Obit: Philip Berrigan-Anti-war activist (Dec 2002)

Subject: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: sed
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 03:02 AM

9:30 PM Friday, 6 Dec 2002, Baltimore

The torch passes....

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 03:19 AM

It's sad to see him go. He has always been one of my heroes. In the 1960's, my cousin Fr. Bud Offer, was pastor of the inner-city Baltimore parish where Phil Berrigan was a assigned as a Josephite priest. My cousin was one of the people who donated blood to be poured on those draft files, and I've always been proud to be able to say that there was Offer blood spilled in that protest. Phil Berrigan died at the age of 79 - and was released from prison just a year ago.
My cousin, another good man, died a couple of years ago, at the age of 80. He spent his life working in the poorest parts of American cities. That's what Josephites do.
-Joe Offer-

---

Here's the Associated Press story, copied from here (click):

Anti-War Activist Philip Berrigan Dies
By KASEY JONES
Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE (AP)--Philip Berrigan, the former priest whose fight against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons helped ignite a generation of anti-war dissent, died Friday night of cancer. He was 79.

Berrigan's family said he was diagnosed with cancer two months ago and decided to stop chemotherapy last month. He died at Jonah House, the communal residence for pacifists that he founded.

His brother, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, officiated over last rites ceremonies Nov. 30, attended by friends and peace activists, family members said.

Berrigan led the ``Catonsville 9,'' a group that staged one of the most dramatic protests of the 1960s. The group, including Daniel Berrigan, doused homemade napalm on a small bonfire of draft records in a Catonsville parking lot on May 17, 1968.

In a statement given to his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, during the Thanksgiving weekend, Philip Berrigan said:

``I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself.''

Berrigan was born Oct. 5, 1923, and served as an artillery officer in World War II. He was ordained a Catholic priest in the Josephite Order in 1955.

He participated in the civil rights movement in the South. Berrigan's first public anti-war act was pouring blood on draft files in Baltimore in 1967.

In 1980, Berrigan and seven others poured blood and hammered warheads at a GE nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pa. That action began the international Plowshares movement.

Berrigan, who had been arrested at least 100 times and served a total of 11 years in prison for his anti-war and anti-nuclear activities, once said he had no intention of retiring from his career as a peaceful violator of U.S. laws.

``We can't very well do that because of the state of the world, `` he said. ``We're killing ourselves, and some of us are not making a murmur about it.''

Berrigan was released from federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, in December 2001 for his most recent Plowshares activities.

Besides his wife and brother, Berrigan is survived by three children: Frida, Jerry and Kate.


AP-NY-12-07-02 0229EST

Copyright 2002, The Associated Press.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: okthen
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 03:55 AM

I'd never heard of him until this post,a genuinely good man, oh that there were more like him.
Condolences to his family and friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 07:16 AM

God rest this brave mans Soul, I remember on holiday in the US in 1970 my cousins all US born didn`t favour Fr Berrigan`s protest.
I believed him to be a brave man and told them so, I wasn`t the flavour of the Month.
Like lots more Irish-US folk they were further to the right than that other great Irishman Genghis McCann.
Mores the pity that Fr Berrigan and his fellow travellers of those days,are not around or as active to-day. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 07:46 AM

I had never heard of this man before and I'm sorry that it is his obit that brings him to my notice. It's obvious that he was a genuine friend of humanity. All honour to this brave man. Condolences to his family. Burl.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: John Minear
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 07:51 AM

For many of us, the Berrigan Brothers were one of the very few lights over the last forty years. The world has lost one of its most active beacons for peace, and a man of great faith and much courage. May his spiritual descendents be ever fruitful and multiply and fill the earth in this time of increasing darkness. He did his part and showed us what it takes.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: Big Mick
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 10:54 AM

He was a determined and committed man. He had a code and lived by it, no matter the risk. I have always admired him and his brother. Over the years I have seen many that talked the talk, but very few that devoted every moment of his life to the effective promotion of his core beliefs. God be good to you, Philip Berrigan. Well done. We will listen for your voice in others.

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan
From: GUEST,joe clone
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 12:10 PM

From a duplicate thread:

Subject: Obit: Philip Berrigan, Anti-War Activist
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 10:31 AM

Philip Berrigan, Anti-War Activist,
Dies at Home in Baltimore, MD

BALTIMORE - December 6 - Phil Berrigan died December 6, 2002 at about 9:30 PM, at Jonah House, a community he co-founded in 1973, surrounded by family and friends. He died two months after being diagnosed with liver and kidney cancer, and one month after deciding to discontinue chemotherapy. Approximately thirty close friends and fellow peace activists gathered for the ceremony of last rites on November 30, to celebrate his life and anoint him for the next part of his journey. Berrigan's brother and co-felon, Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan officiated.
During his nearly 40 years of resistance to war and violence, Berrigan focused on living and working in community as a way to model the nonviolent, sustainable world he was working to create. Jonah House members live simply, pray together, share duties, and attempt to expose the violence of militarism and consumerism. The community was born out of resistance to the Vietnam War, including high-profile draft card burning actions; later the focus became ongoing resistance to U.S. nuclear policy, including Plowshares actions that aim to enact Isaiah's biblical prophecy of a disarmed world. Because of these efforts Berrigan spent about 11 years in prison. He wrote, lectured, and taught extensively, publishing six books, including an autobiography, Fighting the Lamb's War.

In his last weeks, Berrigan was surrounded by his family, including his wife Elizabeth McAlister, with whom he founded Jonah House; his children Frida, 28, Jerry, 27, and Kate, 21; community members Susan Crane, Gary Ashbeck, and David Arthur; and extended family and community. Community members Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, Dominican sisters, were unable to be physically present at Jonah House; they are currently in jail in Colorado awaiting trial for a disarmament action at a missile silo, the 79th international Plowshares action. One of Berrigan's last actions was to bless the upcoming marriage of Frida to Ian Marvy.

Berrigan wrote a final statement in the days before his death. His final comments included this: "I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself."

The wake and funeral will be held at St. Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore, (1546 North Fremont Avenue, Baltimore MD 21217); calling hours: 4-8 PM Sunday December 8 with a circle of sharing about Phil's life at 6 PM; funeral: Monday, December 9, 12 PM. All are invited to process with the coffin from the intersection of Bentalou and Laurens streets to St. Peter Claver Church at 10 AM (please drop off marchers and park at the church). A public reception at the St. Peter Claver hall will follow the funeral mass; internment is private. In place of flowers and gifts for the offertory, attendees may bring pictures or other keepsakes. Mourners may make donations in Berrigan's name to Citizens for Peace in Space, Global Network Against Nuclear Weapons, Nukewatch, Voices in the Wilderness, the Nuclear Resister, or any Catholic Worker house.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 01:18 PM

Father Berrigan was among the first to defy Rome and his Archbishop to make his statement in the secular world. I remember admiring his courage and, as a practicing Catholic, being shocked at his actions. For many, his presence gave credibility to a movement whose leaders had been labelled as misfits and traitors by the administration. How ironic to contrast the lies and criminal activities of Nixon's government with the simple commitment to peace of this great man. How interesting that he spent years in jail for telling the truth while Nixon et al got aa handsome retirement fund and security guards. How sad that he should go when we need him most.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: open mike
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 01:33 PM

The best thing we can do in the memory of this brave soul is
join an anti-war protest march, donate to our local peace center,
write letters to the editor of pepers we read, and here is a song to sing to inspire up while we do all these things:
(i thought it waws in the digitrad data base but do not see it now:)
EVERYONE 'NEATH THE VINE AND FIG TREE SHALL LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY
EVERYONE 'NEATH THE VINE AND FIG TREE SHALL LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY
AND INTO PLOW SHARES TURN OUR SWORDS, NATIONS SHALL LEARN WAR NO MORE
AND INTO PLOW SHARES TURN OUR SWORDS, NATIONS SHALL LEARN WAR NO MORE

And especially pray for a good out come from the incident
yesterday where an Iraqui and US ship collided in the Persian Gulf.

Laurel

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Barry Finn
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 02:16 PM

Probably one of the greatest loss to humanity & peace. Thanks for this post, those of us effected by the 60's & Viet Nam in one way or another well remember the Berrigan name. Of all the peace activists of our generation the Berrigans towered above most & were the beacons for us all. Barry

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 02:38 PM

I agree that the best memorial one can give to someone like Philip Berrigan is to channel one's grief and mourning into organizing resistance to the anti-democratic ways the so-called "war on terrorism" is being waged, and to prevent the US going to war against Iraq.

The no nukes movement wouldn't have been the same without Philip Berrigan, so it is quite ironic that he die at the very time that the damning results of the US' nuclear proliferation is so dangerously coming home to roost. Not even the 9/11 attacks and the war against Iraq, supposedly over "weapons of mass destruction" (while ignoring India, Pakistan & North Koreas nuclear capabilities) has worked to focus the US government's attention on the inevitable political fallout (excuse the pun) of it's nuclear weapons programs.

There was a film made, in which Philip and Daniel both appear as themselves (and Martin Sheen plays the judge) called "In the King of Prussia" about the Plowshares Eight trial. I first met them around that time, and was absolutely astounded at how short Martin Sheen actually was!

