Call to Conscience; The Plowshares Movement

For the first time in history, we have both the will and the technology to destroy ourselves. The Pentagon wants all options up to and including the option of striking first. With hammers, simple household hammers, we carried out what was to us both a symbolic and concrete act of disarmament. If we left it up to every individual to decide what to do with government programs of which they disapproved, it would be difficult to protect any property, government or otherwise. From the crowbars and cordless drills of those who happened to disapprove of the purposes to which it was being put.

We carried our own blood to make a cross in blood. They believed that Christ meant what he sent. They believed that the Old Testament promised like Isaiah meant what they said about beating swords into plowshares. They call themselves the plowshares, a group of men and women who have challenged the state and its courts with their bold acts of disarmament. Some say their tactics have been ineffective, others say they've gone too far in their efforts to stop the arms race. They say it's the arms race that's gone too far. I'm Martin Sheen and this is Call to Conscience. In this program, you will hear the stories of members of the plowshares, a group which I have supported since the beginning. I was familiar with two of the founding members, Fathers Dan and Philip Barrigan, both of whom had served nearly three years in federal penitentiary for non-violent protest of the Vietnam War, specifically the burning of draft card records at Katensville, Maryland in the late 1960s. We make our prayer in the name of that God's name is peace and decency and unity and law.

We'll take you to the station. Right at the back of the Caddy wagon. As a Catholic, I have always been troubled by the church's support of war, namely through its silence. And I was glad that the pacifist, like Jesuit father Daniel Barrigan, could work and speak within the church. As the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, he intensified his efforts towards peace and social justice. He and his friends lobbied, protested, petitioned using every tactic within the law, as well as non-violent civil disobedience, to urge the U.S. government to work towards peaceful solutions with the Soviets and end the arms race. But in 1979, bowing to pressures from the Pentagon, President Carter signed a series of directives. The most ominous of these was PD-59. As long as that basic difference persists, there will always be some degree of tension in the relationship between our two countries. PD-59 squarely stated that the U.S. strategy need not be limited to retaliation. The United States could strike first in a nuclear war.

But this rising tide of militarism, which Ronald Reagan wrote into office in 1980, was on a head-on collision course with a growing peace movement. In 1980, thousands gathered in Washington to protest U.S. nuclear policy and to demand that the government stop building new weapons. Are we going to sit by when Reagan brings on the MX missile? Are we going to sit by when Reagan cuts the social service budget? Are we going to stand by when Reagan talks about prolonged nuclear war? That's why I say nuclear power, nuclear weapons, let us shut them down! Throughout the year, groups of people camped out in front of the Pentagon and the White House. But there was one group of people who felt there was a need to do something more. On the morning of September 9, 1980, Daniel Berrigan, his brother Philip and six other friends, set out in two cars.

They drove through King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, then passed miles of office complexes, warehouses and factories until they arrived at General Electric Plant No. 9. Its well-kept exterior and carefully trimmed lawns gave no hint that inside, GE was not always bringing good things to life. In fact, here in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, GE was manufacturing components for a deadly first strike nuclear weapon, the Mark-12A warhead. On September 9, about 7 o'clock in the morning, it was all ridiculously easy. The guard was distracted and the other six of us proceeded on and found the weapons in this non-destructible testing room almost immediately. And shortly one heard this enormous clanging of these hammers that got these instruments, you know. At least one of the components that we found was like an inner casing and that was metal, and of course that rang like the bells of Armageddon all through the place.

We also poured blood and tore up a lot of highly secret to manuscripts of doom, plans for other weapons, formed a circle and were shortly surrounded by a larger circle of absolutely outraged and bewildered workers. We were arrested and taken to the local police station where we stayed all day long while we knew that there was a lot of communication going on between Washington and the police trying to figure out what to do with us. When they started to read the charges, we almost laughed out loud because it was so ridiculous. I think it was 13 charges, four of which got dropped very quickly. But it was everything from kidnapping the guard at the door to destruction of government property. Sister Ann Montgomery, the barrigans and their friends, were unable to make the high bail that had been set, so a few of them spent several months in prison prior to the trial.

