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Mark Kenney Sentenced to 6 Months for Line Crossing at STRATCOM Last Aug 9 *** Don't forget that
Fr Jack McCaslin returns to Fed Court in Omaha for the same witness April 12th
------ Mark Kenney was sentence to a six month prison term today in Omaha Fed. Magistrate Judge Thomas D. Thalken. court room. Mark was represented by "pro bono" attorney & Catholic Deacon Chuck Hannan. Mark plead guilty. Mark's prior record of line crossing at Offutt AFB in which Mark has served a 30 day, 45 day and two six month sentences (the two six months sentences being given by Judge Thalken) played heavy in the Judge's sentence. The Judge said he respected Mark's personal convictions for peace but said Mark has many other option to express those convictions without 'breaking the law'. Judge Thalken readily admitted that any prison time given to Mark would not be a deterrent but only punishment. Yet the Judge sentence Mark to the full six month maximum jail time because of Mark's prior sentences. The Judge is allowing Mark to "Self Surrender", which means Mark got to go home today and wait until the Federal Bureau of Prisons assigns him a Fed Prison to do his six month sentence. This process takes between a month to six weeks. Mark will be notify by mail and or phone when a site has been assigned and he will have to 'self surrender' at the assigned prison. Mark can be contacted at: 402 598 2403 markfpeter@gmail.com --------------------- Mark read the following statement before being sentenced: Since my time in the military, I have struggled with living out my Christian witness in a world dominated by weapons of war and mass destruction. I wish I could say my witness was more consistent. Like many Americans, the 9/11 bombings in New York, city gave me great pause. Pope John Paul II had certainly made his feelings known, as to the lack of validity of our going to war in the light of the Just War theory.. But the silence of the pulpits of the Catholic church on the issue seemed deafening to me. I searched other churches through bible studies and services, and found the same thing. Most pulpits were treading very lightly around the message of the Sermon on the Mount. After all, Don't we know better?. Isn't our military the righteous one here? Isn't our cause Just? The Old Testament, Davidical idea that we can practice living out god's message and teachings while engaging our enemies in war, was back on track. The New Testament, Constantinian idea of making the world safe for the practice of Christianity, through war and conquest, was making a great comeback. Nothing of this reality seemed scriptural to me. After all, didn't Isaiah and Hosea and Zachariah seem to be sensing their current system was certainly in want of something? Weren't they dreaming and prophesying of a new reality to come? Didn't Mathew and Paul and the early apostles and evangelists seem to be saying that Jesus was the culmination of this desired prophetic reality sought for so many generations? Certainly John thought so. In the end, I have no choice but to accept the revelations of the early prophets, the early evangelists, and the teachings, and life, and death, and resurrection of Jesus, whom I willingly proclaim as the promised messiah. No other power or principality holds a candle to this. While I recognize that I am a flawed and sinful man, I can not stand idly by and watch the powers and principalities that be, butcher the Good News of Jesus the Christ, through slanted interpretations to false and violent, church driven theologies of acceptable violence, militarism, and war. If I am guilty of anything, it's that I desire to hold onto my faith in Jesus the Christ more than I wish to hold onto the the manufactured myth of the American Dream. If I am guilty of anything, it's that I fear God more than I fear the courts. For these reasons, I do what I do. For these reasons I will try to accept as faithfully as I can whatever the courts or society have in store for me. I have nothing further to say on the matter. For updates and support for both Mark Kenney and Fr Jack McCaslin contact: The Omaha Catholic Worker
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