➤ CLARE GRADY, from p.10
like asking a monster to decapitate
itself. Just not gonna happen.”
Then I realized, “They’re not
asking the US government; they’re
doing it themselves.” It was so liberating.
That began a revisiting
of my family tradition, nonviolent
Catholic action. I saw it as not opposed
to other actions, like collective
bargaining and strikes, but as
something different, that can absolutely
energize a situation.
Back in Ithaca, I’d had a social
studies teacher, Mr. Kane, little
white guy, God bless him. He had
us read “The Autobiography of Malcolm
X”—he was the only teacher
in that school who’d do such a
thing — and had us watch footage
of Hiroshima’s atomic bombing.
Until then, it’d been pretty much
classifi ed. I’d already done some
study; I knew the dangers of nuclear
weapons.
Then in November 1982, my
19-year-old sister Ellen and my
21-year-old brother John did the
Plowshares 4 action at the General
Dynamics Electric Boat Shipyard,
in Groton, Connecticut. Going
The Grady family — Clare, her sister Teresa, her father John, her mother Teresa, her brother John Jr.,
and her sister Ellen — outside a courthouse in 1983, during a trial that followed a Plowshares action.
to the trial of my brother and
my sister, I saw so clearly how the
court was protecting the weapons
and shutting out the truth about
their mere existence.
So in November ‘83, on Thanksgiving
Day, I acted with the Plowshares
at the Strategic Air Command
at Griffi ss Air Force Base in
Rome, New York. It was the home
of the B-52 bombers we’d used in
COURTESY OF THE GRADY FAMILY
Vietnam to rain down death and
suffering. They were being refi tted
to carry fi rst-strike cruise missiles.
We hammered on the doors
of those bombers. Seven of us were
charged with sabotage and put on
trial in Syracuse federal court.
We were acquitted of sabotage
— which was huge, ‘cause it carried
25 years — but found guilty
of destroying government property.
Three of us women were given twoyear
sentences because we didn’t
have college degrees, and four
were given three-year sentences
because theyshoulda known better
— as insulting as that. Four
of us were sent to Alderson for 18
months. That was my fi rst time being
in prison.
What’s important for me is that
I was living my life. So when I
got out of prison, I came back to
Ithaca and worked at a community
kitchen, Loaves and Fishes, for like
17 years, while my kids were being
born. I literally went into labor
there.
When my kids were in their early
teens, I was part of this symbolic
action on St. Patrick’s Day in 2003
at the Lansing, New York, military
recruitment center, at the dawn of
Shock and Awe. We simply poured
our blood in a vestibule, right?
The feds indicted us and I ended
up spending time in FCC Philly for
that.
Racial Justice Essential
Then, in Ithaca, there was a
➤ CLARE GRADY, continued on p.23
UN
CK
LO your right to
health care before you get sick
your own doctor
access to affordable
medications 24/7
No health insurance? We can help. With NYC Care,
you can address your health care needs at NYC
Health + Hospitals facilities citywide regardless of
your immigration status and ability to pay.
Enroll in NYC Care and make
an appointment today!
1-646-NYC-CARE
nyccare.nyc
GayCityNews.com | December 3- December 16, 2020 11
/GayCityNews.com
