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I feel bad that Carl Kabat finds it necessary to protest, as he does, knowing that his actions will lead him to spend more time in prison. But his conscience demands that he acts, and he does. I think he wonders why more consciences don't make similar demands, given that we are living with insanely immoral nuclear weapons and most of us are hardly giving it a second thought.
It should be noted here that Kabat is a totally nonviolent person and none of his actions endanger any lives or cause anyone any harm.
Sometimes he splatters paint on a nuclear silo. Other times he'll take a hammer and symbolically dent a hatch. This time he showed dressed as a clown.
It is easy, very easy, to dismiss Kabat's actions. After all, the rest of us don't act as he does. Dismissing him dismisses us.
And while I recognize there is more than one way to work against nuclear weapons I think we owe Kabat some serious recognition. I suspect that Jesus would feel quite comfortable in his presence. They might have a laugh together before they cried.
Kabat lives with a lot of collective pain. We owe him a lot, even as we might prefer not having to think about why he feels compelled to act as he does.
