WHY WE SEIZED THE HAMMER
Berrigan, Philip
Warheads into plowshares When is a 'crime' a prophetic act? Ann Morrissett Davidon When the "Plowshares Eight" trial was over and Philip and Daniel Berrigan and their companions had been...
...Yet what prophet, including Jesus himself, whose name and example are so frequently cited by the Plowshares Eight, would not hope that his or her act will move others to similar perceptions and actions...
...But it has become increasingly clear to large numbers of "ordinary people" that nuclear weapons are both useless and dangerous and must be eliminated...
...No expert witness was allowed to testify that the Mark 12A warheads damaged by the defendants (total damage estimate: $28,000) were made for Minuteman III and MX missiles, and that each warhead has the destructive power of thirty Hiroshima bombs...
...Robert Aldridge, former designer of nuclear missiles at Lockheed—all came to the trial to testify on nuclear weapons and their threat to international peace...
...After the trial, one juror said the conviction was based "on the facts and the law...
...Finally, are we not obligated, no matter how imperfect our democracy, to work within that system, to change laws and policies only through elections and elected representatives...
...Attorney Peter Vaira told The Philadelphia Inquirer, "would simply give them another platform to advance what is obviously a publicity campaign...
...That is what most of the press and, therefore, the public did in regard to the trial of the Plowshares Eight and the action for which they were tried...
...Nuclear war and the arms race, said the judge, were "irrelevant" at this trial...
...So nuclear weapons did not go on trial in the Montgomery County court...
...Or did it...
...If we made it that it was OK to break in," said one juror, "then every nut group in the country would have that as an excuse to do all kinds of things...
...Women would not have gained the vote, conscientious objection would not have been recognized, civil rights for black Americans would not have been at least partially realized without nonviolent demonstrations and defiance of laws and practices considered to be unjust...
...Only the defendants were tried: Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan, sixty, and his fifty-seven-year-old brother, Philip...
...I would have loved," she said, "to hold up a flag to show them we approved of what they were doing...
...This, of course, is why the State fears such small "out-of-style" groups as the Plowshares Eight...
...Is civil disobedience passe...
...Ronald Reagan is President, military strength is a high Government priority, and patriotism has been the fashion since the hostages were seized in Iran...
...Labor conditions would not have improved if some had not been willing to strike and go to prison to change labor legislation...
...It is, after all, the 1980s," read one account...
...Sister Ann Montgomery, fifty-four...
...To this last question, the answer is clear: There is a tradition of conscientious direct action and civil disobedience in this country—a tradition that has called attention to wrongs and effected important changes within our democratic system...
...it's best just to ignore the whole matter...
...Isn't it just "too naive," as one courthouse official muttered...
...But isn't the idea of using civil disobedience to disarm nations a little quixotic...
...The question, like some of the others, is not easily answered...
...and divinity graduate Dean Hammer, twenty-six...
...Richard Falk, professor of international law at Princeton...
...Attorney General Ramsey Clark—were cited for contempt of court...
...Slavery would not have been abolished if some Americans had not believed so strongly that it was wrong that they were willing to defy the law and help slaves escape to freedom...
...Elmer Maas, forty-five, professor and composer...
...Would it polarize our society further, pushing the middle more to the Right and splitting peace and progressive groups...
...attorney John Schuchardt, forty-one...
...But there were other questions to consider: Can war resistance move from symbolic action and civil disobedience to effective obstruction—nonviolent sabotage—without inadvertently doing harm to life or bringing down Government repression that would erode the democratic freedoms we still have...
...It is why the trial was held in a county court instead of a Federal court (although Federal property was involved): A Federal trial, U.S...
...The majority is not always necessarily "right," nor does it automatically protect the rights of minorities...
...Nuclear warfare is not on trial here," the judge told the defendants soon after the trial began late in February...
...With their main justification disallowed, and their own defense interrupted by the judge and prosecutor as the second week of the trial began, the defendants finally chose to remain silent...
...Can it be done without corrupting the ethics of those involved, as concern for effectiveness may push them toward more secretiveness, more dramatic action, less consideration of personal or social effects...
...George Wald, Nobel laureate in biology...
...For this, and for unexcused absences from the courtroom, both they and their lawyers—including former U.S...
...Ann Morrissett Davidon When the "Plowshares Eight" trial was over and Philip and Daniel Berrigan and their companions had been convicted of damaging nuclear warhead cones at a General Electric plant, one of the jurors who convicted them said he did not care for nuclear weapons either...
...A prophetic act is not based on calculations of risk or estimates of effectiveness but on the truth and Tightness of the action itself as the actor perceives it...
...To support that defense, they had gathered expert witnesses: Robert Jay Lifton, the psychiatrist who has written Ann Morrissett Davidon is a peace activist and free-lance writer in Haver-ford, Pennsylvania...
...Father Carl Kabat, forty-nine...
...Their legal justification: the "greater danger" posed by nuclear weapons...
...Although several hundred supporters from across the country gathered to keep vigil during the trial, national coverage was almost nonexistent and local press coverage was uneven and grudging...
...To that recognition, the Plowshares Eight, who care deeply about human life, responded with a "prophetic act...
...The Government ploy appeared to succeed...
...His is a common view: Decisions on nuclear weapons are out of the hands of "ordinary people...
...And isn't direct action a dangerous precedent...
...For the action they took on September 9, 1980, they were found guilty of having committed three felonies— burglary, criminal conspiracy, and criminal mischief...
...You are...
...But she said, too, that the defendants were not criminals but "very good people...
...But that's not my—or their—decision to make...
...Putting the main issue the defendants had hoped to raise off limits, he undermined much of the purpose of the action they had taken—hammering on the two warhead cones and then pouring blood on the cones and on documents and desks at the General Electric plant at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania...
...extensively on the effects of World War II atomic bombs...
...And it is what the judge did in his Montgomery County courtroom in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and what he advised the members of the jury to do in their deliberations...
...Civil disobedience is, simply, passe...
...That was not the question bothering the defendants or those who kept vigil on the courthouse steps or at the General Electric plant...
...But all were denied permission to speak...
...Molly Rush, forty-five, director for seven years of Pittsburgh's Thomas Merton peace center...
...Dan Ells-berg, Dr...
...Helen Caldicott (physician and author of Nuclear Madness), and others were prepared to come...
Vol. 45 • May 1981 • No. 5