From the Internet Movie Database website gives the following synopsis of the film (and suggests you also watch "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in their "If you like this title, we also recommend..."!):

In September 1980, the Plowshares Eight broke into a General Electric weapons plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and in an act of protest against nuclear proliferation, poured vials of their own blood onto secret missle plans, burned other files, and damaged nosecones intended for nuclear missles. The direct-to-video production is intercut with clips from actual news coverage of the trial. The Plowshares Eight portray themselves in the production, and after taping was complete, reported to court for their imprisonment.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 02:51 PM

PHIL'S STATEMENT 12/05/02 (via Liz McAlister, his wife)

Philip began dictating this statement the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was all clear - he had it written in his head. Word for word I wrote...

WHEN I LAY DYING...of cancer
Philip Berrigan

I die in a community including my family, my beloved wife Elizabeth, three great Dominican nuns - Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, and Jackie Hudson (emeritus) jailed in Western Colorado - Susan Crane, friends local, national and even international. They have always been a life-line to me. I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself. We have already exploded such weapons in Japan in 1945 and the equivalent of them in Iraq in 1991, in Yugoslavia in 1999, and in Afghanistan in 2001. We left a legacy for other people of deadly radioactive isotopes - a prime counterinsurgency measure. For example, the people of Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be battling cancer, mostly from depleted uranium, for decades. In addition, our nuclear adventurism over 57 years has saturated the planet with nuclear garbage from testing, from explosions in high altitudes (four of these), from 103 nuclear power plants, from nuclear weapons factories that can't be cleaned up - and so on. Because of myopic leadership, of greed for possessions, a public chained to corporate media, there has been virtually no response to these realities...

At this point in dictation, Phil's lungs filled; he began to cough uncontrollably; he was tired. We had to stop - with promises to finish later. But later never came - another moment in an illness that depleted Phil so rapidly it was all we could do to keep pace with it... And then he couldn't talk at all. And then - gradually - he left us.

What did Phil intend to say? What is the message of his life? What message was he leaving us in his dying? Is it different for each of us, now that we are left to imagine how he would frame it?

During one of our prayers in Phil's room, Brendan Walsh remembered a banner Phil had asked Willa Bickham to make years ago for St. Peter Claver. It read: "The sting of death is all around us. O Christ, where is your victory?"

The sting of death is all around us. The death Phil was asking us to attend to is not his death (though the sting of that is on us and will not be denied). The sting Phil would have us know is the sting of institutionalized death and killing. He never wearied of articulating it. He never ceased being astonished by the length and breadth and depth of it. And he never accepted it.

O Christ, where is your victory? It was back in the mid 1960's that Phil was asking that question of God and her Christ. He kept asking it. And, over the years, he learned
" that it is right and good to question our God, to plead for justice for all that inhabit the earth
" that it is urgent to feel this; injustice done to any is injustice done to all
" that we must never weary of exposing and resisting such injustice
" that what victories we see are smaller than the mustard seeds Jesus praised, and they need such tender nurture
" that it is vital to celebrate each victory - especially the victory of sisterhood and brotherhood embodied in loving, nonviolent community.

Over the months of Phil's illness we have been blessed a hundred-fold by small and large victories over an anti-human, anti-life, anti-love culture, by friendships - in and out of prison - and by the love that has permeated Phil's life. Living these years and months with Phil free us to revert to the original liturgical question: "O death, where is your sting?"


Philip Berrigan, 1923-2002
Born: October 5, 1923, Minnesota Iron Range, near Bemidji to Frieda Fromhart and Thomas Berrigan
1943-1945: Served in WWII, artillery officer, Europe.
1949: Graduated from Holy Cross College.
1955: Ordained a Catholic Priest in the Josephite Order, specializing in inner city ministry.
1956-1963: Taught at St. Augustine's high school, New Orleans, a segregated all black school.
1962 (or 3?): First priest to ride in a Civil Rights movement Freedom Ride.
1963-1965: Taught at a Josephite seminary, Newburgh, NY.
1966: Published first book, No More Strangers.
1966: Served at St. Peter Claver parish, Baltimore, MD.
October 27, 1967: Poured blood on draft files in Baltimore with 3 others. Known as the "Baltimore Four."
May 17, 1968: Burned draft files in Catonsville, MD with 8 others, including his brother, Fr. Daniel Berrigan. Action known as the "Catonsville Nine." Convicted of destruction of US property, destruction of Selective Service records, and interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967. Sentenced to prison.
1970: Married Elizabeth McAlister, an activist nun, Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary.
1970: Became a fugitive when appeals failed. Captured and returned to prison.
1971: Named co-conspirator by J. Edgar Hoover and Harrisburg grand jury while in prison. Charged with plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up the utility tunnels of US Capitol buildings. Convicted only of violating prison rules for smuggling out letters.
1973: Co-founded Jonah House community of war resisters in Baltimore, MD.
April 1, 1974: Birth of Frida Berrigan at Jonah House.
April 17, 1975: Birth of Jerry Berrigan at Jonah House.
1975: End of Vietnam War and beginning of focus on weapons of mass destruction and changing U.S. nuclear policy. Actions included pouring of blood and digging of graves at the White House and Pentagon resulted in several jail terms ranging up to six months.
1975: Atlantic Life Community conceptualized as East Coast counterpart to Pacific Life Community.
1976: First of summer community building sessions; led to triannual Faith & Resistance Retreats in DC.
September 9, 1980: Poured blood and hammered with 7 others on Mark 12A warheads at a GE nuclear missile plant, King of Prussia, PA. Charged with conspiracy, burglary, and criminal mischief; convicted and imprisoned. Action known as the "Plowshares Eight;" began the international Plowshares movement.
1980-1999: Participated in 5 more Plowshares actions, resulting in ~7 years of imprisonment.
November 5, 1981: Birth of Kate Berrigan at Jonah House.
1989: Published The Times' Discipline, on the Jonah House experience, with Liz McAlister.
1996: Published autobiography, Fighting the Lamb's War.
December 14, 2001: Released from Elkton, OH prison after nearly a year of imprisonment for his final Plowshares action.
July 12, 2002: Underwent hip replacement surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore, MD.
October 8, 2002: Diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, cancer in the liver and kidney.
December 6, 2002: Died at home in Baltimore, surrounded by family and community.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 03:24 PM

One more thought here (I'm having lots of them today). The Philip Berrigan/Elizabeth McAlister Collection is housed at DePaul University Library, here:

http://www.lib.depaul.edu/speccoll/berrigan.htm

It is...poetic justice, perhaps? that Phil's brother Daniel would also have devoted a great deal of his life ministering to those dying from AIDs or cancer. In 1980, Daniel authored the book "We Die Before We Live" about his experiences working at St. Rose's, a hospice for the terminally ill.

Finally, something in Phil's words from The Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialists website:

An Apology of Sorts
by Philip Berrigan
For Susan Crane, Stephen Kelly, S.J., Elizabeth Walz

"Jesus said (to Peter), 'Have faith in God!' Amen I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in her/his heart, but believes that it will happen, it shall be done..." (Mk 11:21)

Do I believe that "the mountain thrown into the sea" is a metaphor for a disarmed world? Of course, I must believe that. But eroding and weakening that belief is the dark angel of myself and the Siren's Song of an imperial culture. So I struggle and pray and sweat. I am 76 years old, a married Catholic priest, with 35 years of resistance to the empire's wars, nine years of imprisonment, numberless arrests, surveillance and "dirty tricks" from the FBI. I have a superb wife and partner, Elizabeth McAlister. We have three magnificent children - Frida, Jerry, and Kate - plus a loving community of nay-sayers at Jonah House. Flowers, trees and birds surround the house that we ourselves built - its loveliness evidence of the lavish hand of God. I have inspiration and support from my three Berrigan brothers - Dan, Jerry and Jim - better nonviolent resisters than myself. (Two were arrested at the School of the Assassins, Ft. Benning, Georgia this past weekend). How do I measure the hundred-fold of Christ? It multiplies geometrically for me. Enter my friends, some times brusquely: "Hey, Dads!! Give it up to the young pups. It's rocking chair time - time to doze over a checkered career, time to go gracefully to seed!"

But, but, but...

I cannot forget the dying children of Iraq, and the two million dead of our war, sanctions, and depleted uranium. I cannot forget what 78 days of NATO bombing (NATO is a clone of the U.S.) did to Kosovo and Serbia. I cannot forget my shame and sorrow over the second American nuclear war in Iraq, and the third in Yugoslavia. (Despite the spin doctors who control damage, depleted uranium shells and bombs are nuclear weapons). I cannot forget my country's war psychosis - its obsession with better tools for killing, its mammoth war chest, its think tanks and war labs, its sick ambition "to own the weather" as a "force multiplier." I cannot forget that historical moment when Washington abandoned the American people to become the marionette of billionaires, transnational corporations, banks, and deluded lobbyists with deep pockets. Above all, I cannot forget Our Savior turning his face resolutely toward Jerusalem and the Cross. "Whoever wants to come after me, must deny self, pick up the cross and follow me." (Mk 8:34) I will not forget, and I will not go out to pasture. Instead, I will wrestle for faith with my three brave sisters and brothers. A faith which will hopefully embrace worthiness to suffer for the name of Jesus. (Acts 5:41) As the ballad goes: "For swords into Plowshares, the hammer has to fall." Indeed! Our hammers and blood will fall on this hi-tech monstrosity called the A-10, which fired 95% of the depleted uranium in Iraq and Yugoslavia. A hammer is the universal tool, used to build up and tear down, used to extend responsibility for disarmament universally. Disarming the weapons and abolishing war is the #1 business of the world. Nothing so destroys our relationship with God and one another; nothing so threatens the very survival of the planet.

