I can't find words to describe the SOA weekend - the passion, the drama, the intensity - joy and grief, dancing or slow marching in a funeral processiomn led by Father Roy and Rabbi Lerner, with 20 black coffins, 80 black-robed, chalk white-faced coffin carriers, and 30 or more black robed mourners -- closely followed by several hundred white-kerchiefed grannies, many of whom hugged and rocked and wailed for their broken and wounded baby dolls - then thousands and thousands of celebrants, priests, sisters, students, union members, Code Pink, Women in Black, indigenous folks from every Central and South American country, many in native garb.
Their stories were all the same - torture, suffering, loss of dignity, denial of human rights, poverty - the never ending struggle - so much of this due to their own countrymen, trained at this infamous School of the Americas.
Eleven noble activists crossed the line, were arrested, and face from 6 months to a year in a federal prison.
I have been to l0 or 12 of the l9 SOA demonstrations. (The first was 19 years ago, and there were Father Roy Bourgeouis and nine others. This year there were upwards of 20,000.)
Each year the number and the scope of workshops, seminars, videos and concerts increases. Each year the creativity and talent and energy increases. Each year I am overwhelmed, and energized, my tote bag stuffed with literature, my ears with rhetoric, my eyes with the many reds and browns of indigenous people.
Each year I vow to go again and to bring with me more people to share this incredible experience of solidarity.
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