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bananas

(27,509 posts) Tue Dec 31, 2013, 07:41 AM Dec 2013

Trial of anti-nuclear activists ends with unusual sentence

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Kansas City, Mo. - Defense attorney Henry Stoever meekly approached the bench of Presiding Judge Ardie Bland Dec. 13, complaining that security had refused to let him bring certain pieces of evidence into the courthouse: a full-sized wooden door with a banner proclaiming, "Open the door to a nuclear weapons free world!", as well as an array of picket signs.

Stoever was representing eight nuclear protesters on this unlucky trial date, and Bland, who had sentenced other nuclear activists to jail just two years prior, was the inauspicious icing on the cake.

<snip>

After listening to Stoever's impassioned closing argument, Bland invited the eight defendants to approach the bench. Offhandedly, he pronounced them guilty of trespassing.

"I volunteered to take this case because I've done this before with Mr. Stoever and I find it interesting," Bland said, in reference to the activists he sentenced to jail two years ago. "If you're not getting to anyone else, you're getting to me. I think you're educating, because every time I learn something."

The gallery murmured their approval, and the defendants nodded.

"I want to do something a little different," Bland continued. "I want to say, I totally understand the argument made about Rosa Parks. I've done a significant amount of research on the civil rights movement, and they all suffered the consequences. ... However, I think the more significant thing is that the world was changed by their actions. I can sit here before you, as a black man, doing justice."

Then Bland announced the sentence, shocking the courtroom.

"I want each one of you to write a one-page, single-spaced essay on each of the following six topics," Bland said. "Your responses will be attached to the court record, which is a public record. They will exist as long as Kansas City exists. My way will give you a chance to say what you want to say." (See sidebar below.)

<snip>

Read more: http://ncronline.org/news/peace-justice/trial-anti-nuclear-activists-ends-unusual-sentence

Local activists march to the Kansas City Municipal Courthouse Dec. 13 with a door that was entered into evidence. (Photos courtesy of Jim Hannah)

11 replies

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Trial of anti-nuclear activists ends with unusual sentence (Original Post) bananas Dec 2013 OP

"If you're not getting to anyone else, you're getting to me. I think you're educating, because every bananas Dec 2013 #1

K&R nt stevenleser Dec 2013 #2

the essay questions are interesting... druidity33 Dec 2013 #3

Great questions. Moral and ethical questions almost always require some struggle. marble falls Dec 2013 #4

Wow! He's ready for some more education! loudsue Dec 2013 #5

so am I. I would love to see their answers to those questions rurallib Dec 2013 #6

My responses sulphurdunn Dec 2013 #7

"The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable." AtheistCrusader Dec 2013 #8

This is great, with a capital G. Th1onein Dec 2013 #9

One of the defendants made a video essay and put it online alcibiades_mystery Dec 2013 #10

I loved that song and that movie. Good find. n/t freshwest Jan 2014 #11

bananas

(27,509 posts)

1. "If you're not getting to anyone else, you're getting to me. I think you're educating, because every

Reply to bananas (Original post)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 07:51 AM

Dec 2013

"If you're not getting to anyone else, you're getting to me. I think you're educating, because every time I learn something."

<snip>

"I want to say, I totally understand the argument made about Rosa Parks. I've done a significant amount of research on the civil rights movement, and they all suffered the consequences. ... However, I think the more significant thing is that the world was changed by their actions. I can sit here before you, as a black man, doing justice."

That's what it's all about.
Keeping an open mind, having honest conversation, learning from each other, changing the world.

stevenleser

(32,886 posts)

2. K&R nt

Reply to bananas (Original post)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 09:27 AM

Dec 2013

druidity33

(6,446 posts)

3. the essay questions are interesting...

Reply to bananas (Original post)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 09:42 AM

Dec 2013

1. If North Korea, China or one of the Middle Eastern countries dropped a nuclear bomb on a U.S. city tomorrow, would that change your opinion about nuclear weapons?

2. If Germany or Japan had used nuclear weapons first in World War II, do you think that would have changed your opinion?

3. What would you say to those who say, "If we [the U.S.] do not have the big stick, that is, if we get rid of our nuclear weapons, and other countries develop nuclear weapons, then we do not have the opportunity to fight back"?

4. You defendants say you are Christians and one is a Buddhist. Fr. [Carl] Kabat says that you should disobey ungodly laws. How do you respond to someone who believes there is no God? Who is to say what God believes, for example, when Christians used God to justify slavery and the Crusades?

5. How do you respond to those who have a God different from you when they argue that their religion is to crush others into dust?

6. Who determines what "God's law" is, given the history of the USA and the world?

K&R

marble falls

(57,097 posts)

4. Great questions. Moral and ethical questions almost always require some struggle.

Reply to druidity33 (Reply #3)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 10:37 AM

Dec 2013

loudsue

(14,087 posts)

5. Wow! He's ready for some more education!

Reply to druidity33 (Reply #3)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 10:41 AM

Dec 2013

So are his defendants. Very good.

rurallib

(62,416 posts)

6. so am I. I would love to see their answers to those questions

Reply to loudsue (Reply #5)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 10:47 AM

Dec 2013

But I will forget about this thread in about 2 minutes and will unlikely ever revisit it.

sulphurdunn

(6,891 posts)

7. My responses

Reply to druidity33 (Reply #3)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 10:55 AM

Dec 2013

1. No
2. No
3. The idea is to get rid of all the nuclear weapons.
4. What does God have to do with it?
5. Couldn't care less about it, unless you try to do it. Then you get crushed.
6. Priests do. Business can better be blamed for history. God's law is just its servant.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)

8. "The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable."

Reply to bananas (Original post)

Tue Dec 31, 2013, 12:49 PM

Dec 2013

This judge has my respect. He has given them a voice, that will be maintained as public record, possibly forever. I hope they use it well.

(I realize Bastiat is more than a little bit of a libertarian, who would burn down social safety nets, but I wholly agree with his line of logic here (and in fairness, he's attacking corporatism/cronyism here too):

"No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree. The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.

The nature of law is to maintain justice. This is so much the case that, in the minds of the people, law and justice are one and the same thing. There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are "just" because law makes them so. Thus, in order to make plunder appear just and sacred to many consciences, it is only necessary for the law to decree and sanction it. Slavery, restrictions, and monopoly find defenders not only among those who profit from them but also among those who suffer from them.")