Profiles in Courage – Three Denver Nuns

I was taught by Dominican nuns at Father Lopez High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. While you might say the nuns were brave to attempt to teach teenagers in the 1960s, none have shown the courage (and creativity) exhibited by three Dominican nuns who broke into a Colorado nuke site in 2002 and ended up spending years in jail.

The three nuns – Sister Ardeth Platte (70), Sister Carol Gilbert (59), and Sister Jackie Hudson (72) – now are trying to repay their court-instituted fines by holding a canned food drive outside the U.S. Attorney’s Office in downtown Denver. The nuns refuse to pay their $3,082 in fines because, well, the money will go to the U.S. Treasury and could be used to buy more weaponry. So, they plan to collect at least 4,000 food items on Nov. 28 and truck them the Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora.

"For me, it's a matter of conscience. It's a moral issue. 'Thou shalt not kill' means 'Thou shalt not kill,' " Sister Ardeth Platte told Washington Times reporter Valerie Richardson. "So we cannot give money to the military complex for that reason."

The nuns brought bags of food items to the U.S. Attorney’s Office last week as a down payment for the fines. They were turned away and told that the U.S. Government does not accept payment in cans of green beans and Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.

Jeff Dorschner of the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued this statement: "Donating food to help military families and others in need is a tremendously thoughtful act." The Washington Times noted that Dorschner’s office is keeping a running tally of items donated by the nuns' supporters, just in case U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blackburn decides to accept the alternate restitution. Last year, the judge rejected the nuns' initial plan to log community-service hours instead of paying damages, saying that the restitution must directly benefit the Air Force. Since the nuns are banned from entering a military site, they decided the best way to make good on their debt was through food donations.

In 2002, the nuns cut through a lock on a chain-link fence surrounding a silo near Greeley that contained a Minuteman III missile. The nuns, who described the protest as a "symbolic disarmament," tapped on the silo's rails with small hammers and poured baby bottles of what they said was their own blood on its cement casings. In 2003, Judge Blackburn sentenced each of the women to 30 to 41 months in prison, calling their actions "incredible and inexcusable" and scolding them for endangering the security teams that responded to the protest.

They face more prison time if they don’t pay the fine , or if their act of charity is not accepted by the powers and principalities.

If you want to help the "Peace Nuns Canned Food Drive to Benefit the Families of U.S. Air Force Personnel," head to downtown Denver, 1225 17th Street, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, and bring some food with you. You can get directions by going to the U.S. Attorney’s web site. You can call U.S. Attorney Troy Eid and give him a piece of your mind at 303-454-0100. Better yet, why not mail a can of food to his office and request that, as a public servant, he deliver it to the Good Sisters. You can also e-mail the office at jeffrey.dorschner@usdoj.gov