There were several people from out of state in our troop, Sister Carol Gilbert, O.P., Sister Ardeth Platte, O.P. and Chrissy Nesbitt, all three of them from Jonah House (http://www.jonahhouse.org/) (as in the Biblical Book of Jonah), a spiritual community founded by the late Philip Berrigan and his wife Liz MacAlister in Baltimore, whose mission is to teach nonviolence and resist war, militarism and oppression. Dominican Sisters Ardeth and Gilbert are both well-known Plowshare activists against nuclear weapons, who have both been arrested and imprisoned for making crosses with their blood on, and symbolically striking the concrete silo of a missile with a hammer at a Colorado Minuteman III nuclear missile site in 2002. This was specifically in protest to the then pending attack on Iraq. They served 41 months and 33 months respectively in Federal prison and are considered "domestic terrorists" by our Orwellian government. I talked awhile with them as we sojourned up Little Creek and they shared their deep commitment to banning nuclear weapons and ending the culture of violence known as war.
We continued walking and walking up the south side of Little Creek Blvd, passing many businesses and individuals, several of the contingent, like George, vigorously handing out leaflets explaining today's and this week's actions and principles. Everyone we greeted on the streets was friendly and receptive, and we received quite a few positive honks of support from passing cars, although there were also a few negative insults or catcalls hurled.
Sometime after 11:00 am we were closing in on the intersection of Granby Street and Little Creek, which was more than half way to our goal. We stepped into a MacDonald's parking lot and, somewhat frizzled by now from the steadily rising heat, decided to eat lunch off in a tree-shaded corner. Someone cell-phoned our follow car, which would show up every now and then with water, Gatorade and fruit, which soon pulled up again to provide food for lunch, nothing extravagant, peanut butter and jelly, more fruit, some salad, granola bars.
It was at this point that Patrice and myself had to get back to our cars, Patrice to drive back home, I to go do some essential tasks for several hours before coming back. My goal was to catch up with them again as they approached NOB. So back they took us to the mall parking lot across from NAS where we gingerly crawled into our now oven-like cars and drove off.
At Naval Station Norfolk, Main Gate
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