Susan Crane's commitment to nonviolence

Ron Cassie, The Examiner
Aug 21, 2006 5:00 AM

BALTIMORE - Susan Crane's commitment to nonviolence is intact after her release this weekend from a Virginia jail.

The 62-year-old mother and Catholic peace activist returned home to West Baltimore 's Jonah House, a community mission founded by long-time peace activist and Catholic priest Philip Berrigan. Jonah's House is based on a values of nonviolence, resistance and community.

“It's wonderful just breathing the fresh air again,” she said.

Crane, arrested April 13 on Holy Thursday at the Pentagon, served 30 days in the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia following trial June 21.

About 40 protesters, speaking out against the war in Iraq, the United State's use of uranium-depleted weapons and the torture of prisoners, had nailed together an 8-foot cross and lifted a “prisoner” in an orange jumpsuit and hood into the air near the Pentagon Metro stop.

“A reminder that Jesus was also persecuted as a political prisoner,” said Crane, a Catholic laymember who has taken vows of nonviolence and poverty.

She was arrested inside the employee gate while asking military officers and staff not to report that day.

Crane's return Saturday to Jonah House, 1301 Moreland Ave. , on the property of St. Peter's Cemetery, was celebrated with a large thanksgiving lunch, prepared by Sister Ardeth Platte.

Platte and Sister Carol Gilbert, both Dominican nuns at Jonah House, recently were released from prison after serving several years in separate federal penitentiaries following a Plowshares action at a Colorado nuclear missile silo.

The Plowshares name is a biblical reference to the prophet Isaiah's vision of a time when swords “shall be beaten into plowshares.” While incarcerated, Crane was struck by the violence on television.

“I believe, as [the Rev.] Martin Luther King [Jr.] said, that darkness cannot drive out darkness, that only light can; that hate cannot drive out hate, but only love can; and that violence brings more violence,” she said.

rcassie@baltimoreexaminer.com

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