People like this make me want to
get religion.
Daniel Berrigan was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota in 1921. He was ordained in 1952 and since then has been a fearless and dogged champion for the poor and opressed. During the Vietnam War he accompanied Howard Zinn to Hanoi, North Vietnam, to assist in obtaining the release of three American pilots. In 1968, with his brother, Philip Berrigan, he gained national attention for destroying draft registration files in Catonsville, Md. and was sentenced to three years in prison. During his long years of activism he has been arrested many times in the cause of justice.
Did I mention that he's also a brilliant and prolific writer? In 1957 he won the Lamont Poetry Award for his book Time Without Number. The journal he kept in Vietnam was published along with 11 poems as Night Flight to Hanoi (1968). Over the course of his career he's written over 50 books, including The Trial of the Catonsville 9 (1970) and an autobiography (1987). He's also written screenplays for at least four films, and has appeared in several films (including The Mission, often portraying himself.
Dar Williams wrote a haunting song about him called I Had No Right.