Gods of Metal Plowshares Convicted of Depradation of Gov't Property

WORDS OF LIFE FALL ON DEAF EARS
by Scott Mathern-Jacobson with Bonnie Urfer and John LaForge

Maryland - From September 21 - 23, the Gods of Metal Plowshares witness continued as Act II: The Court Scene, was laid out.

On the eve of their appearance in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, over 200 supporters gathered with defendants Kathy Shields Boylan, Ardeth Platte OP, Carol Gilbert OP, Fr. Larry Morlan, and Fr. Frank Cordaro at Greenbelt Community Church for a Festival of Hope. After a wonderful meal supplied by Viva House Catholic Worker of Baltimore, Maryland, people gathered in the sanctuary to sing, laugh, and celebrate the truth and choice that the plowshares offer to all people. The truth: that nuclear weapons are illegal. The choice: to disarm the weapons because we have the responsibility and the right.

Along with the singers and poets, the crowd heard from Anabel Dwyer, expert on international law, and Michael True, who was to testify on the history of nonviolence to the federal court.

The Plowshares gave a slide presentation about their action at the Andrews Air Force Base Air Show. Excellent slides showed families picnicking under the wings of the B-52, children fitted with mini-machine guns pretending to kill, and the Plowshares unmasking the idol B-52 with their own blood and hammers, disarming it for at least one day.

The morning of September 22 started with a prayer vigil outside of federal court. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who was to testify as an expert on Christian ethics and morality, offered a reflection in which he said that he would be part of a plowshares witness himself because the times called for nonviolent action.

As the "trial" started, Judge Williams announced that three of four expert witnesses would not be allowed to testify. He would only accept testimony from the defendants and International Law expert Francis Boyle.

The prosecution claimed that the Plowshares poured blood and hammered on the B-52 - an act for which the Plowshares had already publicly taken responsibility.

The prosecutor claimed this was done as a violent act, an act that broke the law and put everyone in danger if left unpunished. The Plowshares testified they acted according to the Law of God, International Law and the U.S. Constitution. They said they acted in love of all people and Earth herself. They asserted that if they didn't act, everybody would remain in danger.

Fr. Larry Morlan, a parish priest from Bloomington, Illinois, said in part that his action against the nuclear war machine was a way of "addressing my own complicity with the criminality and immorality of nuclear weapons," and that "We have to say no to these weapons in order to say yes to God."

In her testimony, Sr. Carol Gilbert decried the corrosive influence upon children affected by the so-called "air show." She offered into evidence several photographs taken at the air show, of youngsters playing with the guns and ammunition made accessible, like toys, by the military. Kathy Shields- Boylan also emphasized the absurd nature of the weapons display with families picnicking under the wings of bombers. Shields-Boylan compared the air show to "the machines that were used by children who took them from their grandparent's weapons closet, to shoot and kill girls in their gradeschool: would we bring them out to a public parade ground for honorary celebratory display, to worship? Not believable! Yet that is what's being done at the air force base and the B-52."

Sr. Ardeth Platte, OP, originally from Michigan, ran through her extensive biography of working for justice. She told of her years on the City of Council of Saginaw, the legal process of citizens working to keep Project ELF out of the state, the state wide referendum in which the populous overwhelmingly opposed the Navy facility's construction, only to be ignored by the Pentagon. Project ELF was built. Ardeth turned to nonviolent resistance and had much better results. First Wurtsmith Air Force Base closed, a campaign to which she and Sr. Carol Gilbert dedicated their time, then K. I. Sawyer, in the upper peninsula of Michigan, closed once the two women moved there.

Like the other four defendants, Fr. Frank Cordaro of Des Moines, Iowa, described his personal history of working on behalf of the poor and the disenfranchised and of 20 years in the peace movement. He acknowledged that the Christian mandate to "love your enemies," was a problem for him for a time, but that he ultimately came to embrace it and decided that he had to "reclaim the nonviolent spirit of Jesus" in order to honestly address the severity of the nuclear threat.

On September 23, supporters gathered again in prayer in front of the court house. All hoped for an acquittal but knew the probability was to see their friends go to prison.

Professor Francis Boyle took the stand, and spent two and one half hours explaining why international law outlaws nuclear weapons and answering the prosecutors misunderstandings and objections. Judge Williams declared that all of the arguments involving international law were confusing and he got virtually nothing out of the testimony of Professor Boyle. Prior to announcing the guilty verdict, Judge Williams, in a mess of confusion, contradicted himself perfectly. He said, "I came to believe that international law is part and parcel of our U.S. law," and then concluded that, "Higher law is not to be used as a defense in this case."

Likening the Plowshares to Martin Luther King Jr., Judge Williams said the Plowshares had performed an act of civil resistance and like King, they would be jailed for it. Perhaps unknowingly, Williams at the same time likened himself to Judge Carter in Georgia who imprisoned King, and other judges who turned their backs on civil rights and upheld the status quo.

Upon conviction for depredation of government property, the five asked to be sentenced immediately. Williams denied this request. Refusing to further cooperate in the legal charade which sanctions weapons of mass murder, the Plowshares declared that they could not promise to return for sentencing. The prosecution asked that they be imprisoned until sentencing on Jan. 4, 1999. They now sit in Maryland jails. They all seem to be in good health and in good spirits.

Their witness lives on and continues to inspire and challenge us in Act III - Doing the Time.

For more information, contact the Gods of Metal Plowshares, c/o Liz Walters, IHM, 1664 Church St., Detroit, MI 48216, (313)961-4263.

Until near the end of 1998, letters of support can be addressed individually to Kathy Boylan, Sr. Ardeth Platte, and Sr. Carol Gilbert, Kent County Detention Center, Unit A, 104 Vickers Dr., Chestertown MD 21620; and to Fr. Frank Cordaro and Fr. Larry Morlan, Charles County Jail, PO Box 1430, LaPlata, MD 20646.