Most local churches turned a cold shoulder to the activist. Local press viewed the plowshares action as a throwback to the 60s. Rebels without a cause, Celeb. For the most part, national newspapers ignored the action, but the plowshares ate, as they call themselves, were not seeking publicity. They were following their own conscience and hoping to use their trial as a forum to educate the public about U.S. nuclear policy. They would succeed in doing this despite a hostile trial judge, the honorable Samuel Salis, the second. I would come to know the trial and the plowshares when I played the role of Judge Salis in a document of the trial directed by Emil de Antonio. De Antonio used the trial transcript as a script and cast the plowshares as themselves. He was then that I first met Father Daniel Berrigan.

The honor of the jury are among the few in the world. We'll see such weapons before they used on paper. I was wondering. On my myself, the honorable Samuel Salis had no sympathy for the plowshares defendants. We are not making any speeches about these weapons or whether they are in fact weapons. Is that a joke? No, it is not a joke. It seems to be a pathetic mistake so far. It seems to me that this was a most prejudicial remark to make. It just occurred to me that you referred in front of the jury to our action of September 10 as a quote's pathetic mistake. And this in the presence of the jury. I did not. I said from the testimony so far, it appears to be a pathetic mistake. It seems to me that this was a most prejudicial remark to make in the presence of the jury. I think at this point you should declare a mistrial. Are you making a motion? Motion denied. I made no such outbursts or any kind of a statement whatsoever about this trial.

The judge was, I think, not really capable of handling this trial. He was very erratic. He would start off the day very reasonably. And say he was going to listen to us and you know everything was going to be fine. And then get very upset, very easy. And say some very irrational things. Every single defendant in this county has their rights violated over and over again. The charges are multiplied. This is one of the rottenest prosecution offices that I've ever been exposed to. And for you to give your rubber stamp of approval to this kind of violation of constitutional rights is a disgrace. Mr. Shrewshot, I don't have to remind you that criticism of the bench in the exercise of his duty is in direct contempt. And I'm not going to warn you again, Mr. Now that is, that is blasphemous and good of an editing and direct contempt right here and now. Finally, as our briefs were denied out of hand, you know, without any real hearing of them as our experts were denied.

We decided that we would really have to stop the charade and go into silence and total non-collaboration as the only way we could express the truth because our truth was being denied. No response having been given, she indicates that she does not wish to testify. All right. For a matter of record, I indicate that the defendants, Molly Rush, sister, and Montgomery, and Dean Hammer, as well as defendant Reverend Daniel Berrigan are standing with their backs to the court. Which I consider an act of arrogance and direct contempt of court. In an abundance of caution, I am going to let them stand there during the closing arguments in the charge of the jury. Bring in the jury. And if there is any outbreak or any uproar whatsoever.

And so the rest of the trial is carried on without us. And as the prosecutor began his summation, we stood and turned our backs in the court and just stood facing our supporters as a further expression that we have been denied as their trial. And just did it in total silence. And gradually the supporters would begin to stand one after another themselves. And they were pulled out of the court. And there are various other things that happened in a rather spontaneous way. They saw sort of humming and singing. It's almost an undertone of humming on their part. And the four judge nearly went crazy. All right. Clear the courtroom. Clear the court. Come on. Get him out of here. Everyone. Clear the courtroom. Hey, Judge, do you get me out of the barn? Shelters with the politicians and generals are fired. Clear the courtroom.

The issue joined between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the plough shares eight. How say you on the charges of burglary, criminal mischief and criminal conspiracy, guilty or not guilty? You say guilty? And so say you all? Yes. We heard the verdict. And then there was everybody burst out into singing again. And I think that your jury verdict reflects the careful consideration of the evidence and as well. Although they were found guilty, the plough shares celebrated because as sister Ann Montgomery says, they had succeeded in spreading the word about U.S. First Striped Nuclear Strategy. Various trees to which the United States is a partner from a Geneva conventions onward through the Nurember principles and the UN Charter and other documents that have come out of the UN.

