Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison for Protesting
Nuclear Weapons
by Michele Naar-Obed. Michele is married to Greg Boertje-Obed who was sentenced
to a year and a day in federal prison in November 2006 for hammering on the
concrete lid covering the missile silo which houses the Minuteman III nuclear
missile. Greg and Michele are the parents of a 12 year old daughter, Rachel.
Michele and Greg and Rachel are part of the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker
Community in Duluth, MN. The author can be reached at obedsinduluth@...

Dear Judge Hovland,

Thank you for making the arrangements for me to visit Greg in jail after you
sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison. The jail officials had been
rather adament in their unwillingness to allow me to visit, so your intervention
made the visit possible.

At trial and again at sentencing, I noted your willingness to educate yourself
even beyond requirement about matters relating to the Weapons of Mass
Destruction Here Plowshare action and the 3 who carried it forth. I found your
openness rather exceptional and am confident that you will take these thoughts
into mind and heart.

I was rather dismayed to hear you berate and chastize Greg for being an
irresponsible father and spouse. Your presumptions about what we need from him
were not only erroneous, but beligerent and disrepectful. To call his
participation in this witness a "juvenile act of vandalism" is an insult to
every one of the Saints and Heroes who have ever taken a stand to protect the
sacredness of life. You had made it abundantly clear that you didn't agree with
their methods, an opinion to which you are entiltled, but to attack Greg's
integrity as you did was disgraceful.

Our daughter Rachel and I love and admire Greg for the stand he has taken to
make this world safer. Yes we are saddened by this lengthy separation, but we
are strenghtened by emotional and spiritual bonds that far transcend physical
ones. Those bonds are further deepened because we know the good and decent
intentions with which Greg acted. If you get an opportunity, take another look
at the picture of the banner "Swords into Plowshares.'' Rachel did the artwork.
The peace sign, flower, heart and smiley face were the hopes that she entrusted
her dad with to make present in the world through this disarmament action.

I recently watched a documentary about the scientists, including Oppenheimer,
who left their families to create the atomic bomb which was eventually used to
annihilate the people of Japan. Many of our history books refer to them as
heroes. After Oppenheimer realized what he did, he felt disgraced as a human
being, not only in his own eyes but in the eyes of his blood family and in the
eyes of the human family. When soldiers leave their families to go off to war,
they are referred to as heroes. Many of them come back feeling disgraced for
having left their families to kill other people's families. This is a feeling I
can assure you, that Greg will not have to live with nor die with.

Finally, I have to say I was quite disappointed in the defeatist attitude you
seemed to take regarding the efficacy of this action. You consistantly referred
to their action as a waste of time because it did not result in the elimination
of nuclear weapons. Again, you insult the lives of all who have ever worked for
the abolition of sins and crimes such as slavery, military occupation of
homelands, government sponsored oppression, etc. I believe you are smart enough
and well educated enough to know that it has sometimes taken centuries to
abolish such crimes.

Thank God for all of those that never gave up hope, that withstood years of
imprisonment, defamation of character, mockery, isolation and death in their
struggle to enhance the dignity of all life. Greg, Rachel and I will not let
those hopes die in vain. We stand with the sentiments expressed by Fr. Kabat,
that this action is not the only way, but it is one way and a way worth living
for.

Blessings on your life's journey.
In peace, Michele Naar-Obed

A full account of the plowshare witness and court proceedings can be found at
www.jonahhouse.org.