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Our bus left at midnight on the morning of Friday, Nov. 16, after a short, intimate Mass. The destination: Columbus, Georgia, for the 10th annual Ignatian Family Teach-In and School of the Americas protest. Loyola sends a delegation every year to join dozens of other Jesuit schools in commemorating the deaths of Jesuit martyrs, especially the six priests killed along with their housekeeper and her teenage daughter by Salvadoran troops on Nov. 16, 1989. The weekend also serves as a protest, demanding the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas (SOA). Nineteen of the 26 gunmen who murdered the six Jesuits were graduates of this school.
Although the Pentagon changed the school's name to WHINSEC in 2001, as well as its mission, it is still better known today as the SOA. A training facility for soldiers from Latin American countries, the school came under controversy when a number of its graduates began appearing in the ranks of government death squads. Since the 1970's, 500 of SOA's 57,000 graduates have been implicated in human rights violations, including the murder and rape of civilians, political dissidents, and religious at the orders of dictatorial governments. Every year the activist group SOA Watch hosts a protest at the gates of Fort Benning, which houses WHINSEC.
This year's Loyola group included 29 students, five staff members, and a handful of Jesuit Volunteer Corps participants. The reasons for going varied. Senior Caroline Scott said she "wanted to become more educated about the school in general." Sophomore Paulina Stachnik believed that the trip would give her necessary experience for her plans to go into international law and joining the Peace Corps. "I think it'll be a good thing to experience first-hand," she said. Regardless of their reasons, they all had the same destination.
The first thing that struck me about Columbus, was a large billboard that proclaimed "TRUST GOD." At the very least, the residents and the demonstrators share a common groundwork of faith.
Georgia's third largest city, Columbus, is a clean, cozy visage in brick. Once an industrial town, many of the buildings used to be factories, foundries, and mills.
Currently, Columbus is undergoing a renewal, in an attempt to attract tourists and, perhaps, to counteract the negative stigma that WHINSEC protests have earned it.
It is an undeniably pleasant place, but also undeniably unfamiliar. Upon watching a group of Loyola students pass by, one resident commented: "All these damn Yankees sound like hippies." A pamphlet distributed on a street corner includes an unfavorable depiction of the protestors: "With their unkempt appearance and bizarre dress, many participants engage in street theatre and childish outbursts of singing and chanting, reminiscent of the hippie gatherings of the 60s." On the whole, the residents of the town were extremely cordial, but there was always the underlying tone of disagreement. Upon learning the purpose of our visit, one resident asked, with a smile: "And what's wrong with the School of the Americas?"
Over the course of Friday night and Saturday morning, attendees were educated on exactly that. The Ignatian Teach-In was held in the Columbus Convention Center, once a naval munitions factory and now host to a massive peace rally. We were a multitude in college sweatshirts, fair trade clothing, and slogan t-shirts ("I'm Already Against the Next War"). Banners announced the presence of schools such as Scranton, Fairfield, McQuaid, the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkley, and a veritable directory listing of other Jesuit high schools and colleges.
The first speaker of the event was Loyola junior Geoff Browning, whose speech was chosen from many other entries to open the event. "We are Jesuit students," Browning said, "and we cannot let the dollar trump human dignity." Presenters spoke on issues of justice and faith, on immigration, poverty, human trafficking, the history of El Salvador, and attempts to promote social justice on campus. The speeches ranged from the mainly educational to the incendiary, with most of the heat aimed at WHINSEC. Throughout the night, a message of nonviolence was reaffirmed.
Speakers included Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern and Fr. Roy Bougeois, the founder of SOA Watch. "How can you teach democracy from behind the barrel of a gun?" Fr. Bougeois asked. "I do not believe that God blesses war and killing."
Saturday afternoon found us in a very different place: a sun-struck patch of dusty road, leading up to the barbed-wire-crowned fence that surrounds the WHINSEC facility. We were admitted by school groups and taken individually through the security checkpoint. While one officer checked our photo ID and belongings, another scanned us with a security wand. As we boarded the base bus, students shared introductions and jokes with the attending soldiers. On the bus itself, we were greeted by a rich, bass voice singing a spiritual over the radio.
This is how we entered the School of the Americas.
Almost immediately after the protests began, WHINSEC established an open-house especially for protestors. "This tour lets students come in and take a very short, quick tour of our building and then go into our auditorium and talk to our panel," said Public Affairs Officer Lee Rials at the checkpoint.
As well as allowing students and other protestors to ask questions directly to several important figures in WHINSEC, including the commandant, Rials said that this open house shows the facility's human side. "These are real people doing a real job here," he said. "It's a little harder to say 'You teach terrorists,' because then you're looking a person in the face."
A quick walking tour of the WHINSEC building was conducted on arrival, including a stroll through the "Gallery of Liberators," featuring portraits of pro-democratic figures from various Latin American countries. The tour ended in the auditorium, where protestors had the opportunity to speak with a panel which included WHINSEC commandant Col. Gilberto Perez.
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