Blood - the most intense and powerful Biblical symbol - causes two realities in disarmament. First, it reaffirms the covenant with the nonviolent Jesus, a covenant sealed in his blood. Second, it stresses again the prohibition against killing. There will be no justice, no peace, no relief for the poor, no restoration of the ecology until we stop killing one another. The vision of Isaiah 2:4 tells of a people faithful to God by disarmament and living as sisters and brothers. That is the spirit of God's kin-dom, that is the reality finalized by Jesus' death and resurrection. Let everyone listen, hear, and live. "And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth." (Jn. 17:18)

"Either Jesus was a liar, or war is never necessary!" (Benjamin Salmon)

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 03:33 PM

And this from the Voice4Change website:

Berrigan Still Rails Against War
As anti-war activist Philip Berrigan approaches the end of his battle, his conscience remains as clear as his mission

by Carl Schoettler

Editors Note: My first encounter with Philip Berrigan was at a retreat in Washington DC in 1987. It was during a planning session for a civil Disobedience (CD) Action at the White House. It was the first time that I was participating in CD. I volunteered to go on the White House tour and pour Blood on the Pillars. Phil encouraged me to slow down, He told me to start out with a lower risk. Many political organizers would have used my enthusiasm, and cheered me on. Not Phil, he was concerned and convinced me to hold a banner in front of the White House instead while more prepared activists took the bigger risks. I consider Phil to be a mentor and a friend, in the years that followed that first meeting, I attended many retreats and actions organized by the Community Phillip founded, Jonah House. I learned the proper spirit and preparation for witnessing against war from them. I learned how valuable community is in preparing to act. Jonah House Actions were not a one-hour rally that you showed up at the start of the action and went home immediately after. There was community building and preparation before the action. Everyone had an equal voice in the planning; we cooked, ate, prayed and sang together while planning the action. I have been on the west coast for a few years now, and miss the Jonah House/Atlantic Life Community. My prayers are with Phil and the thousands of people who he influenced in his life. He is one of my role models.



Philip Berrigan uses a walker to hobble slowly to the lectern in the library at West Chester University in southeastern Pennsylvania. He seems frail, but perhaps that's because he's always been so robust.

He's lost weight and his hair is white and his voice soft and hollow when he begins to speak. Thinness has given his face a craggy, monumental look. His deep-set eyes are shadowed by the overhead lights in this elegant, wood-paneled library room. At 78, he has perhaps earned the face he deserves. He reads a bit haltingly from a paper on his unwavering opposition to war and nuclear weapons. But his talk flashes with the old fire and wit as he warms to his task, echoing the strength of the past.

"For a long time I've been astonished by the fact that the human family has not caught on, not caught on at all, to the bankruptcy of violence and killing," he says. "Violence is, was, always will be, bankrupt, anti-human, criminal - always!"

Philip Berrigan, member of the Catonsville Nine, from the film, "Investigation of a Flame."

He's been preaching that sermon for nearly half a lifetime. He's the patriarch of the Catholic anti-war movement and he's paid for his right to speak with hard time in jail. He figures he's spent 11 of the last 35 or 40 years behind bars. His last stretch ended just about a year ago. He'd been inside since December 1999 after banging on some A-10 Warthog warplanes in an anti-war protest at the Middle River Air National Guard base. Jim Smith, the judge who sentenced him for the Middle River action, has just been elected Baltimore County executive.

"Poor man," Berrigan says, not without a certain irony. "Catholic judge of the year."

Berrigan's had increasingly bad health problems during this last year out of jail. He broke his arm in April, which postponed a hip replacement operation until mid-summer. Then his recovery from hip surgery was very slow.

"So I checked into Sinai for tests to find out what was wrong and they discovered this cancer of the liver."

He's scheduled for his first chemotherapy session at Johns Hopkins Hospital on the morning after his West Chester talk.

The audience, 150 or so people who have come out on a nasty, rainy night for the university's Activist Days, listen with reverent respect to Berrigan and his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, who gives her own tough speech. They're treated like village elders passing on hard-won wisdom. They autograph lots of books and posters before driving home to Baltimore.

A few days after the chemotherapy, Berrigan sits in the living room of Jonah House. Sun streams through the windows overlooking the old cemetery of St. Peter the Apostle Church. The buzz of lawn mowers filters in. McAlister and Susan Crane, another member of the community, are cutting the grass. St. Peter's, closed now, once served Irish and Italian communities in Southwest Baltimore. The graveyard was rundown and overrun with trees and underbrush before Jonah House took over its care in exchange for being able to live there.

"Well, I've had my first bout with chemotherapy," Berrigan says. "No nausea. No diarrhea. It didn't hit me hard at all."

No pain so far?

"Your liver is down there on the right side and I have a little twinge down there," he says.

Always in touch

"I was answering letters when you arrived," he tells a visitor. "Some days I get eight or 10. Not as many [as in jail], but a good number. Once they learn about this cancer, they say they're praying for me. They start talking about involvement, what they've been doing against [President] Bush's policies."

Berrigan, predictably enough, finds himself totally opposed to the Bush administration. He talks about the powerful with harsh hyperbole.

"Beginning with the stolen election in Florida," he says, "then the hardening of his campaign promises. And then adhering to a paper that was written about 10 years ago and was edited by his chief aides, like [Vice President Dick] Cheney and [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz ... , which went beyond the war in Afghanistan - which, of course, was an enormous swindle in itself - to Iraq and the invasion there and the control of the Middle East and its oil. And to do this with military might and then to leapfrog around the planet ...

"And all of this is enforced by our military," he says. "We say to people, 'If you don't like it, what are you going to do about it?' They're talking about Pax Americana. The most flagrant type of imperialism."

Earlier in the day, John Pilger, a British journalist and filmmaker, sent Berrigan an e-mail about demonstrations spreading across America. Later on, Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general who is now an anti-war and human rights activist, calls with an extended conversation.

Berrigan answers all his calls and letters.

"That used to be a rule with Gandhi," he says. "Everyone who wrote him would get an answer. And he had many more letters to answer than I ever have."

He still writes inmates he met in jail. He's got a couple of letters in today's mail that he has to answer.

"They ask me for money," he says. "If I can spare any I send some on. I used to help a lot of guys. Because friends would send in a lot of money, I had a good healthy commissary account. I used to shop for them. You'd go to the commissary and you'd buy them cigarettes. You'd buy them coffee. You'd buy them a little candy every now and then, hard candy. Things like that. And it makes a hell of a difference in their lives. Some of them are flat broke."

You're never conned?

"Oh, yeah. All the time," he says, matter-of-factly. "You are conned. And you better accept that. Oh, sure."

He laughs.

"You can't tell and you're not going to do a lot of detective work. What's the difference. But not always. Very often there's real need. The only thing that irritates me is they'll [get] stuff from me and then they'll trade it with other prisoners and make a little profit sometimes."

Berrigan seemed to use a lot of Biblical references in his West Chester talk. Does he think he's more or less religious these days?

"You know you learn all the time," he says. "We get up in the morning here and we go through the day's scripture. Now in the Catholic church they have different scriptural readings from the Old and New Testament every day. So we read two of them and then we meditate and discuss those readings and their contemporary application. ... Then we do a lot of prayer on our own the rest of the day. All of us do."

So you find justification in the Bible for your activism?

"Oh, very definitely," he says. "I don't think I'd be anywhere as an activist if I didn't get authority from the Bible. No, I wouldn't be doing it."

He claims Biblical authority even for such things as his action in disabling aircraft at Middle River.

"Oh, sure," he says. "I was going over the prophecy of Isaiah, in the second chapter. ... He speaks of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. That's the word of God spoken to us. He says the time of peace will come where the nations, everybody, will be doing this, destroying the implements of war and we won't train for war again.

"That's your authority. We're bringing that to pass right now because those planes - once you've disarmed them, they can't fly until they repair them. So we're bringing that to pass ... and that's what we're commanded to do."

How long have you been doing this kind of stuff?

"Since 1966," he says. He was arrested for pouring blood on draft files at the U.S. Customs House in a protest against the war in Vietnam. And, of course, he was one of the Catonsville Nine who burned files at a draft board in one of the more famous actions of that era. "Well, before that I was breaking the law in the civil rights struggle. I was arrested down in Selma, Ala., and that would be 1962 or 1963."

He was ordained as a Josephite priest in 1955. Josephites have a special mission to serve African-Americans. He was assigned to teach in New Orleans, where he got caught up in the civil rights movement.

"Then Martin Luther King began to evolve his own philosophy of resistance [from] Jesus and Gandhi. He was a Gandhian. I used to attend all those sessions and I joined all those folks and they had a considerable influence on me because they taught me something I didn't know at all and that was non-violence.

"And then I saw it practiced down there. ... There were the Freedom Riders. People were killed. People were going to jail. That [had] a tremendous influence on me."

Wartime experience

So did his service in World War II.

"I was an infantry platoon officer," he says. "I know how to handle small arms. I was an experienced marksman, all of that. See, I'm a violent person. I came out of that war a good killer. I was an accomplished killer."

