She has been arrested 40 or 50 times for acts of civil disobedience and once served six months in prison. In the Nevada desert, she and other peace activists knelt down to block a truck rumbling across the government’s nuclear test site, prompting the authorities to take her into custody.
She gained so much attention that the Energy Department, which maintains the nation’s nuclear arsenal, helped pay for an oral history in which she described her upbringing and the development of her antinuclear views.
Now, Sister Megan Rice, 82, a Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and two male accomplices have carried out what nuclear experts call the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex, making their way to the inner sanctum of the site where the United States keeps crucial nuclear bomb parts and fuel.
Last I heard was the the protocol was “shoot on sight’ of unauthorized persons penetrating nuclear weapon repositories.
I assume that this protocol is common throughout the nations possessing nuclear weapons.
Having learned from Mission Impossible and other reliable sources how easy it is to fashion masks and disguises, I suspect that if I were a security team in an area like this, I’d have shot first, before asking a lot of questions.
That being said, the Oak Ridge folks must be profoundly embarrassed that the security perimeter was so vulnerable.
This is an interesting study in recidivism. We know that after she serves time, she will continue to do things like this as long as she is able. Rather like the apostles.
Should a judge lock her away for the rest of her life, or acknowledge that she means no harm – letting her continue in her ways?