Should have read 'a small powerful handful of people held signs'
Story by Nate A. Miller
Getting convicted of interfering with national defense taught Ardeth Platte a lesson about hypocrisy, the Catholic nun said Saturday.
“I’ve learned the United States of America is not ready to accept their own lawlessness,” she said.
On Oct. 6 , Platte, 66, and two other nuns, Jackie Hudson, 68, and Carol Gilbert, 55, broke into a Minute Man III missile silo off Colo. 14 about 10 miles west of New Raymer to symbolically disarm the United States.
Platte, who said the United States violates several treaties by continuing to keep and produce nuclear weapons, does not think the three did anything wrong.
“We really feel we should have been acquitted,” she said.
The nuns spoke to about 50 people who attended a dissent rally Saturday in Greeley’s Lincoln Park, 10th Avenue and 9th Street. The nuns thanked the crowd for supporting the cause.
“What I find so exciting about coming and speaking like this is seeing the age level,” Hudson said. “That’s where the hope of the nation is.”
The group — made up of people largely in their teens and early 20s — protested a mixed bag of issues loosely connected by opposition to the war in Iraq.
“I think President Bush and the administration is doing — I guess you would say — a good job of attacking many fronts,” said Corey Sampson, a member of the Greeley Anti-war Coalition and event organizer. “The more you can collectively express your grievances, the more strength comes from that, which is why this was called a dissent rally.”
Also in the park, a small handful of people held signs supporting the troops and the Bush administration. Larry Brung, who came to Greeley from Fort Collins to support the troops, said the dissent protesters have ulterior motives.
“For eight years with Clinton they did nothing,” he said. “Republican bombs are always evil, Democratic bombs are always just.”
Another member of Greeley Anti-war Coalition, Jason Rosenholtz-Witt, said he liked hearing the nuns speak.
“It’s really inspiring to hear the nuns’ story,” he said. “It makes me want to do more myself.”
The campaign to get rid of nuclear weapons is not new to Platte. She worked in Michigan from 1983-1995, where she lived at the time, to rid that state of the weapons. The campaign succeeded.
“We want every nuclear weapon removed from the soil of every country,” she said.
The nuns were convicted last month of one count of willful injury, interference or obstruction of national defense and one count of causing more than $1,000 in damage to property. They face eight-year prison terms.
“For some of us, who are older, it’s a life sentence,” Platte said.