R.I.P. Peter De Mott - Presente!
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
press release 
Friday February 20, 2009 16:25
by Ciaron
News comes through of the sudden death in Ithaca, New York, of friend and anti-war resister Peter De Mott. Peter was injured in a work accident dying in surgery on Thursday night. Peter's death leaves wife Ellen, four daughters and many of us in the anti-war resistance community with heavy hearts.
Peter, a Vietnam veteran joined the Catholic Worker movement in Des Moines in 1979. In the 1980's, he was later a core member of Jonah House resistance community www.jonahhouse.org in Baltimore. Peter carried out the second plowshares action at the launch of a Trident submarine when he noticed the keys left in the ignition of a security vehicle. Peter transformed the vehicle into a battering ram to begin the disarmament of this enormous first strike nuclear warfighting machine. And with that a movement was born inspired by the original Plowshares 8 action.
Peter and Ellen Grady married and over the last two decades the extended Grady family based in Ithaca New York have been a font of hospitailty and sustained anti-war resistance. On St. Patrick's Day 03 (the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq) Peter along with Teresa & Clare Grady and Daniel Burns occupied a military recruitment centre in Ithaca pouring blood on recruitment materials. They were arrested, while on bail Peter visited occupied Iraq as part of a Christian Peacemaker Team. Here is a video of Peter in Iraq speaking to some US GI's in 2003
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lafPhb80dug
The consequent court case of the St. Patricks Day 4 ended in a hung jury. In early 05 Peter, his wife Elen, 4 daughters and 11 (in all) members of the Grady family came to Dublin to support the Pitstop Ploughshares on trial. On the eve of their departure all St Patrcks 4 defendants were visited by the F.B.I and hit with felonies for the original action. The jury trial that followed was transformed into a trial of the U.S. invasion of Iraq with Citizen's Tribunal on each evening of the hearing. The four were found guilty and sentenced to prison. www.stpatricksfour.org
Further photos and memorials can be found on the following websites in the coming days.........
Jonah House website memorial
http://www.jonahhouse.org/PeterDeMott.htm
CW Blog memorial for Peter De Mott
http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/in-lov...2009/
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Published: Feb. 20, 2009, National Catholic Reporter
"Peace activist Peter DeMott dead after fall"
By PATRICK O'NEILL
http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/3344
Dorothy Day CW House in Wash D.C.
In Loving Memory | Peter DeMott | January 6, 1947 - February 19, 2009
http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/in-lov...2009/
Published on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
"Vietnam Vet and Civil Resister, Peter DeMott, Sentenced in Federal Court"
by Katie Quinn-Jacobs
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0125-11.htm
Video of Peter and the rest of the St. Patrick's Four in Binghamton, NY just prior to their second trial:
http://essentialdissent.blogspot.com/2005/04/st-patrick....html
Peter's journey from militarism to active pacifism is covered by himself and recounted by an admirer, Linda le Tendre on her blog "Waging Peace"
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/letendre/
Here is an excerpt:
"While in Vietnam I attended Roman Catholic Mass regularly and on occasion would go to confession, as I had been brought up to do. As a dutiful young Marine who followed orders well, I had no idea that my work in Vietnam was helping to bring about the deaths of some two million people there, maim and displace countless others, and severely damage and degrade the local environment. That sad realization came to me only much later. While in Vietnam I operated under the influence of a training film my fellow recruits and I viewed in boot camp, which justified U. S. involvement in the war as a defense against communist aggression. (We were told the communists were struggling to extend their “evil empire.”) Like millions of other soldiers down through the course of history, we were taught by the power elite to look at ourselves as heroic patriots willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our native land and its cherished ideals."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/committed-life-pe...emott
Please Post far and wide! Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Dear Friends and Family ,
There is an obituary in honor of Peter in todays Ithaca Journal as
well as an article about the showing of the film, 'The Saint Patrick's
4' at a local Cinemopolis theater at 7pm both Tues and Wed. Ellen,
Peter's wife, wishes to offer MANY thanks to all for the loving care
the family has been receiving. We have an awesome community!
In Peace, Carrie Stearns
Here are the links.
http://www.legacy.com/theithacajournal/Obituaries.asp?P...01583
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090317/NEWS01...70309
p.s. Correction in the obituary as to how to make donations. Checks can be made
to the Ithaca Catholic Worker, memo: De Mott Grady family, 133
Sheffield Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850.
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