Forbid the use of genocidal weapons of weapons that don't discriminate between military and civilian personnel of weapons of a poisonous nature and of the intent, even the threat to initiate a nuclear war. The Mark 12A which was the warhead we disarmed is such a weapon. It is intended because of its accuracy and power to disable missiles while they are still in their silos. And that means that they would have to be fired before the enemy missiles are fired and that we would be initiating a nuclear war. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who acted as legal counsel to the plough shares, maintains that under Article 6 of the Constitution, international law is binding on U.S. courts.

The truth is most judges don't know anything about international law. They were trained in corporate law and securities law and commercial transactions law and things like that. And they are sitting in some state court or some federal court that is dealing with domestic matters, things that happen here. And the idea that there is some international body of law that has a place in their courtroom is something that they really haven't thought that much about. Because the judge had not allowed the plough shares to use their international law argument, they appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court and won. However, the government appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and this time the guilty verdict was reinstated, except for the sentences. That court felt that judge Salas' behavior indicated a prejudice against the defendants, making it impossible for him to sentence them fairly.

The plough shares then appealed their case to the United States Supreme Court. On the first day of its 1989 fall term, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the plough shares eight cases. From his parish, a young priest, Father Dexter Langto, followed the trial of the plough shares eight in the local prayer. He now works here at St. Michael's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. His office is cramped and small.

As he talks, he is often interrupted by phone calls from parents who need comforting or from nurses reporting on the condition of young patients. Despite our different lifestyles, Dexter and I have some things in common. We both have questioned the role of our church on peace and social justice issues, and for both of us, learning about the plough shares action changed our lives forever. I read about it in the newspaper, and at first I guess I hadn't heard of Father Daniel, a number of years. And I kind of saw the picture in the paper, shrugged my shoulders and thought, oh, they're still at it. I didn't know GE made these things, you know. I always thought they just made light bulbs. But then I started to read the follow-up accounts. I began to read about why they did what they did. I began to go to the trials and was touched by that very deeply. I began from that time on to question more deeply my responsibility as a priest and the responsibility that the church had.

From the first plough share action in 1981 to 1987, the peace movement would undergo dramatic changes. The first few years were a time of hope for peace activists. Unprecedented numbers of people were calling for a freeze in the production of nuclear weapons. And in June of 1982, 1 million people marched in New York City, calling on the U.S. government and all the nations of the world to stop building nuclear weapons. The first time in our history, Congress was seriously debating legislation that called for a nuclear freeze.

But as the voices for disarmament grew louder, so did the voices of opposition. President Reagan instilled fear in many when he declared that the United States had been asleep for 20 years while the Soviets were building up a formidable force of nuclear weapons. It was time for America to wake up, he said. For 20 years, the Soviet Union has been accumulating enormous military night. They didn't stop when their forces exceeded all requirements of a legitimate defensive capability, and they haven't stopped now. After Reagan's landslide victory in 1984, he faced a little opposition to his military platform. As discussions of a nuclear freeze ended, peace issues got less publicity from major newspapers and networks. The movement was on the wane. Then, in 1985, what seemed like a small miracle occurred. Reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Soviet Union. And in 1986, negotiations between the two superpowers began in Reykjavik, Iceland. At first, Reagan and Gorbachev seemed to be competing over which nation could cut more of its nuclear arsenal.

But when Gorbachev insisted that President Reagan make substantial cuts in his strategic defense initiative or Star Wars program, the talks fell apart. If the Soviet should, as they have done too often in the past, failed to comply with their solemn commitments. SDI is what brought the Soviets back to arms control talks at Geneva and Iceland. Rather than discouraging posh air activists, the wane of the peace movement only seemed to spur them on. While only 10 actions took place between 1980 and 1985, there would be 25 actions in the next five years. And in June of 1986, I was arrested for the first time for civil disobedience after blocking the doors at the Riverside Research Institute in New York City. The Institute is a major center for research on Star Wars. The demonstration and others like it is really spitting on the golden calf. And sometimes it's even moaning the high priest in public. What goes on upstairs in our name is sacrilegious. And in your name, in the names of every American is sacrilegious.

