Carol Gilbert, OP
and Ardeth Platte, OP
Risking Time in Jail to Build a Nonviolent World
INTRODUCTION -- Carol's Poem
Peace and Justice Makers Early Years as Grand Rapids Dominican
Home for Peace and Justice Immersion in Nonviolent Resistance Mission at Jonah House
CLOSING -- Ardeth's Statement
Postscript
Order of Preachers
Dominicans
Dominican Preachers--
Itinerants, Mendicants, Beggars.
Dominican Preachers
We preach where we stand--
War zones, inner cities, countries made poor,
refugee centers, gun shows, air shows,
stockholder meetings, military bases,
nuclear-weapons sites, executions,
courts, jails, prisons,
places of power.
Dominican Preachers
Speaking Truth
Not with words but with actions--
Vigils, demonstrations,
boycotts,
nonviolent civil resistance,
recycle, live simply,
plant gardens,
live in community, beat swords into plowshares.
Preachers
Dominican Preachers
We contemplate. We remember.
We preach with our lives.
We create a culture of peace,
We risk all in faith.
Carol Gilbert, OP -- Lent, 1999
Kent County Detention Center -- Chesterton, Maryland
Peace and Justice Makers Par Excellent!
As shared by Elizabeth Walters, IHM
It is an honor for me to offer a brief glimpse into the lives of Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert -- who are peace and justice makers par excellent! They are women who make dreams and visions happen. They produce amazing results. The ability to collaboratively transform ourselves and societal institutions requires special people. Ardeth and Carol are special people!
Both are members of the Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters. Ardeth entered in 1954 and Carol in 1965. Each loves their religious congregation. Each is a deeply religious woman. Their prayer and faith-in-action are the grounding of their vision, values, and lives.
During their early years as Grand Rapids Dominicans, both women were school teachers. While teaching in Saginaw, Ardeth became one of the few Catholic Sisters in the country to be elected to public office. She served on the City Council of Saginaw for twelve years, and she was Saginaw's Mayor Pro Tem for two years.
In Saginaw, Ardeth and Carol established the Home for Peace and Justice. This analysis-reflection-action center became a hotbed for personal and societal transformation. People of power, influence, and wealth came to the center. Caring folks from every walk of life came, too.
Poor and oppressed people were especially welcome at the center because Carol and Ardeth understand what relationship and connectedness means. Also, they know that God relies on poor and marginalized people to maintain humanity's aspiration towards peace and justice and to awaken the conscience of people who are good and, at the same time, too comfortable. Some impoverished people came to the Home for Peace and Justice for emergency assistance to ease the burdens and misery of poverty; others came to participate in service activities on behalf of the greater Saginaw community; all came to contribute insight, talent, and gifts.
In greater and greater numbers, peacemakers from around the state of Michigan came to the Home for Peace and Justice. It was a time when nonviolent resistance communities were beginning to protest the manufacture and deployment of cruise missiles, and the Home for Peace and Justice was a gathering place.
When cruise missiles were deployed at the two Strategic Air Command Bases in Michigan, Ardeth and Carol felt the need to become more deeply immersed in nonviolent resistance as a way of life. So, they moved to Oscoda, Michigan, which was the home of Wurtsmith Strategic Air Command Base. They lived there three years. In Oscoda, they made new friends; daily, they went to the gates of the base to leaflet and to pray for peace and economic conversion; and they organized local and statewide folks to participate in large civil resistance actions at the base.
When Wurtsmith Air Force Base closed, Carol and Ardeth moved to Gwinn, Michigan, home of KI Sawyer Air Force Base. They lived there two years. In Gwinn, they made new friends, leafleted, prayed, and organized small and large civil resistance actions at the base.
Mission at Jonah House
When KI Sawyer closed, Ardeth and Carol moved to Jonah House in Baltimore, Maryland, where they have been since 1995. The mission of Jonah House is community living, serving the poor, caring for the environment in the inner city, and responding by action to the systemic evils of militarism. Often the Jonah House community turns to Isaiah 2:2-5 and to Micah 4:1-4 to express their vision for the earth community--
Come let us climb the Lord's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
That he may instruct us in his ways,
that we may walk in his paths.
