Once again, I am reminded of the good old days of Vatican II and liberal Catholic activism in America.
What does my heart good is that the woman at the center of the story is probably a veteran of those hopeful moments in an otherwise bleak century of reactionary Catholicism.
Sister Meghan Rice, 84-years young, just got herself arrested and sentenced to 35 months in the clink for engaging in a peaceful but highly illegal protest at a defense storage facility in Tennessee!
Acting as Transform Now Plowshares, Sister Rice and her two companions, both seasoned activists, have brought down the sledgehammer of Tennesse justice for singing, offering food to a facility guard, and inflicting what supposedly amounts to $1,000. in property damage.
Fellow peace activists Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed were sentenced to 62 months in prison. The three were convicted of cutting fences and entering the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in July 2012, embarrassing U.S. officials and prompting security changes.
Weapons grade uranium is stored at the facility, and we know how sensitive are breaches of nuclear security these days. I’ll just bet those unnamed officials were “embarrassed!”
One has to wonder why the justice system persists in handing out such completely inappropriate sentences along the lines of “zero tolerance,” assuming that the draconian measures act as a deterrent to hardened criminals and terrorists. What a load of baloney!
Anyway, the story and the smiling photo that accompanied it completely made my day.
This gal is twenty years my senior, has the hierarchy of a recently conservative church on her shoulders, yet still manages to kick some butt for peace.
…And just look at all the graybeards surrounding the three detainees.
They do not go gentle into that goodnight.
Sorry Sue my assessments of organized religion especially but not limited to the RCC are far more critical. When I see these activities & antics I am reminded that all of it must pass Vatican muster including the pope’s own well publicized photo-ops, publicity stunts & encyclicals. I suspect even some of the “rifts” are staged.
Nothing is done outside of this context – everything is solely for show & they are consummate in their ability to attract their targeted audience(s) hitting the sweet-spots one at a time.
I have studied other religions including the different branches of mainstream Churchianity as well as modern cults & the RCC extensively for years.
Interestingly, I was about to post a diary re this pope as well as the scandal surrounding Ratzinger & why he abdicated including some dark facts. When I went to post it you had just put up your “valentine” & I just didn’t have the heart to send a thunderstorm on your sunshine & roses ;D Plus it would look oddly coincidental…
Yes I can be a wuss & loathe myself because of this flaw but still can live up to the claim of ‘nobody’s sweetheart’.
…belonged to the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondolet, and she was an activist throughout her years as a nun. She got in trouble quite a bit, but was not stopped. She advocated for the women in her Peruvian village until (the husbands) had her transferred – next to Amsterdam NY – where she organized the hispanic women until (their husbands) had her transferred to near Utica NY – where she worked with farm women. Loved her – always doing useful, provocative things – and what a laugh she had!
In the 1980’s she was driving to Weston, VT from New York to be a translator for a celebration for the Ixcot family – Guatemalan refugees supported by the Weston Priory Monks for many years — when she had a heart attack at the wheel and died. She might well have been this awesome activist had she lived today!
sisterhood is powerful.
They’ve been doing the heavy lifting of serving the poor for, oh, let’s say a couple of millennia.