Ottawa Peace Calendar* May 1989
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Ottawa Peace Calendar * May 1989 |
by Richard Sanders
Philip Berrigan is a prominent American war resister, ex-Catholic priest and member of the 'Plowshares 8,' and has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He will be speaking at St. Paul University on the evening of May 6 (see Calendar page). The following is a portion from an interview which took place on April 18 between Berrigan and Richard Sanders, Ottawa peace activist and initiator of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade. More of this interview will be heard on Sanders' radio show, Voice for Peace, CKCU.
Richard: What has been the response to arms trade fairs like ARMX in the U.S.?
Philip: They have arms bazaars in Washington every year, and this year they were greeted by rallies of people outside, but people also went inside and did civil disobedience. They used blood and hammers inside, dismantling and disrupting functions.
Richard: Which functions?
Philip: Two large luncheons with 500 people in each. They seized microphones and made statements. This is the most effective way to get through. Over the years we've found that the only hope for making an impression on these ameba brains is with shock value. One scale model of an MX missile was destroyed. They had to pull it out of a display.
Richard: What characterizes the kinds of actions that you've taken for peace?
Philip: The symbols involved are often the same. In civil disobedience, the symbols speak louder than words. In 1967 we spilled blood on draft files, and then in 1968 in Catonsville we burned them with napalm that we made using a special forces handbook. When I got out of jail, we started again. In 1973, '74, '75, we used pretty much the same symbols on the Pentagon.
Richard: You put blood on the Pentagon?
Philip: Repeatedly, over and over, and always our own blood. In the trials, they tried to ridicule and trivialize us. The symbol cites the bloodshed around the world. And also there is a prohibition against the shedding of blood. But the people who put the blood on the Pentagon would never shed another's blood. Then in 1980 the Plowshares series began. We began disarming nuclear weapons and missiles. We started with the Mark 14, an ICBM re-entry vehicle.
There have been 28 Plowshares actions since. Now it's spread to West Germany and Sweden and the Netherlands. I recently testified at the trial in Sweden of two Catholics, a doctor and a priest, who damaged two fighter bombers being exported to Turkey.
All this is traceable to the Prophet Isaiah who speaks: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and nations shall not learn war anymore." Since the governments and nations won't do it, the people must do it.
Richard: Your spirituality compels you to resist the nuclear state religion.
Philip: Behind every flagrant injustice there's always a bad theology. When we split the atom we won a nuclear monopoly, and nuclearism developed as an enlargement of civil religion. People trusted in the bomb like a faith in God. The bomb they believe gives security, standing among nations, number one status, business, jobs, income, education, and the bomb became the dominant force in the U.S. It's an idolatrous entity that has invaded every bit of our lives.
Converted February 23, 2002 - Lg
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