A trip back in time: In 1971 Phil Berrigan and six others were tried in Harrisburg, PA, for conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and to cause explosions in heating tunnels in Washington DC. After a mistrial, with only two jurors supporting conviction, the charges were dropped. From J.Edgar Hoover announcing the charges to the conclusion of the trial two years later, the story was headline news.
In 1973 Jim Forest wrote a detailed account of the events that led up to the trial -- "The Harrisburg Case: The Berrigans and the Catholic Left." The piece was published in March 1973 by WIN magazine, journal of the War Resisters League. Recently a friend in Ililnois found the article, photocopied it and e-mailed it to Jim. Using OCR software, the text has now been been added to the "Jim's Essays" section of the Jim & Nancy web site:
http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2012/11/16/berrigans-caholic-left/
Can you imagine if they had managed to kidnap Kissinger??!! (I'm very glad to have that Time magazine cover added to the eclectic lore of louie. )
Thank you for the fabulous link. Thank you for the whole post, really :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of classic, don't you think Claire? Back when bold activism was still possible. Catholics are still demonstrating against the School of the Americas, but with Fr. Roy gone, I don't know if we have any clerical leadership in this country for activism any more. Wonder what Dorothy Day would say ...
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