Golden – A 75-year-old anti-war activist said Friday that she is worried about America but not worried about starting a jail sentence for blocking access to a Lakewood military recruiting office.
Bonnie McCormick of Louisville reported to the Jefferson County Jail to begin the 10-day incarceration. She is one of 12 protesters sentenced Wednesday for trespassing and obstructing a passageway in the Nov. 18 incident.
“I’m not remorseful. I did it deliberately,” McCormick said of her actions. “And at my age, I may do it again.”
Five of the “No Blood for Oil” defendants chose jail time over community service. McCormick received a stay of her jail sentence so she could arrange care of her cat, Max.
McCormick said her family is grown and she has the “luxury” of going to jail to underscore her belief that America “is being sucked into a big, black hole” in Iraq.
McCormick wore her signature ball cap with a flower in back – on Friday, it was a sunflower – and she carried a small paper bag of items.
Other defendants and supporters were on hand to cheer her with a song and a school bus decorated with a long green dragon.
“We wanted to focus attention on the devastation caused by the war and its effect on ordinary Iraqis,” said Claire Ryder, a co-defendant who chose community service, as she gave McCormick a hug.
McCormick said she was proud to be a military wife years ago. “There are some wars we have to be involved in,” she said. “This one was started for I don’t know what. Oilfields?”
Frustrated by not getting responses to letters sent to elected officials, McCormick said she turned to demonstrations.
“You don’t break laws easily, even if it’s not a big law,” she said. “You think a long time before you get to this point.”
Asked if she is a member of an action group, McCormick responded, “The McCormick family. That’s the groupiest I get.”
The jail has had other older inmates “and we’re prepared to provide whatever services she may need,” said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Shires.
McCormick wasn’t apprehensive about serving her sentence. “I don’t think they’ll be mean. They have a job to do,” McCormick said of her jailers. “I promise to be a good girl.”
Besides, she added, “I heard the food is wonderful.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