And if they really knew what was going on, just as if they really knew what was going on in Guatemala and Nicaragua and El Salvador, they would rise up in rage and demand that their government be truthful and stop killing people. I'm Sergeant Scott from the New York City Police Department and this is Mr. Gretchen, represents the building management. He is going to ask you to leave the building. Will you do that? Could you please leave the building because you're trespassing? If you don't leave, we're going to have the police officers escort you on. I'm advising you that I will give everyone a minute to leave. If they do not leave within a minute, you'll all be placed under arrest and we move to the Midtown South increasing station house. So anybody who wishes to leave and not be subject to arrest, please leave now. Okay, I'm placing you all on that one to arrest. We can finally come up with some form of identification. We'd like to monitor the formal complaint also against Riverside.

Yeah, the place bar is a deal and the people responsible for the work here under arrest for violations of international law. But somebody above my level, okay? Well, no, if you will talk to them in the station house. According to Ronald Reagan, the Star Wars system, which would be set up in outer space, would be able to shoot down Soviet missiles before they hit the US, providing us with a complete defense shield from nuclear attacks. Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope. It is that we embark on a program to counter the awesome Soviet missile threat with measures that are defensive. Let us turn to the very strengths in technology that spawned our great industrial base and that have given us the quality of life we enjoy today. However, after more information came out on the program, it was clear that Reagan was misleading the public. Even the head of the Star Wars program General James Abramson did not believe that a foolproof defense could be built. If the Soviets were to launch their missiles first, it is likely that at least 10% would get through a Star Wars shield.

And that would be enough to destroy the United States. The shield would only be useful if the United States struck first with missiles made accurate by devices such as the Mark 12-A, the Warhead Disarm by the first plowshares. If the majority of Soviet missiles were destroyed in their silos, the Star Wars system could then shoot down the few Soviet missiles that survived the first strike. It is feared, however, that a first strike U.S. option would only make the Soviets more likely to fire first, less they lose everything. But this would actually damage the Soviet state even from an iron kingdom. It was not long after Rikivek fell apart that Father Dexter Langto decided to act.

On a cold and snowy morning, January 6, 1987, the Christian Feast of the Epiphany, Father Dexter Langto and three friends drove down Route 6-11 towards the Willow Grove Naval Air Station just north of Philadelphia. The Naval Air Station stands out on this highway lined with fast food restaurants and retail stores. Through the fence it is possible to see the planes they disarmed. The P-3 Orion Anti-Submarine Aircraft. With their large propellers and thick bodies, the P-3 Orion's look more like relics of World War II than part of an advanced nuclear arsenal. Yet during a first strike by the United States, these planes are able to locate Soviet nuclear submarines and destroy them before they retaliate. Father Dexter, Lynn Romano, a social worker from Baltimore and two other peace activists also targeted the H-1 U.E. helicopter which has been used to intervene in central American countries.

We huddled down the load wearing dark clothes crossed over a snowy field hoping that no one would spot us. Came to a squadron, I guess, of P-3 Orion's, maybe 14 of them lined up on the tarmac, and we picked one. And entering the plane, we hammered on the instrument panel and put some pamphlets, an indictment of the U.S. government, and another pamphlet explaining the epiphany cloud shares and what our presence was there. All four of us before we left the aircraft, we were working on left a board, copies of a statement that we had prepared explaining why we came, along with an indictment against the United States government, who were the real criminals on that base. And the indictment named people such as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Oliver North, and we listed what their war crimes were, crimes against humanity, against the Normburg Charter, the Geneva Convention, the

slaughter of innocent civilians, basically, is what it comes down to. We also talked about the law of God, which was a big motivation for us in action. We left those indictments and statements there. We prayed before we left the aircraft. And opened the scriptures randomly and came to this psalm, assured the wicked draw. They bend their bow to bring down the afflicted and the four, to slaughter those whose path is right. But their swords shall pierce their own hearts, and their bows shall be broken. Father Dexter, Lynn Romano, Father Thomas McGann, and Greg Bogey, an ex-Army officer from Louisiana, were interrogated for nine hours, then charged with trespassing destruction of government property and conspiracy. Father Dexter and Father McGann were also relieved of their priestly duties by the Archbishop of Philadelphia Cardinal Crowe. On March 13th,

