Volume LIII, No 1
September,
1999
Solidarity From the Ivory Tower:
Academe and the School of the Americas
Concerned Students, Faculty and Staff
November 16, 1999 is the 10th anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuit faculty members and two staff at El Salvador's University of Central America (UCA). Nineteen of the 26 Salvadoran officers cited by the UN Truth Commission for this atrocity were trained at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). In this issue several Loyola University New Orleans students, faculty and staff reflect on their own involvement in non-violent resistance to this injustice.
As we prepare for the November 16th 10th anniversary of the slaying of faculty and staff at the Jesuit-run University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, a variety of Loyola University New Orleans'students, faculty and staff offer their reflections on last November's experiences at the School of the Americas.
Our Experiences at Fort Benning
Professor Bill Quigley
On Sunday, November 22, 1998, I joined 7000 people gathered at the gates
of Fort Benning, Georgia for a prayer vigil and protest against the School
of the Americas. Thousands came in response to a call by Fr. Roy Bourgeois
and School of Americas Watch, an organization which seeks to close what
they call the "School of Assassins." The vigil and protest is
held in commemoration of the November 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests
and two churchwomen in El Salvador. Nineteen of the twenty-six officers
cited for these murders by the UN Truth Commission were trained at the
School of the Americas.
The School of the Americas is a US Army training school located within
Fort Benning for soldiers and military personnel from Latin America. In
addition to the Jesuit massacre, graduates of the School of the Americas
have been cited for involvement in dozens of acts of murder, torture, rape
and other crimes against religious, labor leaders, civilians, medical personnel,
and journalists in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Panama, and Peru.
Fr. Roy Bourgeois founded School of Americas Watch. Fr. Roy, a native
of Lutcher, Louisiana, was a U.S. Naval Officer for four years and received
a Purple Heart. After military service he was ordained a Catholic priest
in 1972 and worked for years with the poor in Bolivia. Since 1990, Fr.
Roy has spent over three years in US federal prisons as a result of repeated
acts of civil disobedience aimed at the School of the Americas. For his
witness for peace he was awarded the 1996 Franciscan Federation Peacemaker
Award and the 1997 Pax Christi Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award. The
School of Americas watch has offices both in Columbus Georgia and Washington
DC.
When the vigil and protest first occurred nine years ago, Fr. Roy told
us, 24 people attended. Several of the 24 "crossed the line" onto
the base in a silent funeral procession carrying coffins, small wooden
crosses, and pictures of people in central America slain by soldiers trained
at the School of the Americas. Those who went onto the base were arrested
for trespassing. People were tried in federal court before an exceptionally
harsh judge and were sentenced to jail terms. Each year more people have
attended the protest and more have engaged in civil disobedience, often
at the price of imprisonment.
Last year over 2,000 people participated in the protest and 601 "crossed
the line" and were cited for trespassing. Repeat offenders were tried
and sent to jail. First offenders were issued official letters barring
them from returning into Fort Benning under pain of federal prosecution
and imprisonment. This year the organizers of the vigil and protest hoped
for thousands to join in the protest and for as many as 1000 to cross the
line and engage in civil disobedience.
The mood of the 7000 protesters was quiet and respectful as we massed
on a hill to the side and on the grass in front of the gates of the fort.
The organizers had insisted that everyone who was considering "crossing
the line" participate in a training session on nonviolent civil disobedience.
The day before we stuffed ourselves into a warm overflowing local church
to hear Fr. Roy, two trainers in nonviolent resistance from the Metanoia
community, and a lawyer from Minnesota teach us how the protest would be
conducted. The march across the line into Fort Benning was to be somber
and prayerful, like a funeral march. We would march silently four abreast.
We were not to resist arrest. We were to be respectful of law enforcement
and the military at all times. We should expect to be detained for several
hours while we were processed by the authorities. It took the army 6-7
hours to process 600 people last year and we should be prepared for even
more time in processing if 1000 people were to cross. Bring a picture ID.
Leave your wallet and keys and valuables behind. Together we recited a
pledge of nonviolence. Violence ends where love begins.