He went overseas as a noncommissioned officer in an artillery battalion that started out in Normandy and Brittany and crossed France into Belgium and the Netherlands. He crossed into Germany as an infantry officer. During the Battle of the Bulge he was sent to infantry officers training school at Fontainebleau, near Paris.

"So I saw normal action as an artillery man, but not too much as an infantry platoon officer. God spared me from that. That's a rough way to go."

New second lieutenants had a high mortality rate, which is why the Army set up the school at Fontainebleau, he says. The infantry school at Fort Benning in Georgia couldn't supply them fast enough.

"You were out there living with the men," he says. "Your life expectancy in combat was about two minutes before you were knocked out, either wounded or else killed."

When he came home from the war he finished up work he needed for his degree at Holy Cross College. Then he entered the Josephite seminary in Washington.

"I attended the seminary with a lot of black seminarians from our missions in the South. They were black Southerners and they taught me a lot."

He says he moved step by step to nonviolence.

You don't ever get discouraged?

"No," he says, quietly. "One of the strengths of community is that you have around you people who fight discouragement just like you do. And if we start to feel sorry for ourselves there is always another person to help with that and give reasons why we shouldn't be sorry for ourselves."

So what has been the effect of these 40 years of resistance?

"I don't know. It's had all sorts of effect for me, that's for sure."

Long stretches in jail, for example.

"Then, too, I think I have helped quite a number of people, both abroad in Western Europe and in Australia and here, to see what's coming down. Modestly I can say that. You can't make any great claims. I've helped a great deal with this Plowshares disarmament thing. I've done a lot of work on that."

And he has a full schedule of work yet to do.

"I have to go to the University of Missouri at Columbia soon. I have to go to Kentucky in January to conduct an activist retreat and I have two places in California to go to in the spring. Yeah, they keep me running."

But he recently had to cancel an engagement in Milwaukee.

"I just wasn't up it."

The buzz of the lawn mowers stops and McAlister and Crane come in for lunch. Willa Bickham and Brendan Walsh have brought a big pan of eggplant lasagna from their Viva House Catholic Worker center and everybody sits down to eat.

After lunch McAlister helps her husband down the back steps to the cemetery. He climbs laboriously onto a power mower seat and he sets off to do his part for the Jonah House community by cutting his share of the grass on the old burial ground.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 05:07 PM

I have been thinking a lot about what it is I wanted to say here but cannot really find the words to describe it. We each have several people who influence our lives at critical times, and in my case, Philip Berigan was one of the first outside of my family. I've been thinking of the others as well now and it's hard to describe how all of these people came into my beliefs and what they left behind.

No words are enough for a man of his stature because he leaves us with a legacy so huge that perhaps no words are needed. His own words and actions stand as testimony to a truly devoted life.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 05:23 PM

I heard on Monday that he was dieing and that kind of shook me because not only did I not know that he was sick but I've always thought he would be there on the front lines of them movement. I mean, he was active and had spoken recently at a protest gathering in the D.C. area.

No matter what one's political convictions are he is to be admired as a man who put mankind ahead of himself. We folks who continue to resist globalization and war as a means of solving differences will miss him but carry his spirit forward.

Peace, Philip, peace...

Bob (Bobert) Harrison

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: sed
Date: 07 Dec 02 - 05:43 PM

Are you familiar with the context in which the following was written:

'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'
- 1 Corinthians 15:55.

After reading comments which obviously elude to this Holy Scripture in an above press release I wonder if Philip Berrigan or possibly his wife may have misinterpreted what Christ, through the apostle, Paul, was teaching us?

I now wonder if the possible misinterpretation of these inspired words of God inspires many well-meaning people to participate in dramatic public protests for which the Berrigans are so well known? By contrast, for instance, the Good Samaritan was quiet (and yet very effective) in his ministering. I personally feel that Christ's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is replete with admonitions relevant to the cessation of public protest. Read it for yourself. I haven't the energy or perhaps stamina under fire for great debate on this but simply wanted to indicate that there may be another view which disciples might find more Christlike than the duplication of protests such as Berrigan's. I know this will offend some, but that is not my intention. In this world it is quite easy to be misled and to stay that way for a lifetime. I am discomforted by conflict only a little less than I am by lies. Conflict is unavoidable. May we debate in a spirit of love and truth.

Steve Sedberry

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Dec 02 - 12:53 AM

That so many were not aware of Philip Berrigan points up the many truths within Noam Chomsky's many writings delineating the media's role in manipulating the ways the various sides of the many issues are viewed in the U.S.A. The free press, once again, by design or ignorance or stupidity, has done this fine man and, indeed, the American people another huge injustice. Now that he is silent it seems o.k. to note what he did and believed. I, for one, am pretty sick of watching this happen over and over and over...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 02 - 02:39 PM

Steve Sedberry says:

"May we debate in a spirit of love and truth."

I question the appropriateness and sensitivity of "debating" anything in an obituary thread. I don't understand why there can't be a decent interval to allow people who are grieving to do that in the obituary threads. Can't the debate wait until the dead are at least buried, or is even that too much too ask these days?

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 08 Dec 02 - 03:07 PM

God rest him. I heard Daniel Berrigan speak in Dublin last month, when he said that his brother's health had been broken by refusal of medical attention while he was in prison.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 02 - 05:24 PM

JTT, I'd heard the same here through friends who went to SOA protest. It still shocks and appalls me when I hear that happens. I remember how shocked and appalled I was when Bernadette McAliskey's pregnant daughter's health was broken by her time in prison too.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Dec 02 - 10:01 PM

Grieving, well yes - but much more celebrating. And I dont think Philip Berrigan would have wanted people to turn away from the reasons he felt called to make waves, and concentrate on him instead.

I saw a note about this in the paper this morning, and my immediate thought was about sharing it with the Mudcat.

As for sed's comments, the key Gospel passage for the Berrigans and others in actions like this is surely the one describing that shocking bit of so-called "non-violent" direct action perpetrated in the Temple in Jerusalem, when this North Country dissident called Jesus interfered so irresponsibly with the legitimate trading activities of respectable businessmen.

Thank God for Philip Berrigan.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST,DW at work
Date: 08 Dec 02 - 10:13 PM

I got into law enforcement because of Philip Berrigan and his actions. I nearly left it for the same reasons. I hope he knew that there were guys who admired him, even though they were 'the enemy', most of them were just folks trying to earn a living the best way they could.

DW

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 08:29 AM

I do grieve the loss of this wonderful person. But the GUEST post of 08 Dec. 2:39 PM points out the hypocrisy of the GUEST. This is the same person that I asked to just let us have our day to say thanks to Vets, and s/he just couldn't allow it. S/he had to inflict his/her political views and take over the thread. S/he just couldn't allow others with different views to have a moment. Now s/he wants us to respect his/her wishes and let this be an OBIT with no discussion, and let his/her moment. Look in a mirror.

I agree with Kevin McGrath and Art Thieme on this one. Phillip Berrigan would want us to take this time, and use it to reflect on his message, and on the activism that ultimately sent him on his way. I, for one, salute a life well lived. And a man who was unequivocal in his message. There are not many who are consistent in their message and who live it every day. God be good to you, Philip Berrigan.

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 09:22 AM

Still stalking your Guest target, Big Mick? Words like obsessed, petty, and vindictive do come to mind.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 09:52 AM

Folks like yourself always use that excuse. I am not stalking you, so don't try to twist words. I have observed you in many threads, as I read most of them, and you had much to offer. I am impressed when you try to act decent and contribute. And I never said a word in those threads, as I found great worth in your posts. But I couldn't resist pointing out how it is fine for you to attack in threads where folks are just asking for a bit of respect, but when the shoe is on the other foot you immediately resort to name calling. Actually, I would love to see more of the side that I have taken note of, such as some of your dialogue with Rick, and others. Why is it petty and vindictive when we return your past "kindnesses". I will be happy to stop, if you agree to do the same.

In the meantime, let us continue to illuminate the life of this devoted man.

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST,Forum Lurker
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 11:38 AM

"In the meantime, let us continue to illuminate the life of this devoted man."

Fat chance of that happening now.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 12:51 PM

And how does that feel, Lurker/matriot? This is obviously important to you, and it has you upset that someone couldn't let your thread be what it was intended? It is upsetting, isn't it?

I am going to do something that I think will surprise you. I want to apologize for making my comments. I mean this with all sincerity. I meant to make a point, but I fear it will take away from what this thread should be. Let us please move forward with our comments on Phil Berrigan. I have learned my lesson. I hope you can find it within yourself to be able to say the same, if only to yourself.

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 02:56 PM

The beauty of Guest Turnip (easier if we give it a name---especially when it's the same guest).......anyway Guest Turnip shows no respect for Philip Berigan for the obvious reason that you always knew where he stood and who he was. The essence of civil disobedience relies on openess and not in hiding behind a mask.

So Turnip, belay all your stories, philosophies, ideas, and other assorted bullshit......Your words and thoughts would carry no truth nor any weight with Fr. Berigan.......They are simply laughable here.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 03:11 PM

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: David Ingerson
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 04:07 PM

Great leaders arise in times of great need. Phil was one of those great leaders for me and many of my contemporaries. May there be a score of others to rise and take his place in these times of increasing need.

The fact that I did not know the extent of his recent work shows where the bais of the mass media lies. But it also shows that my attention to these important issues and my committment to searching out the relevant news has weakened recently. I will recommit myself to learning more and acting more for justice and peace.

