrators who was arrested at Bath Iron
Works on Wednesday.  Here is his report...


Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 11:31:44 -0800 (PST)
From: New Hampshire Peace Action <nhpeaceact@igc.org>
To: abolition-caucus@igc.org, bkort@musenet.org, palist@igc.org
Subject: Bath Iron Works Action

Last Wednesday, during the sentencing of the Prince of Peace
Plowshares (six activists -- Phil Berrigan, Mark Colville, Steve
Baggarly, Susan Crane, and, Father Steve Kelly, SJ who symbolically
disarmed a nuclear-capable Aegis destroyer docked at Bath Iron Works
on Ash Wednesday, 1997,)  Audrey Stewart and Jessica Stewart, both 18,
were arrested for throwing blood on the sign at Bath Iron Works
symbolizing the blood of the victims of the weapons that are made
there and then chaining themselves to a fence.   Anna Alloco, 23,
Greg Phelan, 65 and myself, Sean Donahue, (23), were also arrested for
blocking the gate to the shipyard.  Anna, Greg, and I were held
overnight in the Cumberland County Jail and arraigned on charges of
blocking a public way and criminal trespass.  We pleaded nolo
contendre, made statements about our reasons for acting, and were
sentenced to time served.  Audrey and Jessica were held until Friday
when they were scheduled to be arraigned on charges of criminal
mischief, blocking a public way, and criminal trespass, but all
charges against them were dropped on Friday morning.

Anna and Greg gave beautiful and powerful statements that no summary
can capture: My statement to the court (at least what I can remember
of it) follows.

Your honor, I plead no contest, because while I sense that although
you are a good and just man and that this is an honorable court, I
know that my true judgement will come in the eyes of my Creator.

Last night in my jail cell I was reading the Bible and I came across a
passage form the Book of Isaiah -- "You raise your hands in prayer,
but I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood.  Go and
wash yourself." And I realized that as long as I cooperated with a
culture of death I had blood on my hands.

I thought of the blood of the women and children and the old men who
were burned alive when American planes bombed a shelter in Iraq.

I remembered listening to Alan Nairn, an American journalist who went
to East Timor and covered the funeral of a man killed by Indonesian
soldiers.  When the funeral procession entered the cemetery,
Indonesian soldiers armed with American rifles opened fire on the
mourners and killed 200 people and then went to the hospitals and
found the survivors and killed them and almost killed Alan Nairn but
realized he had a passport from the country that gave them their guns.

And I remembered talking with people who travelled to Guatemala and El
Salvador who spoke with the mothers and wives and children of people
who had disappeared because they spoke out against the U.S. backed
governments.

And I realized that all of this violence took place because the
American Empire demands to be wealthy in a world of poverty. And it is
this same empire that requires nuclear weapons, each of them an
Auschwitz oven that can burn a whole city alive, in order to protect
its wealth.

And I realized that it was not enough to wash my hands and distance
myself from this violence -- Pontious Pilate washed his hands of
Jesus's blood before he turned him over to the mob that killed him.  I
had to resist.

I never intended to get arrested when I came to Portland.  But when I
saw my three brave sisters and my brave brother carried away by the
police for bearing witness to the real crime that was being committed
on the other side of the fence where ships designed to carry nuclear
weapons were being built, and when no one came to take their place in
front of the gate, I had to sit down in front of the gate and take
their place.

It is written in the book of Ezekiel "If I tell you that an evil man
will die because of his wickedness, and you do not warn him and he
persists in doing evil, it will be his life that I will take, but the
responsibility for his wickedness will be on your soul."

In shudder to think of what will happen to our country if we do not
repent and wash this blood from out hands.  I must act to stop this
evil.

Your honor, I know that you must rule today based on the law that is
written in your books, but I ask you to also be mindful of the law
that was written on your heart by your Creator and to let it guide
you.

                                        Sean Donahue