This weekend I went down to Fort Benning, GA with my roommate, a friend from school, and 5,000 new friends. We were there for the 20th annual School of The America's protest/vigil with one common goal: To Close the School of the Assassins.
For those of you who don't know what the SOA/WHINSEC is, I would highly recommend you to check out this site before/instead of reading this blog post:
http://soaw.org/about-the-soawhinsec
We drove to Ann Arbor on Friday afternoon to get on a bus with the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and head down to the rally. From the second we boarded the bus, I knew this trip was going to be an amazing experience. We talked with our new friends late into the night about what brought us to the bus, and why we care about the SOA. I was amazed by how many people on our bus lived in intentional communities, and we were able to discuss the very different and very similar challenges we all face in our communities and brainstorm ways to deal with those issues that came about. Once it got late, we tuned into some Harry Potter 6 and tried our hardest to get some sleep in for Saturday.
Early Saturday morning, we arrived at the Convention Center in Columbus, GA where we were able to pick up the weekend's schedule of events and get pumped with an opening ceremony of sorts. The Ceremony hit an especially powerful note when the organizers asked any one who has ever been held as a prisoner of conscience for standing against the SOA to stand up. The majority of the people that stood were now easily in their 70's. There was just something so powerful about watching that. After the Ceremony, we got back on our bus and went to the Fort Benning rally site. It was here that I first realized how little free speech we actually have. I mean, you can have all the free speech you want, as long as you don't use it outside the fenced in area.
Once we made it through the orange carpet (after being video taped and counted) we were greeted by the sound of a circling helicopter, which was there to make sure us non-violent protesters stayed in line. Despite the harsh realities of the world outside the fenced in area, the space we were given to protest in was made beautiful. Outside the fences was poverty, corporations, police, guns and hardship, but iinside the fences was this great world full of love, music, fun, and amazing people.
While at Fort Benning, we were able to visit the tables of the organizations working to close the SOA, listen to more great music and speakers, and just sit by the line to pay respects to all those who have dared to cross over in the past 20 years.
We left the rally a little early to check into our hotel. Who would have guessed that while I was drooling over a nearly perfect kidney pool, crap was beginning the hit the fan at Fort Benning.
Still not knowing that anything out of the ordinary was happening at Fort Benning, our crew headed back to the convention center to take part in some workshops. Halfway through a workshop in immigration, 2 girls came into the room we were in to announce that the police had begun arresting people at Fort Benning that hadn't even chosen to participate in an act of civil disobedience. Come to find out later, 24 people had been arrested in Fort Benning. While some did participate in civil disobedience, many had not. Among the arrested were 2 reporters, a local man taking pictures of what was happening basically in his front yard, and many people who were just simply walking back to their cars. Clearly in an effort to intimidate, bonds were set at the prison for about $5,000+. 5 undercover police officers who had attended civil disobedience meetings and participated in the acts were also "arrested" in order to get more information from the protesters.
In order to stand in solidarity with the political prisoners, a march was organized from the convention center to the prison. Once we reached the prison we discussed ways to make our presence known, but not break any laws. We decided to line up, side by side on the sidewalk, and hold our hands up in the air together. We made sure not to trespass, block the sidewalk, or break any noise ordinances. The prisoners saw us standing outside and began to bang on the windows to let us know we were being seen. Even though no illegal action was being taken, the police still deemed our silent solidarity an "illegal assembly" and threatened to arrest anyone who stuck around. Even though we all knew none of the charges world hold up in court, we decided to leave the scene. We knew that the bonds were being set at an incredibly inflated rate and we didn't want to cost our brothers and sisters at the SOA and more money.
We headed back to the convention center a little discouraged, but also proud of the fact that our prisoners knew we were out there and that we cared about them. Even though it was short lived, feeling that solidarity was an incredible experience that i will never really be able to explain. In our way back, police cars and helicopters followed us to the convention center to make sure we didn't cause any trouble.
Even though i understand and respect the groups decision to leave the prison, I can't help but feel a little discouraged. I wish i could have stayed, and taken the prison time, but it really was not the best decision for us at the time. We couldn't allow the Columbus police to profit more off of us than they already had. Still though, I am really struggling with this idea of my personal rights being taken right out from under me and not fighting back. I am hoping to discuss these feelings with some of the activists I meet at the rally, and hopefully doing that can help to better prepare me for next year (hopefully there won't even be a next year.)
Once we got back to the convention center, I sat down and watched some music, and bought this bandanna thing that I think I might try to wear every day from now on until the SOA gets shut down for real.
After watching some music for a while, we headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest for the funeral procession the next day.
We headed out to Fort Benning early on sunday morning and got ready for the big funeral procession. Me and one of the other girls from our group had a run in with some of the undercover police, which was significantly strange. Another interesting fact to note was that the Veterans For Peace group was not allowed to bring an American Flag into the rally.
The funeral procession is this great thing that happens every year where the people all gather with crosses with the name of someone that has been killed or disappeared because of SOA/WHINSEC graduates. From the stage, a speaker reads off each and every name (there are a lot) and every one raises their crosses in the air saying presente. It is a really moving tradition, and I feel so fortunate to have been a part of it. Before Fort Benning started building obscene amount of fences to keep us out, this is when everyone would cross the line onto the Fort and place their crosses as far into the fort as they can get before the police started making arrests. The common jail sentence for someone who crosses the line is 6 months in a federal prison.Since the fences have been erected at the fort, we are forced to leave or crosses in the fence that separates us from them:
The fences don't stop everyone from crossing though. This year 4 more people crossed the fence which will mean that the SOA is once again brought up in Court houses all over the country.
After the action at the line was over, I headed back to the stage to listen to some music, and as a complete surprise to me, Ryan Harvey (who is a member of the riot folk collective) came up to play a song. I have been listening to riot folk for a while, and it was great to finally get to hear some live. I decided to approach Ryan after his set and he turned out to be a really great guy. Just a random side story that I will remember forever. Once the rally was over, we headed out to the bus to begin the 13 hour ride home. On the bus we shared stories of how the experience affected us, and exchanged contact information so we could continue our struggle back home.
This trip changed me. I want to continue to fight against US Militarization in Latin America for the rest of my life. I feel that Latin America is a region that goes all too unnoticed by United States Citizens, and I would like to help change that. I am really excited about the contacts that I have made on this trip, and I can't wait to see where our fight takes us.
For more information on the SOA, check out SOAW.ORG
No comments:
Post a Comment