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples,
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
On a regular basis, Carol and Ardeth and the other members of the Jonah House community go to the doors of the Pentagon. Also, they have been part of two Plowshares actions:
- Weep for the Children Plowshares group that disarmed a nuclear submarine component
- Gods of Metal Plowshares group that disarmed a B-52 bomber fitted with cruise missiles
Ardeth and Carol have been in and out of jail and prisons for the last 15 years as a result of their nonviolent civil resistance actions. With faith-filled passion and energy, they have continued their nonviolent civil resistance action on behalf of peace with justice! Thanks to these two remarkable women, we have a much greater reason to believe that the Pentagon's days are numbered and that transformation to a peaceable community is coming!
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CLOSING -- Ardeth's Statement
Gods of Metal Plowshares' Trial -- Sept. 23, 1998
It is evident, or should be evident, for all who have 'eyes to see and ears to hear,' that we have deep faith, informed by the poorest, our church, congregations, communities, prayer, and love of God, neighbor, and earth.
In our testimony we each gave the accurate version of our participation in a sacred liturgy of disarmament and transformation -- of "hammering swords into plowshares" on May 17, 1998.
We have also substantiated that we acted without willful destruction, a criminal act, but rather willful healing. We acted without malice, in adherence to law, both the law of God and international law. Nourished and informed by faith, conscience, and international laws, under Geneva, the Hague, Space, Genocide Treaties, Nuremberg Principles, and the World Court decision, we attempted to prevent crimes and eradicate violence and evil. We were completing a willful healing, certainly not a willful crime.
We have shown beyond a reasonable doubt our innocence and should be acquitted. The government has failed to prove its case against us in:
- any solid identification of us as defendants at the scene,
- proving any sense of malice,
- countering our right to act according to our understanding of the law, and
- proving the legality of the B-52.
We have exercised our right to stop/prevent crime under the supreme laws of the land.
We have given evidence through Francis Boyle, an expert witness, that:
- The B-52, which has nuclear and conventional weapon capacity, is an instrument of nuclear terror, holocaust, genocide, and radiation poisoning.
- It is illegal under international law, and we believe unacceptable under God's law.
- We as ordinary citizens, who for years have done every type of nonviolent action to prevent crime -- illegal, immoral, and unjust government actions -- have now disarmed the B-52 by nonviolent direct action.
- On May 17, 1998 we assumed our right under international law, and responsibility under God's law.
- We acted to prevent crimes, to stop its use, and the threat of its use.
- We acted to transform it, to reconstruct it, to make it proper/property for healthy and useful purposes.
- And, we acted to offer a strong plea to the military and weapons worshipers at this formal, annual military service.
Our witness and plea were for something better for our children than training with little guns and big guns for their 'security.' We plead for something better than violence and killing."
On October 6, 2002, the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, Carol and Ardeth -- together with Jackie Hudson, OP -- entered Minuteman II missile silo No. N-8 site in northern Colorado. Acting out Isaiah’s prophesy, "they shall beat their swords into plowshares," they hammered on the concrete silo lid and the tracks that carry the lid to its firing position. They were arrested and charged with sabotage and malicious destruction of U.S. property.
In a pre-trial motions hearing in Denver before Judge Blackburn on February 21, 2003, they stated: "The symbolic disarmament of the MM III at N-8 on high alert is a warning to the nation and the world that these 
horrific weapons are evil and criminal in the hands of any nation." Their actions were part of the Plowshares Movement.
Following their March/April 2003 trial, they were sentenced -- Jackie: 30 months, Carol: 33 months, and Ardeth: 41 months. in March 2005, Jackie completed her sentence. Jonah House, Carol's home, had a big celebration in honor of her release in May 2005, and for Ardeth in December 2005. Diane Carmen continued to report on their indomitable spirit.
You are invited to read Ardeth's Ponderings in Jail and Practicing Advent.
Pictures -- thanks to Carol, Ardeth, and friends
Top left Carol being arrested at the Pentagon (Aug 1995).
Top right Ardeth pleading the cause at the Naval Shipyards in Maine (Feb 1998).
Middle, top Ardeth praying at mid-80's Peace Pentecost gathering
Middle, bottom Carol and Ardeth demonstrating at Gwen Towers, near Lansing, Michigan.
Bottom Gods of Metal Plowshares action at Andrews Air Force Base (May 1998): Kathy Shields Boylan, Carol, Fr. Larry Morlan, Ardeth, and Fr. Frank Cordaro making their statements and being arrested next to a B-52 bomber.
Postscript: Jackie, Carol, and Ardeth entering missile silo site in Colorado (Oct 2002).