culture fix

three men protested the us stockpiling of wmds by dressing up as clowns, breaking into a nuclear missile launch facility in north dakota and putting up peace banners. they were sentenced to a combined three years in prison and ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution to the government. i guess the lock they broke on the chain link fence was installed by haliburton. one of the men is a catholic priest in his 70's, the other two (one a former naval officer) in their fifties.

The judge challenged Greg Boertje-Obed's decision to take actions that risked a year in prison instead of staying home with his family. "Why would one leave a wife and daughter at home to engage in juvenile acts of vandalism to protest nuclear weapons? I would think your commitment to your family should far outweigh your calling to such actions." Greg's wife, Michelle Naar Obed, was in the courtroom during this exchange. After the sentencing was over, Michelle shook her head and said, "If Greg had left us his for a year and risked his life to go to war to kill people, no one would question him - they would call him a hero! But, because he risked time in jail to act out his convictions for peace, people question his commitment to his family. That is a tragedy."