Antiwar activist Sister Carol Gilbert, released after serving a 33-month sentence for a Plowshares disarmament action, became friends at Alderson Federal Prison with another high-profile prisoner, Martha Stewart. Sister Gilbert was interviewed on Democracy Now! Friday:
AMY GOODMAN: On the issue of Martha Stewart, since she could have such tremendous impact if she spoke out [on] prison conditions, did she express an opinion on the occupation in Iraq?
SISTER CAROL GILBERT [PHOTO]: Martha is totally against the war in Iraq. There’s no question about it. And I think we need to understand that Martha is still under house arrest right now, and so, she still is very limited by what she is allowed to do and not do by this government.
More below from the interview:
More about Martha from Sister Gilbert’s interview on Democracy Now! Friday:
SISTER CAROL GILBERT: I did come to know Martha very well, and I think she totally understands now the injustice of the system and hopefully will continue to speak out and work to see that the system really needs to collapse. We’re not even sure it can be reformed at this point.
More on the conditions of her parole, and the action that led to her imprisonment:
SISTER CAROL GILBERT: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. We played a clip when you came out of jail on Monday, but wanted to ask about the controversy around Jonah House and the questions that were raised about you being allowed to return to your home after you served out your prison sentence.
SISTER CAROL GILBERT: That’s correct, Amy. I understand I have two probation officers, one in Maryland and one in Colorado. The problem with Maryland is that they did not want me to return to Jonah House and be living with felons. And there’s the question of restitution.
And it’s clear that the war making continues, and I will not pay any money, any kind of restitution, and so therefore, my travel, it appears, at least for the next three years, could be that I cannot travel outside the State of Maryland.
We have done alternative restitution, in that we have collected in our names over $120,000 to all kinds of wonderful charitable organizations and social justice organizations, and each of us has made our own contribution to the work of the prison, in the sense that I made over 25 pairs of mittens and sweaters in that for the poor of Alderson. Whether or not the judge will accept that remains to be seen.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain briefly what it is you did?
SISTER CAROL GILBERT: On the morning of October 6, 2002, the three of us entered a Minuteman three missile silo in northern Colorado to inspect, expose and symbolically disarm this weapon. We were trying to prevent the war in Iraq and felt that under international law, we had a responsibility to try to draw attention and to show the world that these are our weapons of mass destruction and for that the government chose to charge us with felonies similar to a sabotage charge.
[……………………]
JUAN GONZALEZ [a DN! co-host]: And your feeling, having spent that time in jail, protesting the war, to find that it’s still going on, it’s still — it’s still, the resistance is stronger than ever, and the determination of President Bush to continue prosecuting this war seems to be stronger than ever?
SISTER CAROL GILBERT: Absolutely. Just, in fact, what I would say is even clearer to me is just as the war continues on the international front and the corruption of the corporations such as Halliburton, we have the same thing happening on the domestic scene, only in this country it’s the prisons and the corruption and the illegalities of Unicore, and so many things go on in the prisons. So we’ve got prisons in this country and war on the international scene, and both soldiers and prisoners are disposable people.
Visit Jonah House‘s Web site to learn more about Sister Gilbert and other prisoners of conscience.
What’s really interesting about that interview is that Stewart never really gets it until she’s arrested and subjected to the injustices of the system herself. Then, she develops a conscience that she never had before she was imprisoned.
Regarding the soldiers, it’s getting more and more clear that it is the right who is playing politics with human lives, while the left is actually showing true compassion for the troops.
As outlined in The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, by Jerry Lembcke, the antiwar activists were actually the greatest supporters of the troops during the Vietnam era. While then, as now, some who oppose an illegal and immoral war condemn those in the military who participate in it, it was more often the case that many Americans were against the war because they saw what it did to their brothers, sons, husbands, friends. They, more than anyone, supported the returning vets.
The pro-war folks, embarrassed by their embrace of the war when it became obvious what a horrible mistake it was, wanted to forget the whole thing – including those inconvenient reminders of the war, the veterans.
As an Amazon reviewer puts it (very well):
(emphasis mine – and btw I have heard the part that I bf’d from a Vietnam vet friend many times.)
Lembke’s book highly recommended. Be prepared for how the right will spin our opposition to the war, and how they will treat the “inconvenient” veterans as they return home.
That’s why peace groups and veterans groups should ally both in congress and elsewhere. They may have little in common at first glance, but both have much to offer each other. Peace activists can learn about the suffering was war first-hand, while veterans can fight for a list militaristic state so that their children and grandchildren never have to go through what they did.
Regarding the right-wing tactics, expect more of the same. Dean’s World (NOT to be confused with Howard!) is still fighting the battles of Watergate; my feeling is he wishes the Post would never have broken the story.
We don’t know her feelings about the war because she surely had to keep her mouth shut before and during her trial … just as she does now. It’s neat, though, that she got to hang out with the sister. She’d rank right up there with the best cellmates a person could have.
to see Marthe in a red t-shirt, her head bowed slightly, giving us a raised fist?
Marthe, anti-war activist. That’s a good thing.
is that I left at 4 pm yesterday to celebrate a friend’s last day at her old architecture firm and her fabulous new job that starts Tuesday…
…and Susan wrote EIGHT articles while I was out frolicking.
How do you do it?
Writing has become addictive for me since I started blogging about the war. Some days, I will have only 1 or 2 articles, and then some days, I get on a roll and write one article right after another.
http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php?POSTNUKESID=6560a006588f2ee71f54ee4dd0efb397
This is a good site to check in on regularly-Veterans Against the Iraq War. I noticed today as haven’t been there in awhile that they have a peace sign up with a yellow ribbon on the peace sign…pretty cool I thought. Wouldn’t mind that for my apt. window.(I do have a multicolor peace sign hanging on my apt.door..which no one has ever mentioned to me)
Always lots of good articles and what is happening with troops in Iraq, health benefits for vets etc.
As for Martha, I hope she doesn’t forget what she learned about the prison system in this country and does some good when she is off her probation(deranged criminal of course that she is).