Carmen Trotta’s Final Closing Court Statement
I want to talk to you about a couple of words.
Many of us have testified that we believe that Jesus is the word. Words can be very potent; they can pierce your hearts.
Two words in particular come to mind. The first is malicious. The word is often defined as evil, hatred with intent to harm. (I believe) you cannot harm inert matter. We did not act out of hatred and we harmed no one. We acted out of love, for, believe it or not, God & country.
The second word is depredation (some words added here). Depredation. That’s a big word, and I don’t want it to pierce your hearts. The word is derived from the word “predator.” Predators kill without conscience. It is their means of survival. They get something out of it. The (It) feed themselves. Again, we harmed no sentient beings, and quite plainly we had, materially speaking, nothing to gain from our action on April 4th (2018).
These words have special specific meanings in the legal process & Judge Wood will certainly inform you of them: I ask that you take those instructions in light of the evidence you heard from us.
II.
At trial you have heard some use of the word sacramental, and I don’t believe anyone has given you any sense of what that means. Briefly, a sacrament is a visible symbol of an invisible reality. And, every sacrament is a blessing. We left numerous signs; we hope you can read the “signs;” they are the signs of the times.
I want to harken back to the video sequence we saw of the dismantling of the Hollywood lights at the missile shrine, and the hammering on the brightly painted replicas of the weapons of mass destruction.
At one point, Clare Grady remarks that “this looks like vandalism.” She herself recoils. She wants the order, the delicate balance that we all seek in _(art?)_ in life. But the camera backs up and surveils the landscape, littered by the remnants of an alphabet – And there is the sign of the invisible reality. It looks like vandalism; it looks like a child’s temper tantrum; we intended it to look like the outrage of God.
That is, we hope this is the invisible reality we have made visible. The outrage of God at these weapons that may destroy (damage, deprecate, harm) his creation, and his beloved –ourselves.
And as I mentioned, evert sacrament is the bestowal of a blessing. The blessing we bestowed at Kings Bay is the mitigation of the anger, the outrage of God. Clare, Patrick, Martha and Mark are the children of God –biblical code for peacemakers –And I have heard from a good source that all of creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the children of God.
You heard testimony about why we did what we did. Your heard that we did not intend to break the law.
At the outset of this case, you heard the government ask, not that you find us guilty, but that you seek the truth.
Thank you for being here. I ask and pray that you seek the truth.