A Community Celebrates a Nun's Return after Her Protest Led to a Term in

Federal Prison.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.nun24may24,1,154030.story?coll=bal-local-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true



With a hammer, pliers and baby bottles filled with blood, Carol Gilbert and two other Dominican nuns defied America's military might three years ago, cutting through a fence to paint red crosses in blood on a nuclear missile silo in Colorado.

Released yesterday after 33 months in federal prisons, Gilbert returned home to Baltimore and a potluck dinner party thrown by friends. Her only regret is that she was locked up during the war in Iraq when peace protests were at a peak.

"I would do the same thing all over again," she said during the dinner at St. Peter Claver Church. "I know we acted legally, morally and with great love."

The bulk of her time - 22 months - was spent in the women's prison at Alderson, W. Va., which was made famous by fellow inmate and millionaire homemaking diva Martha Stewart.


Celebrating Gilbert's return were other protesters of nuclear arms and war, many of whom also have spent time behind bars for the cause. They met Gilbert with hugs and kisses, and compliments on her prison complexion.

<snip>It was on a hill in Colorado that she and Sisters Ardeth Platte and Jackie Hudson chose to make their latest stand against nuclear arms, according to news accounts.

They wore white mop-up suits emblazoned with "Citizens Weapons Inspection Team" on the back and "Disarmament Specialists" on the front. The point, the nuns said, was to argue that while U.S.-backed weapons inspectors were looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the United States was holding weapons just as dangerous and illegal.

The silo, referred to by the military as N-8, contained Minuteman III nuclear missiles. The nuns cut through the fence and with bottles of their own blood sprayed six crosses on the silo lid before pounding a symbolic hammer on it.

The nuns had applied their hammers before to fighter jets, spray-painted protests on an Air Force weapons bunker in Michigan and distributed leaflets at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County.

I somehow suspect that this woman would happily do the same thing to the front door of a Planned Parenthood office.

to really in favor of the peace and love stance of a carpenter whose actual words are seldon heard. I think that these gals have guts!

And it wouldn't surprise me to learn she's pro-choice, either, especially after reading 5thGenDem's post below.

I'm just sayin', the manner in which she pulled off her admirable stunt, painting a cross with blood she carried in a baby bottle, sounds like something a fundie whacko would do. It doesn't necessarily make her a fundie herself, but it's a bit of a red flag (so to speak).

I think you are on the wrong track. Why not do some research.

Baltimore Nun Released From Prison After Silo Protest
Nun Meets Celebrity In Prison, Cites Love For Children As Motivation

POSTED: 6:40 am EDT May 24, 2005
UPDATED: 10:21 pm EDT May 24, 2005

BALTIMORE -- A prison released Monday a Baltimore nun who damaged a nuclear missile silo in a peace protest. Though her protest has garnered attention, some have focused on a well-known celebrity the nun met while in prison.


WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Rob Roblin reported Sister Carol Gilbert is one of three Dominican nuns convicted of cutting through a fence and painting crosses in blood on a Colorado nuclear missile silo on Oct. 6, 2002.

A second Baltimore nun who took part in the protest, Sister Ardeth Platte, remains in prison, serving a 41-month term. A third nun involved in the protest, Jackie Hudson, was released from prison in March and returned to her home in Washington state.

For her part, Gilbert was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison. She lives at the Jonah House in Baltimore with other peace activists, and said she and others acted legally and morally -- and she'd do it all over again.

"We did this action before the present war in Iraq and we wanted to try to prevent that war by exposing our own complicity and our own weapons of mass destruction," Gilbert said.
~snip~
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4523447/detail.html?rss=bal&psp=news

They were both residents of the Dominican convent at the parish I attended in my -- well, not youth, but as a much younger man -- here in Saginaw. Mom was a pretty good friend of hers. And Sister Ardeth was a city councilperson here for two terms. I still have one of her campaign buttons.
Good to see Carol on the loose once again. She has a wonderful sense of humor -- which she needs in the business she's in.
John
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