This past Monday, US Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced three human rights activists - the SOA-4 - to six months in federal prison for standing at the gate to the nefarious School of the Americas and praying...sort of 'Pay to Pray'. One would imagine that the SOA (Or 'Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation', if you are squeamish about the imagery conjured by the name 'School of the Americas': the blood-stained walls, the smashed scraps of teeth and nails scattered in dark corners, the reek of vomit and feces, sweat and fear, the electrodes and lingering ozone, the power tools, pliers, the bent syringes and rusty scalpels, the metal table with its frayed restraints... cigar smoke and stale cologne. Ah, memories...) would be all right with prayer, after all isn't God on our side?
The SOA-4 are Nancy Gwin, Father Louie Vitale and Ken Hayes. The fourth, Michael Walli, a member of the Catholic Worker movement, refused to appear before the kangaroo court in Georgia (Yes Virginia; there are kangaroos in Georgia...). At his arraignment back in November Walli told the court that he would not pay any bail and he was not planning on returning for the trial (s'Okay: It'll be all over CNN.) As of this, Walli is still at large.
And the SOA-4 were not alone: Tens of thousands of activists were at the gates of Fort Benning peacefully demanding that the US wash the blood from its hands and close the School forever.
- KBOO