Nuclear Insecurity
Helen Young.
Posted: 09/12/2012 6:08 pm
Sister Megan Rice, the 82-year-old Roman Catholic nun under federal indictment for what the New York Times recently called "the biggest security breach in the nation's atomic complex" is facing some stiff prison time: up to 16 years. But it's not a fact she's dwelling on. "It doesn't matter if we go to jail. I've been in prison before. That's beside the point. The purpose is to do what's right," says Sr. Megan who is spending her time these days nursing two broken wrists after a recent, accidental fall she took while awaiting trial.
Sister Megan, along with co-defendants, Michael Walli, 63, a Vietnam veteran and member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington D.C., and Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, father of a college freshman and member of Veterans for Peace, are charged with the shocking July 28th break-in at the Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- the nation's storage site for some 300-400 metric tons of highly enriched uranium, as well as other bomb making materials. The break-in exposed glaring security loopholes at the atomic complex and has resulted in some personnel firings. The three defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Sister Megan, who serves her order of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus as a disarmament activist at the Nevada atomic test site, does not view the trio's action as a security breach at all. "We were obeying the law, the Constitution , and all the laws the Constitution upholds, which are international laws." Her defense is a familiar one for disarmament activists who have sought to raise awareness of the nuclear threat by undertaking protest actions such as this recent one at Y-12 and, three years ago, at the Kitsap-Bangor U.S. Navy Trident nuclear submarine base near Seattle.
These non-violent demonstrations, known as Plowshares actions, were started more that 30 years ago by the Roman Catholic priests, Daniel and Philip Berrigan. The term "plowshares" harkens back to the Bible's Old Testament and the Prophet Isaiah who admonished nations to abolish war and "turn swords into plowshares."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/helen-young/nuclear-insecurity_b_1858908.html
Matthew 5 : 9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
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