Justice Trip, Columbus, Georgia
Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice/SOA rally and protest
November 21-23, 2008
On November 16, 1989, six Jesuits and two women were murdered in El Salvador for speaking up and acting for justice. They were killed by soldiers trained at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia. The SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Initiative for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001 but it continues to train Latin America soldiers with American tax dollars. The SOA has been in existence for 59 years and has trained over 60,000 soldiers. These graduates have been responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people including Archbishop Oscar Romero, Jesuit priests, and American church women.
Campus Ministry will be sending a delegation of students and staff down to Columbus, Georgia to participate in the Ignatian Family Teach-In, a gathering of students from Jesuit schools from across the nation. The Teach-In consists of a variety of speakers talking about a variety of issues. Past speakers have included Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the SOA watch and demonstration, and Sr. Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking." There is a variety of break-out sessions to attend. The Teach-In closes with a mass. Last year appoximately 4,000 people attended the teach-in.
The Teach-In will be followed by a gathering a the gates of Fort Benning, the base that houses the SOA. Last year, 22,000 people gathered to participate in a reverant funeral procession to remember all the victims who were murdered by SOA graduates and to call for the closing of the school.
You can find more about the SOA and the SOA Watch at www.soaw.org.
For further information, contact Sarah Signorino at 716-888-2424 or signoris@canisius.edu.