two months after their action, they were tried in a federal court in Philadelphia. Although the judge was not sympathetic to their cause, he did allow them to speak about international law, but he later instructed the jurors not to consider it. Despite this, for the first time in the plowshares case, the trial ended in a hung jury. But the government didn't give up and decided to prosecute again. Eric Axelsen wound up on the plowshares jury after being dismissed from a routine damages case. I remember being called to appear for another case and kind of walking into an area where it was a whole row of lawyers and defendants as I found out later, including two men wearing the habits of Catholic priests, and I just thought to myself, oh no, I have a feeling this is going to be a little more involved in the other case. And I ended up on

that jury and it was. Once again, the epiphany plowshares had a hung jury. Eric Axelsen was one of the jurors who refused to convict. I view my experience on that jury as I don't know, maybe one of the two or three most important things I've ever done in my life. Having my children getting married I think would be above that, but I can't think of very many other things that I've done that were as important to me. This hung jury, the government decided to prosecute again, but Father Dexter and Father Tom, whose actions had caused some discord in the Philadelphia Catholic Church, decided to plead guilty and were sentenced to 100 days in prison. As for the other two defendants, they were forced to undergo two more trials, both ending in mistrials. In a highly unusual move, the government decided to prosecute for the fifth time. A magistrate found in Romano guilty of trespass and sentenced her to six months probation. Greg Borje went underground

and refused to be tried. Along the mother and fatherless child, a soldier gets buried with his friends in a clock. A general's were leading, but their knowledge was deceiving.

A blood on the sand was strategically planned. What brings a man to follow a world of content, just leader? I'm looking to look you, just waiting love. I'm looking to my brother, hoping to love. Just five months after the Epiphanie Plowshare action at Willow Grove Naval Air Station, on the other side of the country, a 28 year old named Catiakamasarik decided to do a plowshare action by herself.

In the visitor's room at Geiger Correctional Facility in Spokane, Washington, where she is now in prison, Kadiya recalls what led up to her decision to do the action. I was getting an MBA at Berkeley, and I started studying economics, and I realized that the degree to which the defense industry is guiding our country's nuclear military policy. The more time I spent in graduate school studying business, the more I realized that it wasn't we as voters who were determining what our country was doing. It was simply a matter of profits for the defense industry. Kadiya began to get involved with groups that were working to stop the arms race. Like many other peace activists, she became frustrated when years of organizing and protesting within the law had no impact on U.S. policy. There was not until she met members of plowshares that she would begin to contemplate a

serious civil disobedience action. On the evening of June 1st, 1987, she set out from her home in San Francisco. By the time she reached this highway in front of Van and Berg Air Force Base, just north of Santa Barbara, California, it was well after midnight. It took her almost four hours to find her way through the dense underbrush and up the dark driveway to the base. In front of an unlocked gate, she left some cookies, a bouquet of flowers, and a note saying she was unarmed and nonviolent. Then dodging searchlights from another side of the base, she hiked up a grassy hill to a building she believed housed the NavStar computer and satellite system. This system guides missiles to their targets and is a key element of first strike strategy. There was a window in the front door, so I just tapped it and it fell apart and I reached it and opened the door, locked it, and then I went racing around trying to find the computer because I thought, I only have five minutes to do all this and then they're going to stop me.