Who were these 7000 people? Where did they come from? I guess that 40%
of the crowd was college age and another 40% were 65 or older. Lots of
pierced ears and college sweatshirts. Santa Clara, Loyola, Notre Dame,
Michigan. There was some purple hair; there was much more gray. By the
license plates on the cars and vans and busses of people parked in the
lot nearest the demonstration, people came from all across the country.
There were dozens of small plain cars with "If you want peace, work
for justice" stickers. Lots of vans from colleges throughout the nation.
Some highly decorated 60's vans and many big chartered commercial busses.
A 70+ year old woman told me she rode all night on a bus from Ann Arbor
with 60 people, equally divided between students from Michigan and members
of local interfaith peace and justice groups. There was a group of 30 or
more religious sisters from St. Louis. There were over 500 people from
Minnesota!
As the morning progressed we joined together in prayer and song. Fr. Roy spoke about atrocities in neighboring countries committed by those trained inside the fort. Martin Sheen spoke briefly about how he loved his country but still tried to resist its evils. (I thought Martin was the celebrity at the protest. However, a few days later I read in the student newspaper of the University of Notre Dame that a well-known celebrity was at the protest, and the paper named her, one of the Indigo Girls!) Music was performed in Spanish and English, on drums and banjos and guitars. Representatives from various religious and human rights organizations and family members of those murdered and tortured by graduates of the School of the Americas taught us about the tragic effects of the School of the Americas. We remembered also those sitting in jail cells around the nation serving sentences for last year's protest. Their witness gave us all courage to continue to fight to close the School.
Some of us on the hill were thinking what it would mean to commit civil disobedience.
For many of us, this was the first time we physically confronted the gap between
what is legal and what is just. Only the afternoon before a Loyola student was
anguishing whether she should risk arrest and endanger her chances of getting
into law school. She also wondered what her parents' reaction would be. When
I saw her later that night, I asked how she was doing. She brightly said she
was fine. She had talked to her parents and they pledged to be supportive of
her if she decided to engage in civil disobedience. (Her mother cutely told her
daughter that she didn't much like Martin Sheen but if Harrison Ford was going
to show up, she'd come to the protest herself!) The support of her family made
her decision much easier. She would follow her conscience: she was going to "cross
the line."
As a law professor, I had already fielded many questions about how I could
teach respect for the law and still announce my intention to break it.
In an email to fellow faculty members, students, coworkers and family,
I suggested we were all familiar with examples of the difference between
what is law and what is justice. I concluded with the powerful quote from
Martin Luther King: "I submit that an individual who breaks a law
that his conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the
penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community
over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."
Those considering civil disobedience were much heartened by the support
and prayers of the thousands who were a part of the protest but were not
crossing the line. The organizers repeatedly made it clear that there was
no difference in commitment and courage between those who crossed the line
and those who remained outside the gates to continue the protest. Indeed
Fr. Roy himself would not cross after being persuaded that he needed to
continue the struggle outside of jail for the near future. Those not crossing
the line made arrangements to hold the valuables of the trespassers and
to meet them once they were released. The protesters pledged to keep the
vigil going until all were released from Ft. Benning.
About every 45 minutes or so during the morning praying and singing, the
army drowned out the protest with loudspeaker warnings that people would
be arrested for violating federal law if they crossed the line onto the
base. Otherwise everyone (protesters, local cops, state troopers, and army
people) were all quite civil and respectful of each other. At one point
an army truck slowly cruised through the crowd with a man in uniform carefully
videotaping the protesters. Hundreds of hands raised silent peace signs
to those doing the taping. After a few minutes the uniformed cameraman
sheepishly lifted his free hand and returned the peace sign while continuing
to videotape!
The crowd grew quieter and the mood grew more somber as the names and
ages of the people murdered by forces trained at the School of the Americas
were announced. After each name the determined crowd responded "Presente!" Names
of women and children and the elderly seemed to predominate. After each
name, "Presente!"
