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Swords into plowshares: Nonviolent direct action for disarmament

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The first time I ever heard of Anne Montgomery, it was in the context of her jumping into, I think it was the Connecticut river, and beating on a nuclear submarine with a household hammer. I thought "Woah, what's that all about?." Eventually, I got to meet her. She was about seventy-five, weighed maybe 100lbs, five feet tall, dresed in a pink hooded sweatshirt and terrycloth sneakers, and just as sweet as you could imagine. That's sort of the jist of this whole book right there: things are not what they seem. Swords Into Ploughshares is a history of the Ploughshares movement- a nationwide faith-based affiliation of anti-nuclear and military industrial complex activists committed to non-violent direct action. Whew, that's a mouthful. What that means, very basically and slightly melodramatically explained by me is: a group of people that holds hands and prays together before sneaking into weapons facilities and disarming B-52's with cordless drills and such. Skillfully integrating elements of political analysis and theology the book left me with some inkling at its end of what was totally inconceivable to me at its beginning; namely, why this sweet little old lady would jump into an ice cold river and pound on a NUCLEAR SUBMARINE with a hand tool. (Other than the fact that she's insane of course, and I've talked to her, and she's not; a fact that makes the whole thing a bit harder to stomach, because if she's not crazy, and all the other people in the book aren't crazy, then there's some incredible motivation, passion, and dedication here that I have to deal with. Somehow. Cool. Yikes.)

The first time I ever heard of Anne Montgomery, it was in the context of her jumping into, I think it was the Connecticut river, and beating on a nuclear submarine with a household hammer. I thought "Woah, what's that all about?." Eventually, I got to meet her. She was about seventy-five, weighed maybe 100lbs, five feet tall, dresed in a pink hooded sweatshirt and terrycloth sneakers, and just as sweet as you could imagine. That's sort of the jist of this whole book right there: things are not what they seem. Swords Into Ploughshares is a history of the Ploughshares movement- a nationwide faith-based affiliation of anti-nuclear and military industrial complex activists committed to non-violent direct action. Whew, that's a mouthful. What that means, very basically and slightly melodramatically explained by me is: a group of people that holds hands and prays together before sneaking into weapons facilities and disarming B-52's with cordless drills and such. Skillfully integrating elements of political analysis and theology the book left me with some inkling at its end of what was totally inconceivable to me at its beginning; namely, why this sweet little old lady would jump into an ice cold river and pound on a NUCLEAR SUBMARINE with a hand tool. (Other than the fact that she's insane of course, and I've talked to her, and she's not; a fact that makes the whole thing a bit harder to stomach, because if she's not crazy, and all the other people in the book aren't crazy, then there's some incredible motivation, passion, and dedication here that I have to deal with. Somehow. Cool. Yikes.)