Voting Station

Megan Rice

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Advocate

The Resume

    (January 31, 1930-October 10, 2021)
    Born in Morningside Heights, New York
    Nun and activist for nuclear disarmament
    Member of Transform Now Plowshares
    Arrested more than 40 times during protests
    With two other Plowshare members, entered the Y12 Complex at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and spray-painted antiwar slogans and splashed blood on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (July 28, 2012)
    Convicted of sabotage (May 9, 2013)
    Served two years in prison before her conviction was overturned on appeal

Why she might be annoying:

    The protest at Oak Ridge was called 'the biggest security breach in the history of the nation's atomic complex.'
    She got inside 'the Fort Knox of uranium' using nothing more than flashlights and bolt cutters.
    She rejected an offer to plead guilty to misdemeanor trespass and felony destruction of government property charges and receive a sentence of one year in prison.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was a teacher in Nigeria and Ghana (1962-86,1991-2003).
    An Appeals Court overturned her conviction on the grounds that she lacked the intent to 'obstruct the national defense' required under the Sabotage Act (May 8, 2015).
    Although the Appeals Court upheld her conviction for damaging government property, she was released on the grounds that the sentence she would receive on that charge would be less than the time she had already served.
    Her break-in at Oak Ridge prompted a Department of Energy review of facility security that found 'troubling displays of ineptitude.'
    Several observers suggested the DOE should be grateful that the security lapses were exposed by an octogenarian nun instead of an actual saboteur. (For example, during Congressional hearings into DOE security, Rep. Joe Barton said, 'That lady brought a Holy Bible. If she had been a terrorist, the Lord only knows what would have happened.')

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 93 Votes: 65.59% Annoying