Statement before Sentencing

Ardeth Platte O.P.

In front of the Federal District Court House on July 25, 2003

While we were at home at Jonah House, we opened our liturgy with the music, "Here I am God. Is it I God? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go God, if You lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." We closed the liturgy with: "Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow Me and I will give you rest." Faith and the words of the stanzas to these hymns record keynotes in my journey of life -

in waging peace, led on a quest for a world without war ever again,
in an attempt to stop the crimes and sins of government in my name,
in disarming weapons of mass destruction and stopping the merchant-sales of the killing machines and
       technology sold to other nations,
and in calling for a design of a global economy that will assure people in the entire world all basic human
       necessities of food, shelter, education and health care, etc.

With a vision for disarmament, a mandate to speak truth, and a mission to halt the sinfulness, illegality and criminality being touted in my name , I march to the Drummer of my soul Who instills faith rather than fear, trust not hopelessness, and love instead of hatred and enemy relationships made through endless threats, innuendos, propaganda, and permanent war making.

This journey has included numerous direct actions over decades: forums, vigils, lobby, processions, demonstrations, boycotts, and civil resistance in various areas of the country. Our social analysis, along with the need to unmask urgent and sometimes secretive matters, has led me into nonviolent symbolic public actions of resistance, such as:

1. Christ lives, disarm! Easter Sunday, 1992...entered into a nuclear bunker.
2. Weep for Children Plowshares, 1996...at the launching of the 18th Trident.
3. Gods of Metal Plowshares, 1998...bomb bay area of a B-52 used in Iraq.
4. Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares, 2000...the Milstar receiver and an F-18 used in bombing Iraq.
5. Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II, 2002...Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile at N8, threatened and prepared to be used.

Sisters Carol, Jackie and I believe that we had a responsibility to inspect, expose, and symbolically disarm this weapon of mass destruction to avert a crime of our government and uphold the laws of the United States, not break them. Don't people claim today that the citizens of Germany should have blocked the trains carrying people to the crematoriums, dismantled the ovens, or done something to stop the mass murder of people by Hitler? How will future generations judge all of us?

I find the charges in the Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II bogus. Ours was a simple, measured, nonviolent, symbolic action wherein the liturgical rituals were crystal clear.

What were the fears within the prosecutor to call for an in limine motion that silenced us on all the laws so pertinent to the threats to use the Minuteman III? What fears were within the judge to grant the silencing?

Being stripped of our law defenses made the trial a farce.

The elements of the charges were not substantiated beyond a reasonable doubt by the prosecutor. The jury did not recognize the ongoing change in the wording of the charges throughout the trial: from an indictment under sabotage by a grand jury, citing a specific intent to obstruct the national defense, then use of vandalism and trespass, and finally use of destruction of national defense premises recorded on the verdict form. Even the government's witnesses claimed under oath that the national defense was never jeopardized. How can a national offensive first strike weapon be launched as a national defensive weapon? Deliberation by the jury seemed brief and without researching answers to the complexities in such a serious case. Are we charged with sabotage? Yes! Isn't that the reason I face 92 to 115 months in prison?

Could peacemakers' lives be that expendable?
Will the punitive measures taken against dissenters, enforced under Patriot Bills I and II, be so
       harsh that any lawlessness on the part of government officials will go unchallenged in the future?
Who will be courageous enough to reveal the lies and stop the murderous conduct in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Who will demand an end to U.S. interventionism?
Who will stand in behalf of the people contaminated by depleted uranium?
Who will be there for prisoners illegally detained in Guantanamo?
Who will teach the treaties and U. S. Constitution and who will demand the implementation by every court of the land?
Who will bring nonviolence into the forefront for conflict solving?

The sentencing consequences are exaggerated; the prosecutor and probation offices' research is skewed. Why would multi-hundreds of letters and more than 1,000 solidarity communications have no effect for downward departure? Why has the prosecutor's statements to the press been considered acceptable - that a long sentence for us will deter others. Four Plowshare actions have been carried out since ours - one on Memorial Day on the USS Philippine Sea with the use of blood poured out on the bomb hatches and hammers used in the same symbolic way? Yet no charges were brought forth.

How will we wage the struggle together to keep democracy alive, to bring our nation from its killing mode to a life-giving mode, to keep the tenets of the Beatitudes, Commandments and Sermon on the Mount practiced by the nation as well as by us as individuals? Tomorrow's direct action at the silos and bases to inspect, expose and demand disarmament is a bold and worthy beginning. We join you in spirit with deepest gratitude. Whatever sentence I receive today will be joyfully accepted as an offering for peace. With God's help it will not injure my spirits. In the sacred moments or years of imprisonment, I will remain with you in prayer and walk together with you for the good of all humanity and creation. My love and gratitude always.