Author: Jo Beall

creating a culture of peace is so singing every on of my wild cells and it just comes to me that today is the day almost six decades ago that JFK gave his peace speech to some young graduates which is probably bringing to consciousness another peacemaker who’s devoted and devotes so much life to waging peace…

so much is packed into every day and being out of linear time it seems i often am writing a day or so behind which is the case today as i want to illustrate peace and creating a culture of peace with a snapshot from the life of an octogenarian and revered elder of the American peace movement who was last sentenced on justice june 8, 2020 to time served for her part with six other Catholic peace activists in the April 4, 2018 Kings Bay Plowshares nonviolent direct action for nuclear disarmament… Elizabeth McAlister, age 80 at the time of the sentencing and the widow of Phillip Berrigan, had already spent more than 17 months in Georgia county jails following her arrest…

Elizabeth McAlister told the court that she had spent much of her adult life speaking and writing against weapons of mass destruction as contrary to life and destructive of life on every level. The action she took to address this crime against humanity and the earth “came out of years of training in the ways Jesus taught us,” and as instructed by the prophet Isaiah, to beat swords into plowshares.

“I’ve tried to faithfully follow the prophecy of Isaiah – learning how to live humanly with other human beings in a humane environment…”

she concluded by saying that it’s because of her children and grandchildren that she feels compelled to act. “I don’t apologize for it. I had to follow my conscience and my faith.”

i want to conclude this posting on a culture of peace with liz’s daughter’s statement to the court and the cosmos:

“Good morning, friends, My name is Frida Berrigan and I am here to speak on behalf of my mom, Elizabeth McAlister, one of the co-defendants in the Kings Bay Plowshares. I’m here in New London, Connecticut with my husband Patrick and our three kids, Liz’s grandchildren – Madeline, 6; Seamus, 7; and Rosena, 13. My brother Jerry is also here, with his wife, Molly and Liz’s other 3 grandchildren, Leah, 10; Jonah, 13 and Amos, 16. My sister Kate and her partner Karen are also here. They are now Liz’s roommates and live up the street a few blocks.

We are all here to love and support and stand with (sit with, here anyway) Liz as she has sat and stood, loved and supported so many over the last 45-50 years of her life as a nonviolent anti-nuclear activist, ally to those struggling against oppression and advocate for civil and human rights. Last night, we all logged on to zoom to pray with more than 100 friends and family from around the country. We shared bread and wine and stories and drew strength from one another. So many of the names that blipped up would be familiar to you; friends who have written letters of support and love from literally every corner of Liz’s life; her family members, her fellow sisters from her time as a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary sister, people who have broken bread and broken laws with her over the last 4 or 5 decades, who lived in community with her — in and out of prison. Each of these letters attest to what you, Judge Wood and you, Prosecutor Knocke, know in your hearts and see with your own eyes: that our mother is a good and holy person whose only crime is to attend to the thrum and whisper of her conscience and not allow that still, small voice to be drown out by the blood thirsty screams and desperate caterwauling of nuclear preparations and constant war making. 

As her daughter, I could wish that her hearing was not quite so good. As her kids – my brother, sister and I – wish she had not spent 17 months and 9 days in your county detention centers. We would like to say enough is enough. She has paid too high a price already, and we who love her have paid that price too. But as a 46-year-old white citizen of a nation that is going to spend $720 plus billion on the military this year, even in the face of an economy smashing pandemic that has killed 100,000 people and laid bare the stark inequity and fundamental brokenness of every fiber of the social safety net, I am grateful that people like my mother are willing to stand up and say: “Trident is a crime.” As a 46-year-old white citizen in a country where white supremacy and militarized policing are so emboldened that Derek Chauvin can crush George Floyd’s life out of him in front of a crowd, in front of cameras, where the McMichaels father and son can gun down Ahmaud Arbery in broad daylight as he jogged through the streets of a quiet Georgia town, I draw hope and inspiration from white people who continue to invoke Dr. King’s framework of the giant triplets of racism, militarism and materialism… these weights that cripple our collective humanity.

I draw hope and inspiration from my mom and her friends who declare that “Black Lives Matter”, who wed their anti-nuclear analysis with an anti-racist ethos, and declare that the ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide. So, I am here as a daughter who doesn’t want her 80-year-old mother sent back to jail, and a human being who wonders how anything ever changes if people like my mom aren’t willing to take that risk. I’m hoping you agree with the government that Liz McAlister has served enough time in jail already and you’ll help our family close this long and challenging episode of our lives today by sentencing her to time served. I also hope that you will recognize that as a person who owns nothing but the clothes on her back and the water colors she uses to paint with her grandchildren, you will waive all fines and restitution. Thank you.”

may we all listen deeply to the still small voice inside as did Mahatma and Martin and Thay and Liz and on and on and act accordingly to create a culture of peace in this moment of eternity for all moments of eternity…

~