Who would have imagined that an 82-year old nun would do something like this? She was frail and tiny, weighing just 47 kg. In the early morning hours of 28 July 2012 Sr. Megan Rice and her two colleagues managed to cut barbed wire fences and enter what is called the Y-12 nuclear weapons production complex in Tennessee, U.S. It was here that the United States had stored all the depleted uranium stock, transported from Kazakhstan, after the fall of the Soviet Union. The nuclear weapons there were capable of destroying the world ten times over. The three anti-nuclear activists spray-painted the walls with anti-nuclear slogans, lit candles, prayed and sang, waiting to be arrested.
They had carried in their backpacks some bread, candles, four white roses, a copy of the Bible, a hammer and a statement that accused the U.S. government of harbouring weapons of mass destruction. When the first security guard arrived, Sr. Megan offered him some home-baked bread.
All the three were arrested, jailed and sentenced to almost three years in prison. In her testimony at the court, Megan said “I regret I didn’t do this 70 years ago.”
Fr Joe Antony SJ
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