It was now nearly noon and time for civil disobedience. Fr. Roy called
for people to shape up four abreast and "cross the line." Hundreds
of people began to surge off of the hill where we were waiting. Led by
a couple of dozen repeat offenders who were preparing for 6 months in jail,
people kept coming and coming, four by four, cheered on and prayed on and
sung on by thousands who stayed back to support the protest. Four abreast,
arms linked, we silently walked across the line into Fort Benning carrying
small wooden crosses and pictures of some of the murdered.
As we marched onto the property of the fort, the sounds of "Presente!" faded
away in the distance with each step. The only sound left was the slow steady
beat of funeral drums off to the side. Some prayed softly, some cried just
as softly. We walked slowly, growing aware of the long lines of four in
front of us and longer lines behind.
About a half a mile into the fort, we were stopped and we waited. Ahead
we could see people being loaded onto large army buses. When it was our
turn to be loaded on, it became clear that there were many, many more people
in this than the army was prepared for. There were not nearly enough vehicles!
There was another long wait while the army decided what to do, then they
drove us off in silence. As we drove away we could see there was a caravan
of probably 20 big buses (holding 60 people each) and yet hundreds and
hundreds of people remained on the road into the fort.
The army drove us off the base and back into town. They stopped at a high
school 2 miles or so away from the protest. An army colonel then gave the
people on each bus a warning not to return, a form xeroxed sheet advising
us we were ejected from the base, and released us! They didn't even take
any names! The army then went back to get the rest of the protesters and
ended up making three trips to remove every protester from the base.
It turns out that 2,319 people had "crossed the line" and completely
overwhelmed the situation. The army decided not to arrest a single person.
Together, we marched back to the site of the protest to a joyful reunion
with the rest of the protesters and the conclusion of the vigil. It was
a happy time, particularly for the several dozen repeat offenders who were
calling friends and family to tell them they would not be spending the
next six months in jail after all! A few people were initially disappointed
that they had not been arrested, but were consoled as they recognized that
the nonviolent civil disobedience of the protesters had effectively "disarmed" the
military.
As evening came the vigil closed with prayers and song and exhortations
to continue the struggle against the School of the Americas in our local
communities. The overall mood was very upbeat. It was by far the largest
protest against the school. Massive civil disobedience against the School
of the Americas had been forcefully and peacefully executed. That no one
was going to jail was an unexpected bonus. That no one was barred from
re-entering Fort Benning allowed those 2000 plus people who crossed this
year people to participate in further protests if any are necessary.
What impact will this witness by 7000 people have? I am not sure of the
exact impact but I know it was an occasion for regular people to take a
purposeful stand against injustice. In my experience, every single stand
taken against injustice has a powerful and lasting impact. What was done
by the 7000 was to take another step forward in a long journey. Will it
stop the School of the Americas? Certainly not by itself. Will it energize
the opposition to the School of the Americas? Absolutely yes. There have
been repeated legislative efforts to cut off funding for the School of
the Americas. A House bill to close the school failed in 1997 by a vote
of 210 to 217. Maybe with the energy generated by this year's protest this
year will be the year. (Editor's note: on Thursday, July 29, 1999, The
U.S. House of Representatives, by a 230-197 vote on bill HR 732, moved
to cut funding for the School of the Americas. A Senate vote on this issue
should be forthcoming.)
The most profound impact of this effort is apparent when you recall that 9 years ago there were 24 people at a vigil and protest that this year drew 7000. The growth of this movement is an inspiration to all people committed to fighting all forms of injustice. It was not an accident that 7000 people showed up. The 7000 were there because of the justice work done by many for years. Some did their justice work in organizing and in prayer. Some did their work in court and in jail. Some wrote letters and made phone calls and gave money and gave speeches. But it was the justice work of many people that made it possible for 7000 people to show up to demand the close of the School of the Americas. There remains much educating and organizing to be done on this and other justice issues in our local communities. This event added solid energy to ongoing efforts for justice. Maybe the School of the Americas will be closed by next year and no one will have to return. But if it remains open, I am sure there will be quite a gathering of people calling for justice there, no matter what the Army does. See you there.
Interviews with Loyola Students
By R. Bentley Anderson, S.J.
