Good Friday at Beale. It was.

 It was good to be back at Beale after so much time away. Our friend Shirley, above, right, had just been acquitted and gotten good coverage for an earlier anti-drone protest. The day was warm and hazy with dust from the plowing for rice fields and distant fires but the land was still green with a sprinkling of wild flowers.

 Caroline and I rode down together (on bio-diesel) and were delighted to be in such good company.

 There was a Good Friday service that started off with the recognition of the power of the four directions and much about the fear and challenge of those last hours of the life of Christ for there was an analogy to our own times as things seem bleak now too. The songs of the Civil Right era with their contemporary verses lifted our spirits.

 And after a communion breaking of bread by a young woman minister 11 people gathered themselves and crossed the line into Beale Air Force Base with a letter to discuss with the Base Commander.

 Among them was Nobel Prize nominee Kathy Kelly who spoke to us about the suffering of the Afghan people impoverished and in refugee camps because of the drone strikes.... the examples of wounded children in agony and with missing limbs were sobering. A moving testimony and  indictment of a morally corrupt foreign policy of domination by robotic drones.

 I love the purpose of these people striding together into an unknown legal situation. They moved across this line, this arbitrary line, in order to put drone "warfare" on trial not to sacrifice themselves. If Christ was alive would he not be with them? (Below is Reverend Sharon Delgado of Earth Justice Ministries. You can read more about this day from her blog and from www.occupybealeafb.org. Learn more about Kathy Kelly's international work at Voices for Creative Nonviolence.)