Dear Editor: The Plowshares movement mentioned in a letter (June 16) was my first exposure to radical protest against government practices.

I recall how my soul was stirred in the early 1980s by the courage of the Berrigans and many, many others as they advocated resistance to war, and protested our national arsenal of nuclear weaponry. Their actions were deemed extreme, the damage they caused unlawful, and they themselves suffered accusations of disloyalty, anti-patriotism, even treason.

But their prayerful, dedicated behavior sowed seeds which apparently flourish to this day in the likes of Mr. O’Neill and Rev. Mulholland in Garner, N.C.; all of us who refuse to accept nuclear madness as life-as-usual are in their debt.

Jesus would clearly ponder the alternatives. May we all dare to do the same.

ROSEANNE CLEARY

Glendale