SOA Vigil Day 2
We started our day by driving to the gate of Ft. Benning. We explained the history of the SOA and of the SOA vigil to the four NIU students, as we stood at the line that so many have crossed in their attempts to close this school of torture. While we were at the gate we received some abusive comments by soldiers and workers leaving the post. Also I took photos of the police setting up their on site headquarters. It occurs to me that we all want peace. It is too bad that we can’t all agree that it can best be acheived with love and respect; instead of with force and violence. If only we could see that the way to peace is not by way of fear and oppression. It is not the biggest gun that will lead to peace but the biggest heart.
Chuck went with the students over to the warehouse and assisted with the puppetista construction. I went to a Columbia Teach-In sponsored by the Witness for Peace group.
At the teach-in I lerned the multi-national corporations such as Coca-cola and many others, along with the U.S. government, were found guilty of crimes against humanity at last year’s people’s tribunal in Columbia.
I also learned of the importance of defeating the free trade agreement that the U.S. is attempting to forge with Columbia. The Colombian Congress has already approved the agreement and the Obama administration has approved it. The only thing which is standing between the agreement going into force is the U.S. Congress. I will share with you when I return what we can do locally to urge Rep. Foster to vote against the agreement.
Another presenter was the founder of the KillerCoke group. You can learn more about this at KillerCoke.org The list of their human and environmental abuses is long. One of their campaigns is to get communities and universities to become Coca-Cola-Free communities and universities. We plan to have a showing of the video I purchased entitled “The Case Against Coca-Cola.” The students are going to try and organize a campaign to get coke off NIU’s campus.
When I asked the panel members about the role of mercenary companies such as Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and Blackwater in Latin America and especially in Columbia, the one panel member said,” When you hear bullets you don’t hear voices.” His intent was that the Colombian government and the multi-national corporations use these mercenary companies to terrorize the people so they won’t speak up for their rights, to stop them from organizing, to protect the business interests in Columbia and other countries of Latin America. As one panelist, a Colombian citizen, said, “If you look at a map of where the multi-national companies are located around the world you will also find that the private security companies are located in the same places.” He went on to say, “It is business based on fire and blood.”
Also the para-military of Columbia works in coalition with the private military companies without impunity. This is exactly why these companies are hired because this allows the governments and the corporations to get around the international legal restrictions which are in place to protect the people. This allows the business interests and the governments to do what they would never be allowed or able to do with their standing military.
I also attended a workshop on Haiti. The presenter pointed out that once they called us communists, now they call us terrorists. I took eight pages of notes on the various workshops that I will not go into now. But I will share with those that are interested when I return.
I also learned some updated information about Nicaragua at a workshop presented by our friend Chuck Kaufman of the Nicaragua Network.
Today I was reminded of another reason this is such a unique experience. It is the only event I have found that brings together people from all over this hemphishere that are involved in the struggle for positive social change, that are working everyday to bring about social justice and peace in their areas of concentration. I am reminded of how we involved in the work for justice are part of a larger struggle that stretches back in time and that will continue after our time to carry on the work is finished. It is as Alice Walker described, that those involved in the struggle for justice are part of a great relay that stretches back in time, that involves untold thousands who have struggled against the injustices of their time. We are but the current relay runners carrying the torch which has been passed to us by those who have come before. At some point we will pass the torch onto the next runners. And so it will be, as Martin Luther King said I may not be with you but one day justice will come. Not only for African Americans but for all those of all lands who suffer injustice.
When I come here I see how all of our work is interwoven, like bright stands woven into one grand fabric for change. We are not alone.