Spoke to 3 of the defendants on the phone last night

I called the crew in Tacoma, Washington state/USA. last night and spoke to three of the defendants. They were all in good form. Also spoke to Catholic Workers who had traveled up the west coast (George Manly who I was at L.A.C.W. with in '89, he then spent 3 years founding a CW in Mexico and now at CW in Guadalupe/ California) and over from the east coast (Kathy Boylan from the D,C, C.W.) both George and Kathy are former anti-war prisoners themselves so they know the signiicance of solidarity.

Spoke to Lynn Greenwald, she has been living on the west coast for 20 years after being at Jonah House in the '80's. Jonah House founded in the mid-70's by anti-Vietnam War resisters the late Phil Berrigan and Liz McAlister has been the major hub of the plowshares movement for the past 30 years. Many people, like myself and Lynn, who passed through Jonah House went to prison for nonvioent resitance to U.S. wars and war preparations. Lynn was there in the '80's and I was there '87 and '89, when Jonah House was located in a Baltimore row house - where all the Berrigan kidz were born in the house and raised. Lynne has been focused on the Trident Base at Bangor, Washington state, for quite some time. She was upbeat on the phone and grateful that we are heading to London's U.S. embassy today as they head to jail - for saying with their lives and liberty, NO to Trident and nuclear weapons.

Spoke to defendant Susan Crane similarly upbeat. Susan was a teacher in California for years before moving to Jonah House which itself relocated into a dormant (is that the right word?) 20+ acre old Irish cemetery in Baltimore.
 http://jwww.onahhouse.org
If you are familiar with the series "The Wire" that is the neighborhood where the series is set and fimed and where Baltimore Catholic Worker hospitality house is located and Jonah is not far from that. Susan expressed gratitude for the solidarity work we are doing around Bradley Manning and Julian Assange in England..

The second time I called back, Bill "Bixchell was in the house, great man that he is. Bill was ordained a Jesuit in Berlin "before the wall went up"! He he is into his '80's and lives and works at the Tacoma Catholic Worker and has done a lot of jail time previously for nonviolent resistance against nuclear weapons and the School of the Americas  http://soaw.org In one jail he was previously in, in Washington state, he could actually see the seminary in which he was trained! Bill is a long time member of the International Workers of the World (I.W.W.) and carries some of Joe Hill's ashes! Bill was happy that his Jesuit provincial had attended a solidarity mass yesterday with them, where the provinicial spoke strongly against nuclear weapons, if not that enthusiastic that two of his Jesuits are heading to jail again. (Fr. Steve Kelly SJ another Disarm Plowshares defendant has been recommended a 3 year sentence or this action!)

Bill stayed with us in Dublin and attended a PItstop Ploughshare pre-trial hearing, blessing us as we went into court (that worked, we got acquitted!). He also tavelled to Derry to attend a pre-trial for the Raytheon 9. Bill has a great sense of humour a expressed in this satirical clip from the "Seattle Times" dealing with their action.
 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/video/mediac...80001

Fr. Steve Kelly S.J., I didn't get to speak to and have never met. Steve is a long time anti-war resister and has done a lot of jail time, much of it in solitary for nonviolent nonco-operation with the prison industrial complex.

Also didn't get a chance to speak to Sr. Anne Montgomery RSCJ, who I met many times while I lived in the U.S. '87 and '89-'93. Anne is a wonderful woman, the daughter of an admiral in the U.S. Navy. Like Bill, Anne is in her '80's and I recall a conversation about her growing up in San Diego and the advent of television (it's all been downhill for us all from there!) She worked for many years as a teacher in Harlem and more recently lived for many years with the Christian Peace Maker Team in Hebron where she was well respected by local Muslims, Jewish solidarity activists, christians and secular activists of the I.S.M.

Great crew of people heading to jail today for resisitng the nuclear weapons that many of us have learnt to live with and don't even acknowledge the existence of. If you would like to send a solidarity letter or postcard to any of these individuals send it c/-
Jonah House
1301 Moreland Ave
Baltimore,
Maryland 21216
U.S.A.............the folks there will add the federal prison number and redirect it to the jail the plowshares activist is in!