Letter To The Judge Who Sentenced My Husband To Federal Prison For Protesting Nu

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 belligerent 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. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1125-21.htm [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 27, 2006]

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