May the sod lie lightly . . . .

David

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 05:21 PM

Big Mick, you seem to think you are perfectly entitled to hijack obituary threads and make it about you and your personal vendetta against this phantom guest you are obsessed with "exposing". A reasonable person might ask why you feel so compelled to keep up the grudge match, especially in thread like this.

I don't know how others feel about you using obituary threads to get back at this anonymous guest. You did the same thing in the Wellstone threads, and people called you on it then too. Yet, here you are again, a couple weeks later, doing the same again.

You keep trying to justify your horrendously bad behavior in these obituary threads about the very recently deceased, by claiming the guest disrespected you and countless other long dead veterans--when, Big Mick? How many months ago was it that you had this angry exchange with this guest?

I'm sure your "eye for an eye" thinking is what makes you feel perfectly justified to go after anonymous guests in obituary threads. But hasn't this gone on quite long enough? Just how many times will you engage in this nastiness before you feel vindicated? How many times do need to go into obituary threads like this, and show how little respect you really have for the person who died, and your fellow Mudcat members who are expressing their thoughts about the person who died. Even your unctuous, smarmy prose can't cover the stench of what you are doing. So maybe it is time you quit lying to yourself, and admit you haven't been willing to stop this "stalk the phantom guest game" because you aren't man enough to let go of your anger.

It was YOUR choice to bring your vendetta into this thread. No one else's.

There is nothing to be "agreed to" as each of us is in control of our own behavior, and no one else's. You are the one who keeps injecting your personal vendetta into obituary threads. It isn't appropriate, no matter how angry you are with this person.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 05:36 PM

Don't read the trolls, don't respond to them. They don't exist. Harder done than said sometimes, I know.

Today's paper has news of another loss of another great radical priest - Ivan Illich, Here is today's Guardian obituary for him. And here is a site with some of his writings.

And here's a farewell to Philip Berrigan from a group called "Veterans for Peace".

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 05:37 PM

No phantom there folks....It's the one and the same Turnip that has been the anonymous Guest in every anon post on this thread.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 05:53 PM

Well, our brother, Phillip was indeed laid to rest today. Bless him fir his comittment, his passion and his humanity. Like Martin Luther King, he was a saint who walked among us yet a brother who walked with us. When he was imprisoned, he immediately began trying to bring humanity into the prison thru organized hunger strikes and countless of motoions being filed on behalf of those he met in proson. He always worked for the betterment of man and he leaves a big hole.

Bobert

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 07:20 PM

What possible difference does it make if "every anon post on this thread" is from the same person?   Is this the place for Mudcat Guard Dogs to go looking to get a pound of flesh out of this person?

At least this anonymous guest provided meaningful contributions that are on-topic for the thread, and in honor of the man who died. Too bad the same certainly can't be said for catspaw and Big Mick, who are apparently willing to piss on the memory of Philip Berrigan, just so they can stick it to the anonymous guest they both love to hate.
And doesn't that show what a tremendous amount of integrity the bullies have?

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 08:27 PM

Sadly Bobert, there was very little news coverage of it....Overshadowed by the funeral of Roone Arledge who gave us Monday Night Football........Kinda' figures doesn't it? For many of us Philip Berigan will always have the stature he deserves from a life that influenced many in areas that were worthwhile.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 10:16 PM

Please stop pretending you are different people. It is not so. And please get back to your honoring of the memory of Phil Berrigan. That is what the thread was started for. I have apologized. I meant it. Please put it away now. If you would like to drop me a line, we can hash out our differences in private. I would be happy to do that. My personal email is [e-mail]. Henceforth, the only posts from me that will appear in this thread will be about this fine man.

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 11:37 PM

DW's comment is interesting, and an indication of the basic goodness of humanity. I guess I've been a pacifist all my life, but I made a living doing security clearance investigations on people who woked in various defense positions. As a result, I had friends on both sides of the peace demonstrations. A friend of mine was the chief Federal Protective Officer in Sacramento, and anothe rfriend is a nun who is always getting arrested for her participation in protests - and the officer and the nun have a great respect for each other. Both knew that they were doing what they had to do, and they thought of each other as friends. I'm sure Phillip Berrigan and his wife had many friends in law enforcement.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: mmb
Date: 10 Dec 02 - 12:48 AM

Being busy about many things, I scarcely remember when I last visited this group, but I knew it was where I wanted to come when the news of Phil Berrigan's death arrived.
    I was a very innocent and obedient young nun in the 60's, and was shocked by the speech and actions of both Berrigans. It was not coincidental that my personal journey "out" of the convent ran parrallel to my growth in awareness of social justice issues. I have long envied those with the faith and courage (and stamina) to face the consequences of their choices, even to accepting imprisonment.
    I strongly encourage anyone who feels called to activism and who has not yet been captured by a Cause, to look over SOA Watch (www.soaw.org). But take warning: it can be a life-changing experience, and as the letter below shows, in this time of the Patriot Act, even the simplest, most peaceful expressions of dissent can have far-reaching ramifications. I have been a peace-keeper at both Fort Benning and Pentagon marches, and there are few experiences to equal that of "Speaking Truth to Power."
    The letter below, together with its list of Prisoners of Conscience currently serving sentences in Federal facilities, is offered in tribute to Phil Berrigan, in solidarity with his family, his brother, Dan, and all who carry on his spirit. May he rest in true and lasting Peace! MB
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Update from SOA Watch
November 29, 2002

"The very essence of the Nuremberg Charter is that individuals have
international duties which transcend national obligations of obedience
imposed by the state."
    Justice Jackson, Chief Prosecutor, Nuremberg Trials


Content of this email:

1) Letter from Joyce

(Joyce is one of the 86 non-violent social justice activists who crossed
onto Fort Benning in November, 2002 and is scheduled to go to trial on
January 27, 2003. The group of the 86 includes many students, teachers,
retirees, catholic sisters, counselors, nurses, homemakers, missioners,
volunteers, social workers and therapists, and also includes an
accountant, an engineer, an airline captain, two farmers, an artist, a
lawyer, a priest, a pastor, a bricklayer, a salesperson, a newspaper
deliverer, a printing manager, and a paralegal. The 86 are from all over
the country and include 35 people under twenty-five years of age and 28
over fifty.)


2) Write to the Prisoners

Prison addresses of those currently incarcerated for crossing the line and
speaking out against SOA violence in November 2001.


_____________________


Dear family and friends,

I wanted to share with you that I participated once again in the protest action at the School of the Americas/WHISC at Ft. Benning, GA this year on the weekend of Nov 17. I have been told not to return with a formal "ban and bar" letter, so there were consequences this year. Let me tell you about them.

I am doing fine. Most important, my soul was at peace and calm and
focused throughout the whole experience because of spiritual discernment and preparation in advance.

You may wonder what happened to me. I was with a group of five people who crossed onto the base together. There was an opening provided for us in the fence and we walked onto the base and then up a hill on the Ft. Benning side to an open area. Military police were waiting there for us and asked us to stop, which we did. They took us into custody, putting plastic wrist restraints on pretty tightly. I asked them to call the Commandant and tell him I wanted to dialog with him and deliver some letters. They refused, but let me keep the letters in my handcuffed hands which were behind my back. We were taken to a large hanger which is where they do the processing. We were told to stand facing a wall in lines about three feet from each other. We were not allowed to talk or turn around. So I started humming softly some peace songs. Pretty soon others picked up on that so we were told we couldn¹t hum either. One Sister at the front of the line said. "Pretty soon, they will say we have to stop breathing, too." We stood as we waited to be processed one by one. For me, that was about half and hour or more. They took our jackets and everything we had on us and put items into a grocery bag which they sealed with duct tape (a new use for it!). I again asked to see the Commandant and was told they didn't think that would be possible. We could only keep on 1 layer of clothes, so I was glad I had on my turtle neck shirt which was warmer than what some people had. They asked for our basic information and photoed and fingerprinted us and then they turned us over to U.S. Marshals (a new development from other years). The Marshals were in another corner of the hanger. They started the process all over again, forms, including our bank account info, fingerprinting etc. I was told I
had to take off my wedding band. I explained that I have arthritis in my knuckles and couldn¹t take it off. "Then we will cut it off" I was told. I knew federal prisoners are allowed to keep their wedding rings so I said calmly, "You will have to cut off my finger before I will allow you to cut off my wedding ring." Another Marshall hearing the confrontation hurried over and told the other Marshall, "We don't do that anymore." The younger 19 and 20 year olds were intimidated with lies and threats as well and several of them were really frightened by it. Then they put us in shackles...heavy chain around the waist attached to heavy handcuffs and a heavy metal cover over than and leg shackles. It was, I am sure meant to be demeaning and intimidating, but if you can picture a silver haired nun about 4 foot 2, waddling off to the bus for transport, with a serene smile on her face, you know, for most of us, it didn¹t succeed.