But it turned out I had two hours to do everything I needed to do to take this computer apart. It was a huge thing. Five big wardrobe size cabinets full of computer chips and wires and disk things. I dragged them out and stopped them down on top of them and sprayed them with some fire extinguishers that found. Katia then spray-painted Nuenberg, international law and genocide on the walls of the building. After she finished, she hitchhiked home to San Francisco where she ate breakfast and took a shower. Then she held a news conference and turned herself in. Katia called her action white rose after a group of German medical students by that name who were executed for leafleting against Hitler. At her trial, Katia planned to explain why she tried to take apart the NavStar computer. This system which guides nuclear missiles to within 50 to 100 feet of their targets could almost guarantee that Soviet missiles would be destroyed in their silos before being fired. As Katia understood it, this was part of U.S. first strike strategy and a violation of international

law. But Katia would never have an opportunity to tell her story in court. Originally, she was charged with sabotage and destruction of government property. But before her trial began, the prosecution suddenly dropped the sabotage charge. Sabotage is defined as destruction of national defense material. Dan Williams is one of Katia's attorneys. Under the sabotage statute, the NavStar system which Katia allegedly destroyed is not national defense material as that term is used in the statute. Accordingly, we would have been able to present expert witnesses, international law experts, perhaps some defense department officials to come in and testifies to whether this was national defense material or whether in fact was a component to a first strike nuclear weapon strategy.

Williams believes the government dropped the sabotage charge to keep this argument out. The prosecutor, assistant U.S. attorney Nora Manila, doesn't deny this. As the case proceeded to trial, that charge was dropped largely to simplify the trial. And especially after Ms. Kamasarik had made it clear that she intended to turn the trial into as much of a political forum as she could. The maximum penalty for destroying government property was 10 years. And since I don't think anyone suggested that a sentence above that would have been appropriate, that the second charge was dropped. After deliberating for three hours, the jury found Katia guilty. Katia says she feels as if she didn't have a trial. The day before the trial started, the judge issued an order which said that I couldn't even say words like nuclear missile or first strike or international law in the courtroom. I was gagged in trying to speak to the jury. It's like one of those nightmares where you're screaming for help and the sound comes out.

I couldn't tell the jury anything about nuclear policy or even that the now-star computer was connected with nuclear weapons. All they ever heard about was that I took part in the computer. As usual, Katia's plowshare action was hardly covered in the U.S. press, but it was on the front pages of many European newspapers. Articles noted that Katia had drawn a parallel between herself and resistors of Hitler by calling her action white rose. As many of them German, wrote to her judge asking that he be lenient with her sentencing. I'm a judge for criminal law in the district court in Hamburg, West Germany. I'm a member of the West German group of the judges and prosecutors for peace. The judges in Germany have been silent 50 years ago when the Nazis out of Hitler installed his regime of terror. We have helped him to install this regime of terror and we have supported him at least

by our silence and of course, of course, the Nazi regime was illegal. Concentration camps were illegal and the killing of retardant people were illegal. The killing of the gypsies were illegal. The killing of the Jews was illegal, but the German courts legitimized all those crimes. So we were accomplices, accomplices of crime and terror, under the cloak of the law. My name is initial. I am the sister of Hans and Sophie Scholl. They fought with a group of the white rose foundation in Munich in the year 1942 and 1943 against the Nazis and against the fascistic war.

Let me quote one of the last leaflets of the white rose resistance movement for which my brother and sister executed. Cast of the cloaks of indifference you have wrapped around you. Make the decision before it is too late. I think these sentences are also relevant in our time, in the second part of this century. The great mass of people are sleeping. It seems that they are not able to imagine the catastrophic of nuclear war. But the police fell on deaf ears.

He is judge felt her motivations had little relevance to her guilt, and he sentenced her to five years in the federal penitentiary. She is scheduled to be released in April of 1991. In the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia, a woman more than twice caught his age is paying for her action in the Alderson women's prison. Jean Gump spent 32 years living in almost story book American life in Morton Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

She and her husband Joe raised 12 children together. For years she was active in church and community work, Christian family movement, President of the high school PTA, League of Women Voters, Executive Secretary of the Townships, Human Relations Council, and in 1972 she was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. But with the birth of her first grandchild, she began to look more to the future, and from what she had learned about the arms race, the future looked bleak. As the peace movement began to dwindle, Jean's frustration mounted. She was also a time in her life when there were fewer demands made from her family, and she began to wonder what she should really be doing in her retirement. So many of my friends are of retirement age, they've got the house in Florida, and they you know, they're summer homes, and they are continuing to do what America offers. You know, you paid your dues, you worked hard, you're entitled, and I want to say we're really not entitled, because we are not providing a future for our grandchildren.

