This is a response to the article titled ?Government murderers get more mercy than dissenters,? (CT, Feb. 2). The article laments the four-month to six-month sentences of four peace activists, compared to the 60-day sentence of a military interrogator.
Now, if you agree with the author?s viewpoint, that is your choice and your right. But personally, I was troubled by her referring to the ?over 500,000 children under age 5 killed by our sanctions.? Others can debate the legitimacy of the 500,000 figure. And the readers can decide for themselves if imposing sanctions on Saddam?s regime was morally wrong. For me, let?s just say the author?s statement prompted me to check the reliability of other portions of the article ? particularly the relative innocence of the peace activists.
It appears those four have quite a collective history. An example is Peter DeMott?s breaking into a Connecticut shipyard in 1980. While there, he stole a security van and repeatedly rammed it into the USS Florida, a nuclear submarine.
In 1982, he hammered and poured blood on missile hatches aboard the USS Georgia. Altogether, DeMott has been arrested over 25 times in his lifetime. Clare Grady, among other things, broke into Griffiss AFB, hammering dents into B-52 bombers and pouring blood on the engines.
Regarding their recent recruitment center episode, they didn?t just pour out their blood and then kneel down and pray. They splashed blood on the walls, door, floor, flags, a recruitment officer and pictures of soldiers. (In an interview, Teresa Grady described the soiled images as ?very beautiful? and the blood was just pouring down their faces.?) After the blood splashing, the group read aloud a statement ? including an exhortation for soldiers to desert.
Was their punishment justified? Now that you know the whole truth, decide for yourself.