We were taken to the Muscogee County jail and, again processed...you know the routine by now. We were held in UNHEATED isolation cells, 3 to a cell during this process and issued the prison garb much like hospital employees wear in surgery...v neck, short sleeve tops and pajama bottoms and plastic sandals without backs. The temperature went down to into the low 30's that night and when everyone was processed we were divided into two groups of about 30 women each and taken to the historic Columbus Stockade (circa 1850). We had a large room with bunks with iron frames. Thin plastic covered mattresses, no pillow, a bed sheet sewed into a sack and a thin, raggedy thermal blanket were issued to each of us along with a mug, a toothbrush, toothpaste, small motel size soap and shampoo. But each of us got our own roll of toilet paper..in fact, that was available
in abundance. The communal bathroom had two toilets and a sink that did not work and two shower heads in one corner. The drain was clogged with filth and dead water bugs. It was a pit. There was a dirty mop and bucket in a corner, so I mopped the area as best I could without the disinfectant soap I requested. At least we could use it if we kept our sandals on and rolled up our pants against the water that was always there because the showers overshot the drain for them. We had to use the water fountain on a wall in the larger room for water, to brush our teeth etc. and it sprayed so high and over its drain that it hit the bunk next to it unless we held our mugs in front of the spray to catch it.

We were told we had missed the dinner hour and that we would not be fed until we were awakened at 4:30 for 5:00 a.m. breakfast...but they lied. Once we were all processed in, about 10:00 p.m., trays appeared. Our supper was black eyed peas, mystery meat in thick gravy with grease already congealing on the side and soggy corn bread. Watery and VERY sweet Koolaid was the beverage offered.

There was no heat and they would not give us any extra blankets, so we
shivered through the night. One of the windows which was covered by a
large towel was really a grate to the outside and the cold air poured in. We had a TV set on a large cooler we could watch.

But our entertainment of the evening was the drummers and puppetistas from the vigil who came back on three different occasions through the night to let us know there were supporters outside. It was great to hear them, though we couldn¹t be sure they heard our cheers in response.

It was a miserable night. My legs cramped painfully from thigh to ankle and I got up several times to try to walk out the knots. None of us slept very much. The worst treatment was of those who had brought and needed to have their medications. They were denied access to any medication, even though it was with their belongings at the jail. This includes two diabetics and a number of people on heart medication which they really needed, as well as meds for high blood pressure etc. They continued to ask for over 24 hours without receiving them. Outragous!

On Monday, we went into the courtroom attached to the jail for
arraignment. I was in the first group of 20. Guess what? The air
conditioning was on, even though outside temperatures did not warrant it. So we continued to shiver.

One special moment was when Tom Cleary who is in his seventies and very frail asked the Judge to have the heat turned on because he was so cold and thought the cold he experienced overnight was making him ill. The Judge asked that that be done, but when Tom asked for a jacket, the judge said no. So our attorney, Tom Quigley asked if he could give him his suit coat jacket. He started taking it off and wrapping Tom gently in in and the Judge dismissed the gesture with a turn of his hand. But it was a precious moment and was made even more relevant by the Gospel reading for the following Sunday. It was Matthew 25, the last judgement ..when did I see thee naked and clothed thee? It was the clearest witness of the two kingdoms I have ever seen. Then Tom Cleary said to the Judge that the young man sitting next to him was shivering and needed a coat, too. He asked that a jacket be brought for him, but the Judge said no.

We were all given $5,000 bonds which meant we had to put up $500 each--86 of us. This was also a new, harsher development as we have always been released on our own recognizance before. Actually 23 of us were second time crossers and the government wanted $10,000 bonds for us, which we successfully decreased.

Then it was back to the cells. I had not called to ask for bonding
because I wanted to stay with the young women until they were able to
leave...some of the Hispanic women indicated they didn¹t have anyone to call to post it for them. But the SOA Watch staff called all over the country and money started pouring in for our bonds.   In fact, the 3 Western Union outlets ran out of money, so much was wired. I was out late Monday night, about 10:00 p.m. A Sister from Austin and I had a room together in the Howard Johnson (it is just three blocks from the jail.)

Then we went back to see the last people arraigned on Tuesday before I
left with a 19 year old student on Tuesday afternoon for Milwaukee and
Chicago. I was back in Milwaukee by 6 p.m.

Our trial date is set for the week of January 27. We don¹t know what will happen, but we usually have 6-8 weeks after sentencing to go home on our own recognizance and are given a report date and a prison to report to. That could change, but I don¹t expect it will because people back home will already be upset about how we were treated. My body is a bit achy and tired but I am in good spirits and picking up my life where I left off.

This is probably more than you wanted to know, but I think it is really important for people to see how peaceful, calm, nonviolent direct actions of dissent from U.S. foreign policy are being handled. Imagine what has happened to those being held in Cuba at Guantanamo Bay, and to people of middle eastern descent who have been arrested and questioned since 9/11.

I never felt I expressed my love of my country and its Constitution and founding principles in a more patriotic way than in participating again in the SOA protest. And I will be keeping on, because it is a spiritual journey for me. I will try to live my life with integrity and with love. And, if we have to go back to Ft. Benning next year, I will have to consider returning to witness against this terrorist training camp in our own backyard.

There were about 12,000 participants this year and we were each
individually wanded with metal detectors to enter the area at the gates the Columbus police has assigned for our peaceful demonstration. A solemn funeral procession with the calling out of names of priests, nuns, teachers, union organizers, men, women and children killed by SOA grads is the heart of the events and we decorate the fence around the base with crosses with these names on them and with flowers, military medals being returned etc. The number who crossed around the fence on to the base and were arrested doubled this year. You can read more on the website for the
Columbus Ledger Enquirer (www.ledger-enquirer.com)

We will be in Oak Park tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day) with Jon and Anne and the beautiful Montgomery and Joel and Christy and Judy for a traditional family celebration. Some of you will be quite surprised by what I did. But most of you know about my journey with the people of Central and South America. It is their love and forgivenss and their stories that I have carried in my heart. It is their truth that needs to be told. Especially now. Our love to you and your families,   Joyce

__________________________


2) WRITE TO THE PRISONERS

for more information, pictures, and trial statements visit:
http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=127

Twenty-six womenand men, part of the SOA 37 who were found guilty for
trespassing onto the Fort Benning military base in November 2001 are still incarcerated. Their sentences range from six months of probation to the maximum of six months in federal prison. Those draconian sentences are meant to silence and intimidate all of us. Send letters of support to the prisoners. Their sacrifice and steadfastness in the struggle for peace and justice provide an extraordinary example of love in action.
_________________________

Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch Ann Arbor, MI 41, Presbyterian minister at
Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor. Married (to UCC pastor). One child, age 4. Works with Central American refugees. Member of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and PNAODA (Presbyterian Network of Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse). Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Charles Booker-Hirsch
#90961-020
FCI McKean
P.O. Box 8000
Bradford, PA 16701
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Jonna Cohen Denver, CO 20, MacAllister College student. Student of
Maharaji, an Indian spiritual teacher. Sentenced to three months in
federal prison, $500 fine

Jonna Cohen
# 90962-020
Phoenix FCI
37900 N 45th Ave, Dept 1680
Phoenix, AZ 85029
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Brigid Conarchy Grayslake, IL 23, Originally from Waukegan, IL. Degree in Theology and Philosophy from St Norberts College. Catholic worker with Little Flower CW in Goochland, VA. Sentenced to six months probation,
$500 fine
_________________________

Kenneth Crowley Houston, TX 60, Parent educator. Catholic. Member of Pax Christi. Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine

Kenneth F. Crowley
#90963-020
FPC Beaumont
P. O. Box 26010
Beaumont, TX 77720
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Sue Daniels Pembroke, VA 41, a doctoral student in avian conservation
biology, currently forming a local chapter of the Colombia Support
Network, also active with AWOL (go-awol.org), the Coalition for Justice, Amnesty International, the New River Valley Greens, and the Living Wage Campaign. A participant in a beautiful Reclaim the Streets action in NYC during the WEF (the World Economic [Exploitation] Forum). Lead organizer to bring Vandana Shiva, Ed Herman, and Cecelia Zarate-Laun of the Colombia Support Network to Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech community this Spring.
Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Susan Daniels
#90964-020
1119711
C-4-4
Southern Regional Jail
1200 Airport Road
Beaver, WV 25813
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Mary Dean Chicago, IL 37, Former husband tortured by G-2 (SOA grads) in Guatemala. Affiliated with Catholic Worker, IL, Peace Action and SOAW IL.
Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $1000 fine

Mary Dean
# 90965-020
FPC Greenville
PO Box 6000
Greenville, IL 62246
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Kathleen Desautels Chicago, IL 64, A Sister of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods IA for 42 years. Ministry includes education, prison ministry and 8th Day Center for Justice for past 16 years. Sentenced to six months in a federal prison

Kathleen Desautels
# 90966-020
FPC Greenville
PO Box 6000
Greenville, IL 62246
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Janice Sevre-Duszynska Nicholasville, KY 52, English as a Second Language teacher to high school students. Activist for Women's Ordination. Mother of two. Affiliated with Women's Ordination Conference, Catholic Action Center, Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Newman Center for University of Kentucky. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Janice Sevre-Duszynska
#91104-020
FMC Lexington
3301 Leestown Road
Lexington, KY 40511
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Toni Flynn Valyermo, CA 56, High Desert Catholic Worker member and a
Benedictine Oblate at St. Andrew's Abbey, also in Valyermo. Mother of four grown children. Expecting first grandchild in October. Has been
participating in SOA Watch protests since 1998. Sentenced to six months in federal prison

Toni Flynn
#90960-020
Crisp County Jail
196 South Highway 300
Cordele, GA 31015
Incarceration date: 07/12/02
Projected release date: 01/01/03
_________________________