What motivated Loyola students to participate in this protest? R. Bentley
Anderson, S.J., a doctoral student in United States social history, sat
down with these students shortly after their trip to Ft. Benning to record
their stories. What these oral history interviews reveal is the students'
commitment to social justice, the notion that being Catholic meant acting,
and a sense of tradition and continuity at Loyola which has developed by
promoting and participating in these annual protests against the School
of the Americas.
Suzanne Bundy was senior sociology major and chairwoman of Loyola University
Community Action Program (LUCAP) this past year. Through the Community
Action Program, Suzanne became aware of and involved in the protest against
the School of the Americas Watch in the spring of 1997. That year LUCAP
special affairs chairwoman Emily Drew and chairman Thad Crouch asked Suzanne
to work the petition table during Martyrs' Week. While some 800 hundred
signatures were collected favoring the closing of the School of the Americas,
she vividly remembers individuals questioning her motives. "Why are
you trying to bring down America and the military?" she was asked. "What
are you doing being [so] unpatriotic?" The following year she and
John Havel chaired the special affairs committee. They expanded the activities
of Martyrs' Week to include not only the petition signing/letter writing
campaign but also sponsored a peace vigil, organized awareness panels regarding
the activities of the SOA, and held a commissioning ceremony for those
going to Ft. Benning. The efforts at consciousness raising on campus were
evolving.
For Suzanne, the SOA Watch work has included a personal evolution as well.
It has been "a very big process for me the last three years." She
elaborated, "with the first year just being involved on campus, last
year going and witnessing the entire weekend, and this year going, witnessing
and taking part in the civil disobedience." Over the past several
years, she developed her beliefs and feelings regarding this protest movement. "Most
of what I come to, what I come back to, every time someone asks me about
it, is that if I was a student in a country that was in Latin America,
I would most probably be dead by now because of the work I do." This
year Suzanne joined 2346 others in crossing-the-line. As the protesters
crossed into Ft. Benning, each one carried a cross with the name of a deceased
person on it. "That cross [was] a person," Suzanne explained, "it
represent[ed] a person's life ... [which] was taken away by the action
of the SOA. There was no question we were doing the right thing [in crossing]." The
development of Martyrs' Week over the past three years has given this senior
hope that "this issue will not die on campus." Suzanne's optimism
is not misplaced as plans are already being discussed for commemorating
Martyrs' Week on campus and for making another trip to Georgia to "cross-the-line."
Loyola Junior John Havel also became involved in the School of the Americas
watch during his freshmen year through the Community Action Program. His
involvement with LUCAP's Hunger Relief Program lead to involvement with
their annual fall observance of the assassination of the Jesuits in El
Salvador. He served on the Special Affairs Committee for Martyrs' Week
that year helping raise student awareness on campus through a letter writing
campaign to President Clinton.
As a sophomore, he, along with Suzanne Bundy, was chairman of the Special
Affairs Committee and responsible for the activities of Martyrs' Week.
Their letter writing campaign was aimed at changing the minds of politicians
who were undecided about the SOA, especially Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.
Several months later, he received a letter from Landrieu's office informing
him that the Senator had decided to support the closing of the SOA. John's
decision to cross-the-line was a form of witness and protest. "God
acts through people," he stated, "I feel closest to God when
I'm doing his work." "When I crossed the line I was serving as
God's representative ... saying that God does not support the killing of
his people in Latin America." On that November morning some 7000 individuals
gathered at the protest rally site to pray and support those who would
trespass onto government property. John tried not to focus on the crowd, "those
present and living here in the United States," rather he kept in mind "the
people who [had] died ... the people who [had] suffered down there." "Our
courageous acts," he commented, were "nothing compared to what
some people go through. ..... We have to stand up to the possibility of
getting arrested ... others have to stand up to getting a bullet in the
head." For John, to give witness to the Gospel in the face of violence
demonstrated a true "leap of faith."
