50 denied entrance to Andrews Air Force Base
at Catonsville 9 at 40 Anniversary
Slide Show of Peace Presence at Andrews AFB Air Show Saturday May 17, 2008 http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets/72157605124966095/
More than fifty people - including Catholic Workers from many communities, Vietnam and Iraq War veterans, activists from the Baltimore area – were denied admittance into the annual Air Show at Andrews Air Force Base http://www.jsoh.org/index1.html in Maryland today for wearing "offensive" t-shirts. Most of the objectionable shirts read "War Is Not a Game," "No War," and "Love One Another."
This year's admission to the famous annual show required several thousand spectators to wait in line for at least two hours in the Fed Ex Arena parking lot near the base for authorized shuttle rides onto the base. All spectators were required to go through a military security screening station before boarding a shuttle. While those with peace t-shirts waited in line several hours without incident, when they arrived at the check-point, they were told they were banned from the shuttle because they were considered a "potential threat" to security. A management spokesman from Fed Ex Arena, flanked by six Police Officers told the group they would have to leave the Fed Ex property for that day. Although Susan Crane, with the Jonah House, a Peace and Justice Community in Baltimore, told the Fed Ex manager, the group planned no protest legal or illegal and intended that their shirts be their only witness, the manager told her his orders were clear. Further he said, no one suspected of any affiliation with Jonah House would be allowed into the show and alluded to the Gods of Metal Plowshares Action that had taken place on the base ten years earlier.
On May 17, 1998, Plowshares activists Dominican Sisters Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte of Jonah House http://www.jonahhouse.org/ ; Fr. Larry Morlan diocesan priest from IL, Fr. Frank Cordaro, a diocesan priest from IA, and Kathy Boylan from the Dorothy Day CW House in Wash. DC, as part of their "Gods of Metal Plowshares" witness, took hammers and blood to a B52 bomber on display during Andrews annual Air Show. (Gods of Mental Plowshares slide show http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets/72157603942604915/ )
After being denied admission on the shuttle, the group moved and held a vigil beside a wide thorough-fare leading into the event with banners that read "War Is NOT a Game: Love One Another." Most of the group was in Baltimore to honor the 40th anniversary of the Catonsville 9. http://www.jonahhouse.org/catonsville40/index.htm
On May 17, 1968, nine peace makers entered the Selective Service Office in Catonsville and quickly gathered 378 1-A draft files in wire baskets, then took them to the parking lot and immolated them with a homemade version of napalm. They prayed quietly over the burning papers until the police arrested them 15 minutes later. They were: Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest; his brother Father Philip Berrigan, a Josephite priest; Bro. David Darst; John Hogan, a former Maryknoll brother; Tom Lewis, an artist; Marjorie Bradford Melville; her husband, Thomas Melville, former Maryknoll nun and priest; George Mische; and Mary Moylan.
Among those present at Saturday's commemoration were Liz McAlister and Frida Berrigan (widow and daughter of Phillip Berrigan) as well as members of the 1998 Plowshares Action, Kathy Boylan and Frank Cordaro.