Activism Change

Elderly nuns go to jail for protesting U.S. training of right wing death squads

Question:

The sisters’ activism was stoked by their late brother, Ron, who spent years in Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s and recounted in letters to them the slaughter of native peoples by military death squads. He had also befriended Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assassinated. Several military leaders later implicated in the death squads received training at the School of the Americas. From Reuters, 6/26/01: http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20010626_257.html Elderly Iowa Nuns Trading Habits for Prison Stripes DUBUQUE, Iowa (Reuters) – Two elderly Franciscan nuns prepared on Tuesday to discard their habits and don prison garb for protesting at a U.S. military base that trained Central American soldiers later implicated in death squads. Sister Dorothy Marie Hennessey, 88, and Sister Gwen Hennessey, 68, who are also siblings, awaited a letter from federal prison authorities telling them to report to a nearby Illinois prison where they will spend six months for trespassing last November at the former School of the Americas, the U.S.-run training facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. The two activist nuns, from an Iowa farm family of 15 children, have been told they can keep only their eyeglasses in prison, though Sister Dorothy Marie said she hopes she can retain her hearing aids and medications. She refused a judge’s offer to spend her sentence under house arrest. "I’m not an invalid," the stoop-shouldered nun told the judge. "People are saying, in a funny way, ‘The streets will certainly be safer with these two off the streets,"’ said Judy Haley Giesen, communications director at the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family, a convent and retirement home for 425 nuns in Dubuque. The Hennessey sisters were among 3,500 protesters who marched onto the grounds of the base holding crosses bearing the names of slain victims of Central American death squads. They and other demonstrators who had already been slapped with warning letters banning them from the base were prosecuted, including a 76-year-old Des Moines, Iowa, woman. On Tuesday, the nuns fielded questions from network television crews that disrupted the normally quiet convent, where an activist streak is illustrated by a sign declaring it a "nuclear-free zone." Sister Gwen, who just celebrated her 50th anniversary as a nun, said the two expected to receive notices any day and hoped to join nine fellow-protesters at the penitentiary in Pekin, Illinois, where they planned to counsel other inmates. Though this will be Sister Dorothy Marie’s first serious brush with the law, she marched across the United States to protest the Cold War arms buildup while in her 70s. The sisters’ activism was stoked by their late brother, Ron, who spent years in Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s and recounted in letters to them the slaughter of native peoples by military death squads. He had also befriended Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assassinated. Several military leaders later implicated in the death squads received training at the School of the Americas. Harry

Response:

[nothing]

Typical misrepresentation. They’re going to jail for trespassing. —

Response:

[nothing] Typical misrepresentation. They’re going to jail for trespassing.

But why were they trespassing (that is such a convenient charge and so flexible)? Could it be that they had real cause like beCAUSE of daddy bush’s dirty tricks in central America which resulted in the murders of several of their sisters ????? Bert ~~ you carefully deleted Harry’s message so that we cannot judge what you call "[nothing]" and "typical misrepresentation". Why should we believe you?  I know Harry and I know that he is not prone to "misrepresentation". So I and others must disbelieve anything you say. You have seriously damaged any credibility you might have had. :~) In Politics, Moderation Is The Best Policy

Response:

@espmail.com: Bert ~~ you carefully deleted Harry’s message so that we cannot judge what you call "[nothing]" and "typical misrepresentation".

Something wrong with your newsreader such that you couldn’t read the pilfered newspaper article that "Harry" posted? Why would anybody want me to include the complete text of someone else’s article that they just read? You could just go buy a newspaper or look in an online source for the original, you know. The group known as "Harry" never writes anything original, but "Harry" has been known to make changes to the stuff he posts. —

Response:

With all do respect, gentlemen but you are discussing little and insignificant details. What should be changed is not how and when they perform a specific test but rather the system as a whole which currently is nothing but a mass murder industry which – like any criminal structure – gives no damn about anything but cash. People go into medical profession for money, patients’ well being is secondary at the best. Doctors fight insurance not for your benefit but to grab the bigger piece of the pie. In other words, whoever wins it’s not the patient. Only universal health care system can change it. And even when it is adopted, the process will take years if not decades and millions of directly or indirectly killed innocent people whose only fault is inability to satisfy unlimited greed of doctors and insurance companies. Now, I’ve heard the following argument plenty of times: "How can you say that doctors don’t care about their patients?!?". I’m terribly sorry but it’s a dumb point. Let me remind you about Dr. Gebbels or KGB doctors, etc. If you think they spent $400 mil. to kill Clinton’s health care plan just to make patients happy, try to get a procedure your insurance (if you have one) does not cover and you cannot afford to pay for out of your pocket. Where does the doctor’ care go? You will be either (most likely) denied care or – if the doctor is not busy – it will be performed but after that your family will be kicked out of the house. Don’t believe me  - try some day. Wake up people! Economic fascism is not much different from political fascism and health care/insurance alliance is a vital part of both. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – [nothing] Typical misrepresentation. They’re going to jail for trespassing. But why were they trespassing (that is such a convenient charge and so flexible)? Could it be that they had real cause like beCAUSE of daddy bush’s dirty tricks in central America which resulted in the murders of several of their sisters ????? Bert ~~ you carefully deleted Harry’s message so that we cannot judge what you call "[nothing]" and "typical misrepresentation". Why should we believe you?  I know Harry and I know that he is not prone to "misrepresentation". So I and others must disbelieve anything you say. You have seriously damaged any credibility you might have had. :~) In Politics, Moderation Is The Best Policy

Response:

Why should we believe you?  I know Harry and I know that he is not prone to "misrepresentation".

Sorry, but I didn’t see alt.comedy in the headers.  :O|

Response:

Filed under: Activist Activism

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