1,000 Grandmothers Needed This Weekend
This weekend (Nov. 17-19) will be the annual gathering to close the School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia. This vigil is organized by SOA Watch, an organization that seeks to shut down the U.S. Army School of the Americas which was renamed to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). This school, funded by our taxpayer dollars, has graduated some of the worst human rights abusers in Latin America.
This year Cathy Webster is organizing grandmothers to participate in activities around the country to oppose torture and the School of the Americas. If you are a grandmother, have a grandmother, are the son or daughter of a grandmother, or a spouse of a grandmother, pleae join them this weekend in Georgia or at an event near you. The www.1000grandmothers.net web site has events in many states where you can sign up.
I went to the vigil at Ft. Benning last year and found it very moving. More below the fold about the SOA Watch Vigil.
Last November when I quit my job to spend the year volunteering, I was made aware of the SOA Watch Vigil by some of my Hayward Demos Democratic Club members. I believe that the Demos may be the most liberal Democratic club in California, if not the country! That's how I ended up spending a weekend sleeping under a coa track on the hard floor of a Motel 6 in Alabama.
The first day of the weekend has more of a protest spirit feeling in front of the Ft. Benning gates. There are many vendors and issues groups with tables as well as the Puppetistas spreading through the crowd. I recommend two days because that gives you an afternoon to check out the vendors and also volunteer with one of the Puppetista groups.
Sunday is a day when we are all moved by compassion after hearing survivor's person experiences of torture and stories from those who have lost friends and family to torture. It's a solemn occasion with the vigil speakers and participatns remembering the victims, both living and dead, of torture in the Americas. Virtually every one of the 19,000 people in the crowd is carrying a white cross that bears the name or unknown remembrance of a victim. Some people bring their own crosses for family and friends who have been victims, but most of the people attending receive one of the thousands of crosses that are passed out to the crowd members. During the vigil, the names of every victim is read and the attendees begin to process in a loop along the length of the street leading to the Ft. Benning gate.
There is also a history of civil disobediance at these events. Last year I heard stories from people who arrived with no intention of going under the fence to trespass on our federal government property, yet they were moved by the stories of those who had been tortured to do so. Unfortunately, we're losing the right to civil disobedience in this country as harsher sentences are brought down on these citizens of conscience. Since 2001 anyone going under the fence has been setenced to six months in a federal prison. Civil disobedience should be a civil right in our country with at most a few days in jail.
I've put a Kodak Gallery slideshow up with about 160 photos from the Sunday vigil in November 2005. If you'd like to help me have a bed when I go this year, feel free to send a small contribution. In return, I'll send you some photo prints and/or a CD with my photos after the 2006 vigil.