I feel that we are the first generation in the history of mankind that has been indifferent to its progeny. And I don't want to have to be responsible, you know, when people say, well, heck what did you do when all this was going on, grandma, or what did you do? Why didn't the people say no when the annihilation of the world was being planned? In March of 1986, Jean Gump made a difficult decision. Before I did the action, I didn't tell anybody about it, you know, because that would make them conspirators, and not Joe, not anybody. I was alone in the house, and I knew I was going to have to tell my family something about what I was feeling and how I felt I had to take the step. And then I looked at all of my possessions, our possessions, the pretty house, my China,

my silverware, the nice furniture, the house that we lived in for 32 years, and all of the good things that had happened there, and I had to separate myself from it and say, I'll never see it again, and I'll never be a part of it again. And it was wrenching, because I would just about go through item from item. I had some stuff from my grandmother, nice little crystal sugar bowl, and I didn't know. I'm not going to hang out of that. I don't think I need it, and I had to do that. It was spring, you know, and our tulips were just about coming up, and I thought, I'll never see those again. And as far as the impact on my family was concerned, would they ever understand?

Did I care if they ever understood? And I had to say, it doesn't matter, I must do what I must do. The next morning, March 28th, Jean and two other activists entered a Minuteman Missile 2 site near Holden, Missouri. Armed with the Mark 12 A warhead, the warhead which the first plowshares tried to disarm, the Minuteman 2 missile is a deadly accurate first strike weapon. She later recalled how nondescript the silo seemed, like something con Edison might have built. The three activists cut circuits, poured blood in the shape of a cross on the 210-ton concrete silo cover, and Jean spray-painted for the children, soon after they were arrested by military police. Police, exit the site immediately, with your hands up, drop all personal articles,

accept identification, and exit the site and up. At her trial, Jean was permitted to tell her story and bring on expert witnesses. She clearly had the sympathy of the jury because they were concerned about what penalty Jean would face if they found her guilty. They asked the judge how she should be sentenced. The judge told them not to consider that. They found Jean Gump guilty, and she was sentenced to eight years, one of the longest terms for a plowshares activist. A year and a half later, Jean Gump's husband Joe would follow his wife's example. Their son Andy called it an act of love. On August 5, 1987, at exactly 5.15 pm, a time which corresponds to 8.15 am, August 6 in Hiroshima, the exact moment the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan 42 years earlier. Joe and his companion Jerry Ebner, a member of the Catholic worker community in Milwaukee,

entered a silo area in Missouri, not far from the one his wife had gone to. Before they were arrested, they disarmed the missile using the same tools which Jean and her companions had used a year and a half earlier. Joe is now over 1,000 miles away from his wife at a maximum security facility in San Stone, Minnesota. The security there is tight, and prisoners may only receive guests in a crowded visitor's room. This prison seems like an unlikely place for Joe Gump, a businessman, and a chemical engineer. While Joe and Jean rarely talked about politics, he says her action made him re-examine his work and his life. In prison, Joe's gray hair and beard have grown long. In his worn khaki-colored prison uniform, he no longer looks like the businessman he once was. I worked for a company that supplied products of the nuclear power industry, and I had business dealings with General Electric and with Westinghouse and with combustion engineering.

Nuclear weapons, again, our company supplied products for Hanford, Washington, for Savannah River, Georgia, or South Carolina, for Furnaldo, Ohio, all of the places that made the news in the past year. I was very comfortable, I knew a little bit about it as most people who work for that business do. It's a segmented knowledge that you acquire. You do a little part of it that involves manufacturing a product that requires solving technical problems that has absolutely no understanding of how this fits into a puzzle. That ultimately produces weapons that can destroy not only those that they're aimed at, but those who fire them as well.

