OpEdNews - Page 4 of Article: Keep A Clean Nose

Prior to that date I leafletted a bunch of cars down at the federal building, probably FBI vehicles and U.S. Marshal vehicles. I also leafletted down at the Cathedral - parishioners during church. We were going to be very open about what we planned - trying to force the Catholic Church to speak out about the targeting of nuclear weapons by SAC, the spending of billions on weapons rather than the poor.

Two days before the date the FBI hit Greenfields in a pre-dawn raid. They also went to Marylyn's home. She was able to lock them out while she called the media.

By the time she was taken out in handcuffs she was on TV.

Kevin and his family were not at Greenfields at the time. Ruth and I were in Norfolk visiting my mother.

Kevin remained out of sight for a few days and then re-appeared in a car driven by his wife, Laura, at the front steps of the Cathedral.

He was met at the curb by a welcoming committee of two priests: Fr. Jack McCaslin, a priest of the Omaha archdiocese, and Fr. Frank Cordaro, of the Des Moines diocese, and led up to the Cathedral past the media.

Kevin resumed his sanctuary action and eventually was arrested back on the front steps of Greenfields by several FBI agents. He went to federal court and to prison for one year.

Kevin and Marylyn challenged the FBI, the Omaha Catholic Church, the federal government, the United States military, the federal district court.

They kicked all their asses, actually, embarrassed them, stuck it to them.

They are American heroes for that, though we will never-ever read that in an American History textbook, unless we some day have a Truth Commission.

And it was all non-violent, creative, very brave.

In the 1960s the FBI was murdering Black Panthers, putting them in prison. The United States military was slaughtering millions of people in Vietnam.

There were huge demonstrations, marches, and things just kept getting worse. Nixon kept increasing the troop levels, the bombing.

What else were those people to do?

Well, also during those days the Berrigan brothers, two priests, took draft files out of a Selective Service office in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned them in the parking lot with homemade napalm. They went underground, then to prison. They did not harm anyone. They did destroy property.

In the film, one of the Weathermen mentions that for a family or a person in America at that time to just go about their normal life, getting job promotions, bringing home Dairy Queen birthday cakes, was also violence.

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Keep A Clean Nose - Watch The Plain Clothes