Kate Fontanazza Milwaukee, WI 53, Teacher. Catholic. Member of Pax
Christi, Peace Action and Pledge of Resistance. Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine

Kate Fontanazza
# 90967-020
FPC Greenville
100 U.S. Hwy 40, PO Box 4000
Greenville, IL 62246
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Chani Geigle-Teller Salem, OR 19, Student. Works with Oregon Peace Works mobilizing youth for social justice work in their communities. Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $1000 fine

Chantilly Geigle
FPC Dublin
#90968-020
5675 8th St.
Camp Parks
Dublin, CA 94568
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Peter Gelderloos Harrisonburg, VA 19, Activist and ex-student involved in community and national organizing around environmental, anti-war, anti-captalist and anarchist issues. Currently trying to write professionally. Sentenced to six months in federal prison

Peter Gelderloos
# 90688-020
FCI Cumberland
14601 Burbridge Road, SE
Cumberland MD 21502-8771
Incarceration date: 07/12/02
Projected release date: 01/12/02
_________________________

Nancy Gowen Richmond, VA 68, Mother of seven, grandmother to four. Two
months ago I buried my son, Chuck, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am a
member of Pax Christi Richmond and Murder Victims Families for
Reconciliation. Thirteen of the last fifteen years I have worked with the homeless population in Richmond, Virginia as a mental health counselor.
Have co-faciliated alternative to violence workshops in the prison system for the Richmond Peace Education Center. Spent time living with followers of Gandhi and working at Mother Teresa's in India. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Nancy Gowen
# 90969-020
FPC Alderson
PO Box A
Alderson, WV 24910
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

John Heid Luck, WI 47, Quaker. Catholic Worker living and working on
social justice issues in the Anathoth Farm Community. Member of Veterans for Peace. Handyman. Sentenced to six months in federal prison.

John Heid
#13815-016
FPC Schuylkill
Camp 2B
P.O. Box 670
Minersville, PA 17954--0670
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 04/10/03
(John is serving an additional month for an ELF action)
_________________________

Linda Holzbaur Ithaca, NY 45, Mother of 4 (3 school age). Peace activist. Part time journalist. Catholic worker. Member of "Keep Space for Peace".
Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
_________________________

Lisa Hughes W. Hartford, VT 36, Catholic background/Mennonite affinity. Raised in Midwest, spent 5 years in El Salvador as a nurse. Moved to Vermont, to begin war tax resistance and organic farming, from Oregon and hospice nursing. Member of War Resisters League. Acquitted
_________________________

Rev. Erik Johnson Maryville, TN 57, Presbyterian Church(U.S.A.) minister, Interim Pastor at Church of the Savior UCC, Knoxville. Married with 5 grown children, 3 grandchildren. 1984 Witness for Peace to Nicaragua. Member of Knoxville Area Committee on Central America, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance.   Sentenced to six months in federal prison,
$1000 fine

Erik Johnson
#90971-020 MB2
FCI Manchester
P.O. Box 3000
Manchester, KY 40962
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Niklan Jones-Lezama Blacksburg, VA 38, married to Nicaraguan Sandinista, Claudia; two sons, Emilio Jose and Omar Eli. A past co-coordinator for the Coalition for Justice in Central America; 1987 Witness for Peace/Fellowship of Reconciliation/Buddhist Peace Fellowship delegate to Nicaragua and Honduras. Also part of fact-finding delegation to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. An intern with Global Issues Project in Haiti. Currently helping to build a local chapter of the Colombia Support Network. A Re-evaluation counselor, studying and practicing healing touch and reiki energy therapies for the past four years. Sentenced to six months in federal prison

Niklan M. Jones
# 90972-020
Oklahoma City FTC
7410 S Macarthur
Oklahoma City, OK 73159
Incarceration date: 09/12/02
Projected release date: 03/12/03
_________________________

Rae Kramer Syracuse, NY 55, Domestic violence activist. Member of Syracuse Peace Council and Jewish Peace Fellowship. Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $5,000 fine

Rae Kramer
# 91096-020
Danbury FCI
Route 37
Danbury CT 06811
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Palmer Legare Springfield, MA Student at Springfield College. From Cabett,VT. Community organizer on low income housing issues. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Palmer Legare
# 91097-020
FMC Devens
PO Box 879
Devens, MA 01432
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Laura MacDonald Syracuse, NY 23, Works with children with disabilities.
Member of Syracuse Peace Council. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Laura MacDonald
Incarceration date: 07/12/02
Released: 10/12/02
_________________________

Shannon McManimon Philadelphia, PA 26, Catholic Worker at Martha House CW in Philadelphia. Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
_________________________

Ralph Madsen Newtonville, MA 68, Retired elementary school teacher.
Married, with two grown children. Grandfather. Stationed at Ft. Benning in 1956. Affiliated with Neighbor to Neighbor and Buddhist Peace Fellowship.
Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
_________________________

Tom Mahedy Wall, NJ 39, Married with two children, 5 and 7. Former Navy ROTC. Traveled to Central America with Pastors for Peace. Member of Pax Christi. Sentenced to three months in federal prison

Thomas Mahedy
# 91098-020
FCI Fort Dix
P.O. Box 38
Fort Dix, New Jersey 08640
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Abi Miller Harrisonburg, VA 23, Degree in Biology from James Madison
University. Works at a restaurant in the process of collectivizing.
Involved in a community center project, community garden organizing, and tutoring english as a second language. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Abigail Miller
#90692-020
FPC Alderson
PO Box A
Alderson, WV 24910
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Summer Nelson Missoula, MT 26, Environmental and social justice activist working with the Buffalo Field Campaign and Wild Rockies Earth First.
Visual artist who uses art in activism. Aspiring wilderness survivalist and sustainable community builder doing trail work, organic farming and wilderness therapy programs. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Summer Nelson
Incarceration date: 07/12/02
Released: 10/12/02
_________________________

Fr. William O'Donnell Berkeley, CA 72, member of the San Carlos Foundation
- Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine

Bill O'Donnell
#85713-011
Atwater USP
PO Box 01900
Atwater CA 95301
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

David O'Neil Elkton, VA - Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
_________________________

Mike Pasquale Syracuse, NY 33, Catholic. Program Director at Family
Center. Director of International House at LeMoyne College. Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $1000 fine

Michaele Pasquale
# 91102-020
Unit A-D
FPC Allenwood
PO Box 1000
Montgomery, PA 17752
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 03/10/03
_________________________

Leone Reinbold Oakland, CA, Freedom Rising Affinity Group - Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
_________________________

Rich Ring is 33 years old and lives in Atlanta, where he is a human rights investigator. He grew up in Washington County, New York, and went to Earlham College. He has been an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, and a Catholic Worker at St. Martin de Porres House in Harrisburg, PA. He is a member of Pax Cristi USA, Pennsylvania Abolitionists, and Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He learned about the SOA in 2001 from travels in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala and the Autonomous Zones of Chiapas, Mexico. (Click to read his testimony -in Word format- from Georgia.) -
Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Richard M. Ring
#91099-020
Federal Prison Camp
PO Box 2000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Maxwell Sadler Edwards Waterville, ME - Sentenced to six months probation,
$2500 fine
_________________________

Kathy Shields Boylan Washington DC 58, Catholic Worker with Dorothy Day CW in Washington DC. Plowshares activist. Mother of 5. Grandmother of 3.
Sentenced to three months in federal prison

Kathleen Boylan
# 20047-016
Range 2
Federal Prison Camp Alderson
PO Box A
Alderson, WV 24910
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Michael Sobol Golden, CO 18, Graduates HS in May. Plans to defer college for a year to work in Guatemala with street children. Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine

Michael Sobol
# 91105-020
FCI Engelwood
9595 w. quincy ave
littleton, co 80123
Incarceration date: 09/10/02
Projected release date: 12/10/02
_________________________

Lee Sturgis Elkton, VA - Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
_________________________

Fr. Louis Vitale, San Francisco, CA Franciscan priest. Pastor of an inner city parish in San Francisco. Working with marginated children and the homeless. Sentenced to three months in federal prison

Louis Vitale
# 25803-048
FPC Nellis CS 4500
North Las Vegas, NV
89036-4500
Incarceration date: 10/02
Projected release date: 01/03

_________________________

Fr. Jerry Zawada Cedar Lake, IN 65, Franciscan priest and Ecumenical. Just back from Palestine. Affiliated with Voices in the Wilderness. Sentenced to six months in federal prison

Jerry Zawada
# 04995-045
Crisp County Jail
196 South Highway 300
Cordele, GA 31015
Incarceration date: 07/12/02
Projected release date: 01/12/02

_________________________

Those who speak out for justice and human rights should not be forced to stand trial, let alone go to jail. Many of the perpetrators of massacres and all of the aiding and abetting School of the Americas (SOA/WHISC)officials who are responsible for the death and suffering of thousands of innocent victims throughout Latin America have not spent a single day in jail; conversely, 26 SOA Watch activists are currently incarcerated in federal prisons and county jails across the US. These activists have been fined thousands and thousands of dollars while the families of victims of SOA violence haven't received one dime of reparations for their loss. 86 women and men are scheduled to stand trial on January 27, 2003. We cannot allow this injustice to continue. As our friends are imprisoned/are
preparing for their trials, we call on communities across this land to
spread the word about the SOA and the reality of US foreign policy.

