Activist Sister Megan Rice attends a rally by supporters before her trial with fellow anti-nuclear weapons activists in Knoxville.Sister Megan Rice is as sweet looking at 84 as her name sounds. But don’t let that fool you.
She has been arrested 40 or 50 times for acts of civil disobedience, and on July 28, 2012 – a quiet Saturday – she and two other aging peaceniks shocked America by carrying out what nuclear experts called the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex.
With flashlights and bolt cutters, they made their way to the inner sanctum of the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation known as the Y-12 National Security Complex where the U.S. keeps crucial stores of uranium and nuclear bomb parts – an area dubbed the Fort Knox of Uranium.
They were not there as terrorists or to steal or detonate anything. Once there, they read scriptures and splashed blood on the new windowless, half-billion dollar altar to war – a bunker encircled by giant guard towers, razor wire, armed guards, video cameras, motion sensors and signs that read “Deadly force is authorized.”
Rather than looking to make a bomb, they were looking to make a point. One of peace.