Pastor dihukum penjara? nampaknya bukan berita baru. Tetapi kalau ada 2 Jesuit uzur (61 dan 82 tahun) dihukum penjara karena aksi demo-nya, tentu menjadi berita yang menarik. Pater Stephen Kelly (61) dan Pater Bill Bichsel (82) dijatuhi hukuman penjara dan kurungan rumah akibat merusak pagar dan melakukan demo anti senjata nuklir di sebuah Pangkalan Angkatan Laut di Amerika Serikat. Mereka tidak sendirian, tetapi ditemani oleh "partners in crime" mereka, 3 perempuan yang sudah uzur juga yaitu seorang suster, pensiunan guru dan seorang pekerja sosial. Mereka dijatuhi pidana kurungan antara 6-15 bulan.
Semangat, idealisme dan kenekatan mereka bisa kita acungi jempol. Di usia tua tetap berjuang menyuarakan protes mereka.
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TACOMA -- Two Jesuit priests, a nun, a retired teacher and a social worker who cut through fences at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor over a year ago to protest nuclear weapons were each sentenced to prison Monday.
Jesuit priest Stephen Kelly, 61, of Oakland, Calif. and retired teacher Susan Crane, 67, of Baltimore, were given 15-month sentences, while social worker Lynne Greenwald, 61, of Tacoma, was given a 6-month prison sentence.
The judge gave lighter sentences to the two protesters who were over 80 years old. Jesuit priest Bill Bichsel, 82, of Tacoma, was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home monitoring, while sister Anne Montgomery, 84, of Redwood City, Calif, was sentenced to two months in prison and four months home electronic monitoring.
U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ordered Father Kelly taken to prison immediately. Settle was going to allow the others to report to prison next month, but they told the judge they might not show up, so Settle ordered that they be taken to prison immediately, too.
"I'm old enough to know that nuclear weapons are wrong," Crane said. "I'm old enough to have a grandchild and believe that all life is precious."
The five protesters were convicted in December of conspiracy, trespassing and destruction of government property for the Nov. 2, 2009 incident at the submarine base along Hood Canal.
Court documents say the group cut through fences to reach an area near where nuclear warheads are stored in bunkers. The weapons facility in Puget Sound assembles and maintains nuclear-tipped Trident missiles and other weapons.
The protesters put up banners, scattered sunflower seeds and prayed until they were arrested.
The five defendants said nuclear warheads stored and on submarines at the base are illegal under international, national and humanitarian law, but a judge prohibited them from using international law and the lethality of nuclear weapons as a defense. The trial hinged on straightforward charges relating to trespassing and property damage.
Kelly said in court they knew they were breaking a federal law to uphold an even higher law, and they need to shield people from these weapons of death.
Settle said he had to uphold the law, and sentenced the five to several months of federal prison time.
"The judge found that this was essentially anarchy," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Arlen Storm. "And if everyone behaved in this manner, society could not function."
Kelly told KOMO Newsradio before the sentencing that he was prepared to go to prison.
"I think it's really worth it," he said. "I have the solace of my conscience, as I think this is just one little step against nuclear weapons and someday we'll be free, and maybe not in my lifetime, but I have hope."
Montgomery said in a sentencing document filed last week that she and others have taken responsibility for their actions.
About 250 demonstrators gathered outside the federal courthouse during the sentencing.
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