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Write On: Progressive News for Northern Michigan December 2003
Local Links Marquette Citizens for Peace and Justice Nothwoods Wilderness Recovery Keweenaw Now State, National, and International Links Common Dreams Greenpeace Move On Independent Media Democracy Now! True Majority Michigan Citizens for Peace United for Peace Citizen.org Citizenworks.org	School of the Americas Martha Hayward WHISC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) formerly called the School of the Americas, was moved from Panama to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984. The School trains Latin American soldiers in combat skills such as mine warfare, torture, commando operations, and intelligence. These U.S. trained troops return home to fight against their own people, killing, raping, and torturing thousands of Latin American civilians. Since 1990 a vigil has been held at the gates of Fort Benning on the anniversary of the death of six Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador by the military, some of whom were trained at the School of the Americas. Each year people trespass onto the base, risking arrest and imprisonment, to speak out against this school. When I trespassed onto the base in 1997 with approximately 650 others, we were treated with respect by the military personnel. Since 9-11 the tone and responses of the military and local Georgia police has become increasingly restrictive and punitive. Kathy Kelly, one of the 37 who trespassed onto the base this year in a spirit of non-violence, was roughed up: "Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort Benning and were arrested, US Military Police took us to a warehouse on the base for 'processing.' I was directed to a station for an initial search, where a woman soldier began shouting at me to look straight ahead and spread my legs. She then began an aggressive body search. When ordered to raise one leg a second time, I temporarily lost my balance while still being roughly searched. When I lowered my arms and said, quietly, 'I'm sorry but I can't any longer cooperate with this,' I was instantly pushed to the floor. Five soldiers squatted around me, one of them referring to me with an expletive (this f---er) and began to cuff my wrists and ankles and then bind my wrists and ankles together. Then one soldier leaned on me, with his or her knee in my back. Unable to get a full breath, I gasped and moaned, 'I can't breathe.’ ... After the processing, I was unbound, shackled with wrist and ankle chains, and led to the section where other peaceful activists, also shackled, awaited transport to the Muskogee County jail¦" Protesters at the School of the Americas have for 13 years practiced non-violence, have been cooperative with the process of arrest, and have accepted the consequences of their actions by serving prison time or probation. The tactics used by the U.S. military in response to the protest this year is an indication that protests against US policy are considered a threat to US security. It is increasingly important that we do not allow ourselves to be controlled by fear in the face of these tactics of intimidation. The freedom to dissent with government policy is a right we must exercise if we are to protect democracy. The Homeland Security Act threatens our freedom of speech and the right to dissent. The US Military response at Fort Benning this year should remind us that it is essential that we question US policy internationally and in our own country. True patriotism is to protect the principals on which our country was founded.	Write On Issues December November October September August July June May

Write On: Progressive News for Northern Michigan

December 2003

Local Links

Marquette Citizens for Peace and Justice

Nothwoods Wilderness Recovery

Keweenaw Now

State, National, and International Links

Michigan Citizens for Peace

United for Peace

Citizen.org

Citizenworks.org

School of the Americas Martha Hayward

WHISC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) formerly called the School of the Americas, was moved from Panama to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984. The School trains Latin American soldiers in combat skills such as mine warfare, torture, commando operations, and intelligence. These U.S. trained troops return home to fight against their own people, killing, raping, and torturing thousands of Latin American civilians.
Since 1990 a vigil has been held at the gates of Fort Benning on the anniversary of the death of six Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador by the military, some of whom were trained at the School of the Americas. Each year people trespass onto the base, risking arrest and imprisonment, to speak out against this school. When I trespassed onto the base in 1997 with approximately 650 others, we were treated with respect by the military personnel. Since 9-11 the tone and responses of the military and local Georgia police has become increasingly restrictive and punitive. Kathy Kelly, one of the 37 who trespassed onto the base this year in a spirit of non-violence, was roughed up: "Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort Benning and were arrested, US Military Police took us to a warehouse on the base for 'processing.' I was directed to a station for an initial search, where a woman soldier began shouting at me to look straight ahead and spread my legs. She then began an aggressive body search. When ordered to raise one leg a second time, I temporarily lost my balance while still being roughly searched. When I lowered my arms and said, quietly, 'I'm sorry but I can't any longer cooperate with this,' I was instantly pushed to the floor. Five soldiers squatted around me, one of them referring to me with an expletive (this f---er) and began to cuff my wrists and ankles and then bind my wrists and ankles together. Then one soldier leaned on me, with his or her knee in my back. Unable to get a full breath, I gasped and moaned, 'I can't breathe.’ ... After the processing, I was unbound, shackled with wrist and ankle chains, and led to the section where other peaceful activists, also shackled, awaited transport to the Muskogee County jail¦"
Protesters at the School of the Americas have for 13 years practiced non-violence, have been cooperative with the process of arrest, and have accepted the consequences of their actions by serving prison time or probation. The tactics used by the U.S. military in response to the protest this year is an indication that protests against US policy are considered a threat to US security.
It is increasingly important that we do not allow ourselves to be controlled by fear in the face of these tactics of intimidation. The freedom to dissent with government policy is a right we must exercise if we are to protect democracy. The Homeland Security Act threatens our freedom of speech and the right to dissent. The US Military response at Fort Benning this year should remind us that it is essential that we question US policy internationally and in our own country. True patriotism is to protect the principals on which our country was founded.

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