Like John, Amber Ramanauskas, a Junior English major, first become acquainted with
the School of the Americas protest during her Freshman year at Loyola. As a member
of LUCAP, she volunteered to work at the petition/letter-writing table during Martyr's
Week. By her sophomore year she was more informed about U.S. foreign policy in
Latin America and wanted to join the group going to Ft. Benning but was unable
to do so. She was able to give witness to the protest's aims, however, by handing
out information calling for the closing of the School of the Americas in front
of the Federal Court House complex in downtown New Orleans. It was during this
activity that she was called, for the first time, a "Communist."
As chair of the Special Affairs Committee of LUCAP this past year, Amber
was responsible for organizing the events of Martyrs' Week. Her focus was
on getting the students at Loyola to identify more closely with the victims
of Central America rather than the abstract notion of closing down an Army
training school. She accomplished this goal by displaying around campus
photos of the deceased of El Salvador with their names and ages. Many of
the victims remembered were of high school or college age when they were
killed. The intention here, Amber explained, was for students to think "this
could be me." Originally she had decided not to participate in the
act of civil disobedience at Ft. Benning, but after prayerful consideration
and a talk with Loyola law professor Bill Quigley, Amber Ramanauskas felt
it was the right thing to do. She remembered her mother's reaction when
she phoned home to tell her Mom that she was going to "cross the line." "It
was so funny because she already thought I had been arrested. When I told
her that I was going to cross in the morning, she was very supportive." As
she and the other Loyola University students marched arm-in-arm through
the gates of Ft. Benning and onto federal property Sunday morning, they
sang "Here I am Lord." That song, she explained, gave her a feeling
of consolation. She felt that she was "finally acting out my faith,
I'm bearing witness to this, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do."
Sophomore Lauren Wannemuehler's interest and awareness of the situation
in Central America developed through her home parish. The Church of the
Epiphany in Louisville, Kentucky, is a sister parish of Nuestra de Lordes
in Calle Real, El Salvador, which Lauren visited as part of a youth delegation
in 1995. In addition to meeting with the youth of Nuestra and learning
more about their lives, she and the other members of her parish group visited
martyr sites in San Salvador: the University of Centro America where the
Jesuits and their companions were killed and the chapel where Archbishop
Oscar Romero was assassinated. After this trip, her parish became involved
with the efforts to close the School of the Americas.
Through the LUCAP program at Loyola, Lauren continued her association
with SOA Watch. She helped organize the Martyrs' Week, especially the letter
writing campaign, and she participated in the protest vigils at Ft. Benning
in 1997 and 1998. The counter-protest in support of the School of the Americas
this past year provided her the opportunity to hear what others had to
say in favor of keeping the School open. "I wanted to hear what they
[the proponents] had to say." When a female Marine Corps ROTC student
stopped by the letter writing table and stated that there were "reasons
why we need to keep the SOA open," Lauren asked the cadet to state
the reasons. The response was "those are classified, I can't tell
you."
In 1998 her father and brother joined her in the Georgia protest. She
knew that her father was going to cross-the-line but her mother did not
know, which she found a bit amusing. "Dad was keeping it a secret
from her that he was going to cross the line. He had sent me e-mails secretly
saying 'I'm going to cross the line but don't tell your mom'." Lauren
clarified that her mother was very supportive of the family's involvement
in social justice efforts but she wasn't too keen on the idea of her husband
getting arrest because of familial responsibilities. While Lauren was under
no illusion that this single act of civil disobedience would automatically
lead to the closing of the SOA, she explained that she went to Ft. Benning "to
witness and to speak for the people of El Salvador."
Seth Alexander, a freshman from California and a catechumen to the Catholic
religion, had heard of the deaths of Oscar Romero and the Jesuits of El
Salvador long before matriculating to Loyola; however, it wasn't until
he arrived at the university that he heard about the School of the Americas.