Two days from now, it's our 40th-witting anniversary. These kinds of occasions are hard, you know. You don't quite envision yourself, and certainly when we were married, that we would spend our 40th-witting anniversary in two separate prisms. I have been deeply moved by Joe and Gene Gump, and I think many people are sympathetic to their plight. But some have questioned whether their efforts or the efforts of any of the plowshares have or will make a difference. All I can say to that is, we are called to be faithful, not to be successful. I've learned a great deal from the plowshares, their actions have changed my life, and I am not alone. Dear Miss Gump, my fondest hope is that you are out of prison by now, but if you are not, I'd like to line up in support of your release.

What you did at the Missile Silo was truly heroic. I don't know if I could have done something as brave. I read about you in an article by Studs Terkel that ran before Christmas last year. I included you in my book, The Great Divide, because they represent to me a hidden tradition of the United States. I should say a hidden aspect of our being. That is generosity of spirit of which we have so little today, thanks through the last eight, ten years of, I'm on my way to Canaan Land by myself and nobody else, I'll make it no matter how. Gene and Joe Gump represent something else too. The questing mind, questioning of authority, the very basis of our country is based upon challenge to powers that are all right. August 8, 1989, Grand Forks County Jail, dear Katcha, I wanted to write a little bit of letter of support, but what can a person say?

Could I say I admire in you the courage I lack? Could I make excuses for why I was outside while you and others were inside? Two days ago, Hiroshima day, I crossed the line at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. I carried with me the love of 25 supporters who remained on the legal side, and I carried a notice of confiscation to the air base for crimes against humanity. In return, I was arrested for trespassing. I am overjoyed that I did my action, and your example helped strengthen me for it. Thank you. I sent a picture to Katcha Komasarik of what she was doing when she was breaking the computer in the army. And I just hope that because of what she did, that all the army and naval officers will think, and say, you know, why did she do this, why did she do this?

Oh, maybe it was because they were blowing up her friends. Wait, I have friends too. I wouldn't like them to be blown up. Also, she just seemed so nice, and I mean, I would never, ever, ever put somebody in jail like that, even if they broke my computer. Dear Dexter, knowing the man lying to us reassured my belief in the nobility of the Plowshares efforts, knowing you as a priest, man, and lover of mankind, I'm certain that what she did was right. So father, hold me from warm worth, and by all means, take this letter to the courtroom if my words will release you. November 15, 1980. Dear Philip Baragon, I am grateful to you for your act of courage at the GE plant. You give inspiration and a new impetus to me to work for peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons. I am praying that when my time comes, I have courage to do the same, and that means also in the daily drudgery of working with local constituencies for a grassroots movement for

peace. There's a lot of work ahead, thanks for the new life to do it. Peace. Port out. Chicago, Illinois. Your friend will Anderson. New Brunswick, New Jersey. Your will. My name is Molly Covell. I'm 10 years old. Dan Shackley. With regards. Bill Urban. Portland. Oregon. Although I deeply respect the Plowshares call to conscience, and I continue to protest nuclear arms, I've never actually tried to disarm a weapon. But I do think about it. Often. I'm Martin Sheen. This program was made possible by a grant from the Disarm Education Fund. It was produced and written by Laura Cidell, edited by Amy Goodman, mixed by Paul Ruest. Original music created and performed by Paul Ruest, courtesy of the Argo Network, additional music composed by John Hammond. Special thanks to Bob Schwartz, Studs Terkel, Joe Cosgrove, Pam Small, David Isay, Andrew Phillips, Spider Blue, John Bowen, Linda Perry, Andy Lancet, and all of those who took

the time to contribute to this program. That brings a man to choose a world without novel reason. Lonely mother and fatherless child, a soldier gets buried with his friends in a pot. A general's were leading, but their knowledge was deceiving, a blood on the sand was strategically planned.

What brings a man to follow a world of content, just leader? I'm looking to the future with love. I'm looking to my brother and father with love. What's in waiting for something that isn't there, I think that it's time to show that I'm scared, I'm scared of our power and the things that we do. We're killing ourselves for a nickel or two.

What brings a man to follow a world that knows everything in gang, oh why? I'm looking to the future with love. I'm looking to my brother and father with love. I'm looking to the future with love.

I'm looking to my brother and father with love. I'm looking to my brother and father with love.