The Blood of the Righteous

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091905Y.shtml

 

The Blood of the Righteous

By William Rivers Pitt

t r u t h o u t | Perspective

 

Monday 19 September 2005

 

During the Vietnam war, a number of anti-war activists were

prosecuted and jailed for taking direct action against recruiting

stations and draft board offices. Files were burned and blood was

poured on records. Few activists during this time were as dedicated,

or as prosecuted, as the brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan.

 

In 1967, Philip Berrigan poured his own blood on Selective Service

records in Baltimore, and handed out Bibles while waiting to be

arrested. In 1969, Berrigan used home-made napalm to incinerate 378

draft files in Catsonville, Maryland. In 1980, the Berrigan brothers

entered a General Electric nuclear missile factory in Pennsylvania,

hammered on the nose cones, again poured their own blood, and again

were arrested.

 

In every instance, the Berrigan protest actions were grounded in

their Christian beliefs. Both brothers were Roman Catholic priests.

After the 1969 Catsonville action, Philip Berrigan said, " We confront

the Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of

America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's

crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this

country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the

poor. "

 

As the American people grew more and more hostile towards the

Vietnam war, actions of conscience taken by people like the Berrigan

brothers became more and more threatening to those in government who

wished to see the war continue. Punishments became harsher, threats

became more dire, all in an effort to derail a popular wave of

resistance against the war, and against those who pushed the war.

 

The wheel has come around again.

 

Today in New York, a Federal trial has begun against four anti-war

activists who went into an Ithaca recruiting office on St. Patrick's

Day in 2003 and poured their own blood on the walls, windows and the

American flag. The protesters - Daniel J. Burns, 45; Clare T. Grady,

46; her sister, Teresa B. Grady, 40; and Peter J. De Mott, 58 -

believed the young would-be recruits in the office had been seduced by

video games and government propaganda videos, and wanted to remind

them what war was really about. All four opposed the invasion and

occupation of Iraq. All four are members of the Catholic Worker

movement, and model their activism after their heroes, the Berrigan

brothers.

 

" War is bloody, " said the four protesters in a statement they read

after their action in Ithaca. " The blood we brought to the recruiting

station was a sign of the blood inherent in the business of the

recruiting station. Blood is a sign of life, which we hold to be

precious, and a sign of redemption and conversion, which we seek as

people of this nation. The young men and women who join the military,

via that recruiting station, are people whose lives are precious. We

are obligated, as citizens of a democracy, to sound an alarm when we

see our young people being sent into harm's way for a cause that is

wholly unjust and criminal. Blood is a potent symbol of life and death. "

 

" Blood is the sacred substance of life, " they continued, " yet it

is shed wantonly in war. As Catholics, when we receive the Eucharist,

we acknowledge our oneness with God and the entire human family. We

went to the recruiting center using what we have - our bodies, our

blood, our words, and our spirits - to implore, beg, and order our

country away from the tragedy of war and toward God's reign of peace

and justice. "

 

This trial is not the first time the St. Patrick's Four have faced

prosecution for their 2003 action. Initially, they were tried in

Tompkins County for felony criminal mischief in April of 2004. All

four were offered a plea bargain to avoid trial, and all four refused.

The trial itself, to the dismay of the local prosecutor, became a

forum on the Iraq war. The four plaintiffs represented themselves.

After hearing at length the motivations and life stories of the

protesters, the jury in the trial deadlocked, with nine members voting

for acquittal.

 

The prosecutor knew he could not win a re-trial, and referred the

case to Federal authorities. Today, the protesters face a variety of

serious charges including damaging government property and conspiracy

to impede an officer of the United States. If convicted, the four face

up to six years in prison and fines of $250,000. Many fear that if the

St. Patrick's Four are successfully prosecuted, it will set a national

precedent which would allow non-violent protesters to be charged with

conspiracy in Federal courts.

 

So many aspects of this situation are compelling. One cannot help

but be moved by four people who went beyond protest marches,

pamphleteering and writing letters to the editor, and decided to take

direct non-violent action. One cannot help but be gladdened that these

four, representing themselves, convinced a jury that their actions

were not worthy of prison time. One cannot help but be terrified by

the implications of a potential Federal conviction of these four,

which would further marginalize the citizen right of protest in a time

when more actions, not fewer, are desperately needed.

 

Yet perhaps the most significant aspect of all this is the simple

fact that these four protesters are working to take back the mantle of

Christianity from the brigands and radicals who have hijacked and

polluted it. When men like Pat Robertson and George W. Bush are

allowed to stand as avatars for all things Christian, when hate and

fear replaces love and tolerance and violence becomes the chief focus

of the so-called faithful, it is all too clear that the words and

teachings of Jesus Christ have been subsumed by low people who have

more in common with the Taliban than with the fellow called the Prince

of Peace.

 

" Herein lies a riddle, " said Philip Berrigan about the very people

who have stolen Christianity and perverted it for their own ends. " How

can a people so gifted by God become so seduced by naked power, so

greedy for money, so addicted to violence, so slavish before mediocre

and treacherous leadership, so paranoid, deluded, lunatic? "

 

One day, perhaps, we will have a solution to that riddle and a

cure for the disease which birthed it. In the meantime, four Catholic

peacemakers stare down the barrel of a prosecutorial gun today in New

York. If you stand against the war, if you stand against the so-called

Christians who have so perverted both that religion and our nation

entire, if you happen to be the praying type, now would be a good time

to put in a word on their behalf.

 

William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally

bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't

Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.

 

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