Through his contact with the Religious Studies Department at Loyola, and
especially Rev. Peter Bernardi, S.J., Seth learned of the atrocities committed
by the Central American soldiers trained at Ft. Benning. "I could
not believe that our taxes ... were used for funding a school like this." From
that point on, he wanted to go to Georgia and protest. "I needed to
[take] a stand on this issue. I was appalled that this could happen by
something funded by the United States." The actual demonstration at
the post was "nothing like I thought it would be." Influenced
by the archival footage of Civil Rights and Vietnam War protests, Seth
thought there would be more commotion at the scene. Rather than being a
boisterous spectacle, he noted that it was "very peaceful" there
was "a sense of community" among the protesters. Since he was
not going to cross-the-line (he had promised his family he wouldn't...
this time), he was not sure how he would be perceived by those who were
going to risk arrest. Roy Bourgeois, organizer of the SOA Watch, set his
mind at ease. Seth recalled that at the civil disobedience session, held
at the United Methodist Church, Roy explained that "there wasn't a
hierarchy of importance ..... like people that crossed the line are more
important than the people who don't ... everyone is supporting this cause." And
Seth realized that this protest was "not just a Catholic issue. I
could make a stand for this issue because it [was] a worldwide issue."
The tradition and continuity of student involvement and activism in the
SOA Watch at Loyola University continues. From Thad Crouch and Emily Drew,
through Suzanne Bundy to John Havel, Amber Ramanauskas and Lauren Wannemuehler,
and now Seth Alexander, the collective memory grows. The cause receives
new life and vitality. The Christian community makes present once again
the risen Christ by helping the least of their brothers and sisters. As
Seth concluded his interview, "As long as this place is open I'm going
..., hopefully to go to these protests, write to my Congressman, do what
I can to close this institution that is perpetuating violence."
Faculty Play also Gives Witness
By Ronald Schmidt, S.J.
Each November, as part of the memorial in honor of the El Salvadoran martyrs,
Loyola University New Orleans sponsors a Martyrs Memorial Week. This past
year the week included activities to educate the university community about
the decades-long oppression of the disenfranchised in Latin America. The
events of the week included discussions about the School of the Americas
and its role in the tortures, murders, and disappearances in various countries
in Latin America. Documentaries and the feature film "Romero" were
shown followed by discussion sessions. Also the one act play "The
Witness" by Loyola's drama professor, Fr. Ernest Ferlita, S.J., was
given a dramatic reading. "The Witness" is based on the events
surrounding the murder of the six Jesuits and their two co-workers, in
El Salvador, on Nov. 16, 1989. Lucia de Cerna, who worked with the Jesuits
at the UCA, had sought refuge with her husband and young daughter in a
building on the compound. Noise and gunshots awakened her in the early
morning hours of Nov. 16 and she saw some of the events surrounding the
murders that night. She and her family were evacuated from El Salvador
to Miami where she was interrogated by the FBI and ultimately, under psychological
and emotional pressure, recanted her eyewitness account of the events.
The play, which depicts the interrogation and the recantation, has been
given readings on other Jesuit campuses and was selected to be produced
at a drama festival in New York City. Fr. Kevin J. Waters, S.J., professor
of music at Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, has written original
music for the play.
Other activities on campus included distribution of fliers and literature
concerning the School of the Americas. A petition to be sent to members
of the U. S. House of Representatives was available for signatures throughout
the week. At the conclusion of the week, 5 students and 3 Jesuits departed
for Ft. Benning, GA, to join others to stand vigil outside the Army base
which houses the School of the Americas. Some from this group joined in "crossing
the line," an act of civil disobedience to protest the existence of
the school.
Those who may wish to use the play "The Witness" as part of your 10th anniversary activities can obtain a copy of the script alone, without the music, by sending a check or money order to the Blueprint office for $10, payable to "Loyola University" to cover handling and postage.
About the Authors
Bill Quigley is Associate Dean for Adademic Affairs of Loyola Law School in New
Orleans. R.Bentley Anderson, S.J., a doctoral candidate in history at Boston
College, is in residence at Loyola University New Orleans. Ronald Schmidt, S.J.,
former campus minister at Loyola University New Orleans, is now a divinity student
at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.
This year's 10th anniversary Commemoration of the UCA murders will be held at Ft Benning, GA, November 19-21, 1999.You can learn more about the School of the Americas Watch at their website http://www.soaw.org/.