In Solidarity and Peace,
SOA Watch

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 02 - 08:00 AM

Big Mick, I will never contact you privately, so it is up to you when you will stop doing what you are doing to "get even" or "get back" at me. You are stalking me here in Mudcat, looking for any flimsy excuse you can find to attack, attack, attack in your private vendetta mode. The only people who are supporting your constant flaming in this grrudge match, are those who you are all too willing to play that same game. It is your choice how long you will carry on this vendetta of yours. It has nothing to do with Philip Berrigan, just like it had nothing to do with Paul Wellstone, but you still saw fit to start flaming away at me in the obit and memorial threads.

Apparently though, not all Mudcat members share your passion for exacting vengeance upon an anonymous guest. Here is what one of your fellow Mudcat members had to say about this behavior of yours in another thread:

"I think you're being paranoid, Mick...What's with this old-time Mudcatter obsession with unmasking "trolls" and their "agendas," anyway? Christ.

So, like, knock it off.

---Lepus Rex"

I'll say it one more time, this is YOUR PERSONAL VENDETTA, not mine. I'm not following you into other threads and personally attacking you, as you have done to me here, in the Wellstone thread, and several others in recent weeks. I will never contact your personally, I will not work things out with you, and I am telling you here and now to stop this harrassment. You are the instigator, and you are looking very much like a jerk for carrying on with a petty, personal, grudge. You are very far beyond the pale of reasonableness with regard to this poster, and are clearly being driven by an irrational, emotional hatred. You are out of control. Stop harrassing me NOW.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Big Mick
Date: 10 Dec 02 - 11:56 AM

OK..........I am just going to say it like it is. You bring this stuff on yourself. I don't pursue you, I simply do what you do. I look for your threads as you did to me. This goes back a very long time and through a large number of your guises. I simply asked that you not attack those that served, and recognize that some had very little control over their circumstance. I asked you to not condemn the warriors. I told you over and over again that we had much more in common than we differed on, if we could just have some dialogue without you attacking us all the time. But you just kept coming with that horseshit, antagonistic, know it all attitude. I was OK with that because I have been here long enough to know that many types visit, and even some pretty nice folks have their moments. Hell, I have had a million of them. That is because I am human. But when you started belittling those that didn't agree with you, and when you started jumpin into threads for the express purpose of hijacking them because they didn't agree with your agenda, and when you were asked to just let us poor, unenlightened fools to have a time to simply say thanks to those that served and you refused, I figured you would get a dose of your own salt. And you don't like it.

There are two "perceptual realities" that you are trying to create. The first is that I am harassing you. You are throwing these terms around in an attempt to make me believe that I am at legal risk. You don't know my background, but I assure you that I know what constitutes harassment. In a public forum, monitoring a protagonist's pronouncements and taking issue with them is not harassment under any interpretation. So you can save all that, cause that dog don't hunt.

The second "perceptual reality" you are trying to create is that there is a significant number of Mudcatters that object to my pronouncements and treatment of you. I would say two things. First, I don't say things based on what others will think. My treatment of you is based on your actions. Whether others approve or not is not my concern. Secondly, I have been around here enough that most folks know what they like about me or don't like about me. I don't hide my identity, and I have met a large number of these good people. I have made my mistakes in the past, and have apologized face to face to those folks, and admitted publicly that I had made an error. In other words, I believe I have gained a certain amount of credibility. You, on the other hand, not only remain an unknown GUEST, but you try to create perceptions by posting under a lot of names (male and female), and implying that it is several people. An example of this would be when you used the GUEST: thread lurker appellation. Then when you are called on that you claim that you are being harassed. Not so. All these things take away your credibility. So go ahead and try to keep portraying me as something I am not. Those that know me know what is so, good and bad. I will take my chances.

Oh.........and one last thing. It is you that continues this. Had you just left it alone, I would have not responded. Had you just called me a name, I would have ignored you. But what you posted required a response. So I did. You knew that would happen, that is why you posted it. I now expect you will want the last word. Go ahead. It is yours.

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Dec 02 - 01:24 PM

mmb, thank you so much for posting all of the info about SOA and the dissident prisoners. I didn't have a clue and now can't see for the tears. I will share it with friends and family and will be writing some letters to some of them, too.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 02 - 02:56 PM

The School of the Americas has been renamed (though they are still the men with guns). It now is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Minnesota sends busloads of activists to Ft. Benning every year, and we have a very active contingent of SOA activists (including formerly incarcerated nuns and Catholic Workers). So it is no coincidence that a very special organization opened it's doors here in Minnesota to serve the victims of men with guns--The Center for Victims of Torture.

If you are looking to donate money at the holidays to a very worthy cause which receives virtually no press or attention, please consider them. Their website is here:

http://www.cvt.org/main.php

They are not the only international center working with victims of torture. There is also the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture:

http://www.icomm.ca/~ccvt/

the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims in Denmark:

http://www.irct.org/

the Centre for Victims of Torture, Nepal:

http://www.cvict.org.np/index.html

and the Treament and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture in Ramallah, Palestine:

http://www.trc-pal.org/index.html.

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Dec 02 - 09:43 PM

Two of the folks I was so priveledged to hear speak and later meet (because of music) were Phil Berrigan and Cesar Chavez. You all know how I feel about the corruption of power, but boy, those two were absolute aces.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: meatrail
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 02:10 PM

I'm really sory to hear. one of my heroes.
Tunney

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 04:11 PM

I thought folks here might like to read this. I got it from an interview with CNN Martin Sheen did on Tuesday, that I posted in the 'Any Mudcatters Against the War' thread.

This is what was on the prayer card for Berrigan's funeral:

"Peacekeeping is not only a central characteristic of the gospel. Peacemaking is the greatest need of the world today. We are the daughters and sons of God, and that means we are called to be peacemakers, whether we like it or not. It's a responsibility of all of us to pursue peace for its own sake, for the sake of the future for our children."

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan - Anti-war activist
From: sing4peace
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 05:51 PM

I am so glad I came across this thread. I hope many of you who wrote here are still mudcatters as I hope to get to know you. We need each other - as the old songs say: the harvest is plenty and the workers are few.

I was a friend of Phil's. We shared a birthday. I was honored to be asked to sing at his memorial service in NYC in October, 2003. I still am a friend of Daniel and Liz and Jonah House and so many others who continue on speaking truth to power. I am in a good position to tell you that music nourishes the soul of the resister and that the J-house folks are big on singing. Liz will be the first to tell you that she is tone deaf but we all encourage her to sing anyway. Singing is a basic human right and it rarely sounds better than coming from the back of a police wagon.

Yes, there is still a peace movement that is unfaltering in it's vision regardless of who occupies the oval office. Don't expect to find them on TV. You might do better checking out the Nuclear Resister newsletter. I know they are online if you do a google search. Or keeping up with the School of the Americas (SOA)watch as suggested above. They are gearing up for their annual November march on Ft. Benning - still a school for assassins, no matter what they call it.

It is heartwarming and very encouraging to read your comments above. Makes me feel more at home. You have all spoken so eloquently. I guess the most important thing I would want to add here is that there are others like Phil out there. Our brother may have gone over but he left behind a community of people who still answer the call. Phil and Liz' daughter, Freida Berrigan, writes frequently on: www.commondreams.org.

I saw Daniel in Providence, RI last year. When asked if he could summarize what his life had taught him, he sat quietly reflecting with his finger to his lips. With a wry little smile he told us that he agreed with the Buddha: the reason we do the right thing - even in the face of what appears to be overwhelming evidence of the futility of change occuring - is simply because - it is the right thing to do. And then he smiled that Daniel smile that has inspired many of us to face the lions of our time.

As we approach the 8th anniversary of the "war on terror", let us stop for a moment with our fingers to our lips - listening for direction - and then find a way to act on the answers our own souls provide- even if our knees tremble and our voices shake.

That would be a fitting memorial to Phil and to all who have risked the life of peacemakers.

Your sister in Hope and Song,
Joyce Katzberg

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan-Anti-war activist (Dec 2
From: Stringsinger
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 08:35 PM

There are very few who have the courage to publicly stand up to the Military Industrial Complex. Berrigan was a proverbial lion in the den of war mongers.

He will be remembered and maybe someday celebrated (should be a statue) for the
service of peace that he offered our country.

Some day, maybe, our country and our world will be enlightened enough to know that
bombs and guns solve nothing. Berrigan helped us to learn this lesson.

"Where have all the young men gone?"

Frank

Subject: RE: Obit: Philip Berrigan-Anti-war activist (Dec 2002)
From: sing4peace
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 08:18 PM

Dear Frank and other friends of Phil's:

Yesterday (October 5th) would have been Phil's Berrigan's 86th birthday. Phil's wife, Liz McAlister and dozens of other activists demonstrated at the White House yesterday to protest the continuing "war on terror" and to call for the closing of Guantanamo Bay and all U.S. secret rendition facilities.

I am attaching two links here to show you that Phil's spirit is quite alive and that the work continues on.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/06-10

http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/News/Dozens-Arrested-in-Front-of-White-House/2336/4/

Frida Berrigan (daughter of Liz and Phil's) said that the D.C. police charged on horses through the crowd of demonstrators that included children - some in strollers. Over 50 people were arrested.

The question we must ask ourselves is not "where are today's Phil Berrigans?" but "where can I find the Phil Berrigan in me today?"

Happy Birthday Phil.
Your sister in hope and song,
Joyce