84 Year Old Nun Goes To Jail For Protest Break In [OPINION]

I remember reading the original story of three protesters including a then 83 year old nun breaking into a Tennessee weapons plant and wondered how it would turn out.

Yesterday the 84 year old nun was sentenced to prison for breaking into and defacing a storage bunker that held weapons grade uranium. Sister Megan Rice was sentenced to nearly three years in prison while the two men involved were sentenced to five years in prison.

When Rice and her activists accomplices broke into the facility they cut through three fences and reached the bunker which holds the nation's primary supply of bomb-grade uranium.  Once inside they hung banners, painted some graffiti and threw baby bottles filled with blood onto the bunker walls.

Officials say there was never any danger of Rice and her gang reaching materials that could be exploded but those same officials say serious security issues were raised by the break-in. Duh!  Ya think? An 83 year old woman and two 65 year old buddies cut through three fences...not one...not two but three fences, redecorated the place and it took two hours before anybody responded to the break in! How lame is the security at this place? This is the United States of America's primary supply of bomb-grade uranium and it took security two hours to respond!

What if it had been some foreign terrorists looking to make off with materials to make a 'dirty bomb'? What if had been some home-grown nutcase looking to emulate Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing? Two hours to respond indeed. Who was guarding this facility? I wonder if Corporal Schultz from Hogan's Heroes has some American cousins who were the low bidders on the security contract.

I have an alarm system at my meager home that blares an alarm to wake the dead if I mistakenly open a door without disarming the system. I would know immediately if someone entered my home and hopefully would be able to 'lock and load' to take appropriate action. Did this uranium facility not have some sort of intrusion alarm? Was there nobody on duty that night? Did a supervisor forget to post the assignment schedule? There is no excuse for a two hour lag in response time. This is bomb grade uranium we are discussing here!

Rice asked the judge for a life sentence I assume to put a spotlight on the reason she protested, but the judge decided three years would be enough. At 84 years of age that three year sentence might be life.

I certainly hope whoever was in charge of security for the facility will be disciplined appropriately and possibly spend some jail time for dereliction of duty.

In addition to the jail time Rice and her 65 year old accomplices were ordered to pay a combined $53,000 in restitution.  Maybe that 53 grand will be used to buy an appropriate security system or maybe a few watch dogs.

Sleep tight America....our national security is being safeguarded!