Pacifica Commentary for May 30, 2003

Hello, this is Blase Bonpane with a comment.

The gentle people of the earth are truly the most radical. They shall possess the land.

On Sunday, May 25 at about 4:00 PM the Riverside Ploughshares group went aboard the

warship USS Philippine Sea. They poured their blood on the missile hatches and

hammered a message of protest on the containers that hold Tomahawk Cruise Missiles.

As they knelt on top of the hatches, Mark Colville held up pictures of Iraqi children who

had been injured and maimed by U.S. weapons. Mark read their statement and Brian

Buckley unfurled their banner which read, "Riverside Ploughshares: Disarm and Choose

Life." Sister Susan Clarkson and Joan Gregory were together with Mark and Brian in

this vanguard protest.

Here is their statement:

We come here today to enflesh the prophecy from Isaiah, "They shall beat their swords

into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks."

With hammers we have initiated the process of disarming this battle ship, and

transforming this carrier of mass destruction into a vessel for peace. The USS Philippine

Sea uses Tomahawk cruise missiles, depleted uranium munitions and the Aegis radar

system to enforce the US Empire's will on other nations and regions. We pour our blood

on this ship to reveal the blood of the innocent already shed by the use of this weaponry.

We also pour our blood to repent for our complicity in the pervasive violence of

our world.

We are trying to follow Jesus Christ's commandments to love our enemies and

neighbors, to forgive those who do us harm and to repent. We seek to stop

the injury of war on the human family and heal our communities by living

nonviolently and seeking justice for all. The peace and security that comes

from an empire wielding weapons of war and intimidation are false and

illusory. With hammers we disarm this weapon of mass destruction and with

blood we reveal its purpose.

In the spirit of Dorothy Day, who co-founded with Peter Maurin, the

Catholic Worker in New York City seventy years ago, we try in our daily

lives to practice the Works of Mercy. We feel that to follow God's will we must do more

than serve the broken of our society. It is also our duty to challenge, as Christ did, that

which causes poverty. Until we convert weapons that end life into tools that enhance

life, poverty will continue to cripple our society. For this we pray and

for this we act.

We are Susan Clarkson, Mark Colville, Joan Gregory and Brian Buckley from

urban and rural Catholic Worker communities.

Friends, not everyone is going to join these radically gentle people who represent the

vanguard of the peace movement. But we can and must support them as they face severe

charges in their acts of civil disobedience. In 2003 their protest is as important as the very

patriotic act of those who gave us the Boston Tea Party. If you want to contact the

Riverside Ploughshares group or would like a copy of this commentary call us 323/852-

9808 ….323/852-9808

This is Blase Bonpane.

Susan Clarkson

Mark Colville

Joan Gregory

Brian Buckley

Riverside Ploughshares Biographies

Fleet Week, May 25, 2003, New York City

"I feel urged to act today because of the exposure I've had over the past

three years to the charism of the Catholic Worker. The recent horrors of

the massacres in Afghanistan and Iraq, the iniquitous sanctions imposed on

Iraq since the first Gulf War, and my own Government's shameful alliance

with the US, against the wishes of the majority of the British public,

compels me to take this step of symbolic and practical disarmament, united

with my American brothers and sisters."

Sr. Susan Clarkson

Sister Susan Clarkson, (56) was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. She

has been in her religious congregation for thirty-seven years and has been

a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington DC

since May 2002. She sees her part in this ploughshares action as a coming

together of many strands in her life: her religious vocation; peace

activism in Britain; long time membership of the British Campaign for

Nuclear Disarmament; an M.A in Peace Studies; work with young people in the

industrial North of England and with homeless people in London.

"The example of Christ is clear: We cannot love neighbor or enemy without

disarming ourselves. We cannot serve the poor without defending them

against the violence of the state. We cannot affirm life without standing

directly, nonviolently in confrontation with all that deals death. War is

the worship of death. Preparation for war is the denial of God. Therefore

I join the Riverside Ploughshares in an act of faith, offered to God as a

plea for the lives of my children, and all children. Disarm. Choose Life.

AMEN."

Mark Colville

Mark Colville, 41, is a member of the Amistad Catholic Worker Community in

New Haven, Connecticut. He and his wife, Luz, have been married for 13

years and are the parents of 6 children ranging in age from 7 months to 15

years. Mark's commitment to nonviolence and peacemaking is rooted in the

Catholic faith and nourished by prayer and the daily practice of the Works

of Mercy.

"Thank you to those who have showed us the will of the spirit through their

obedience to truth and struggle for justice. To all who are victimized by

our complicity, please forgive us."

Brian Buckley

Brian Buckley lives and works at Little Flower Catholic Worker farm in

central Virginia. He was born and raised in Asia, and taught English in

Africa with the Peace Corps.

"When falsehood and domination are so prevalent in our government, I must

stand up for truth and nonviolence. We must disarm and choose life."

Joan Gregory

Joan Gregory, 70, lives at the Peter Maurin Catholic Worker Farm in New

York. She was in religious life for 15 years, later married and now has

two children. She has been a teacher and administrator in New York state

schools and institutions for 25 years.

Kairos/Ploughshares New York

618 West 138th Street # 4

New York, New York 10031

Checks can be made out to: Ploughshares New York

in the memo of your check write: Riverside Ploughshares.

see: www.warresisters.org/riversideplowshares.htm

email: <kplny1@aol.com>