For the last several years I dedicate my presence at protests to commemorate Rufina Amaya, a Salvadoran woman, the sole survivor of the massacre at El Mozote perpetrated by graduates of the School of Americas. Away from her village that day she returned to the horror of watching her husband, four children, parents and sibling die in gunfire aimed at the school which the villagers were forced to enter. As a final act the structure was set afire.
In 1996 I read of a documentary film School of Assassins by the Maryknoll Missionaries. Fascinated by the title and the fact that it was nominated for an award I sent for it. The day it arrived I watched it once “My government wouldn’t do that” twice, “Oh, No” and after the third time I called the number at the end and so begins my story....
For many years the United States has maintained a training school for the Latin American military at Ft. Benning. This infamous institution has trained hundreds of Central and South American military conscripts in various types of “warfare” and acts of terrorism. Many of these graduates become the worst human rights abusers in the Western Hemisphere.
At the age of 65, in 1996 I ‘crossed the line’ carrying a makeshift cross bearing the name of Jean Donovan, one of the victims of this violence perpetrated by graduates of this institution. I and 60 others were arrested, and cited with a five year Do Not Return document that is also known as a Bar and Ban.
In the interim I traveled with Witness for Peace and a group called EPIC A to confirm for myself the horrors I had witnessed in the School of Assassins Film. The truths were evident in the sharing by witnesses of these atrocities, and by the work of the UN Truth Commission in El Salvador and Guatemala. They named those guilty of these crimes and the attendance records of the School confirmed their enrollment and the courses studied
How could I not then, ignore the Bar and Ban and once more cross that line! Now the charge or ignoring the Bar and Ban under the U.S. Military Code became criminal trespass subject to six months in prison and a fine of $3000.
Yes, prison, more difficult than I expected, proved to be an eye opener about the injustice of our justice system. The women’s prison of some 500, mostly minorities, under educated, and subjects of poor economic situations, were all sentenced for non violent crimes, mostly drug related though they were not dealers. And to further traumatize these prisoners they nearly all had children under 18. The social implications here cannot be justified considering the harm that happens as a result.
As an advocate for human rights, with a special interest in prison conditions, the Spirit Sophia , not done with me yet, next introduced the plight of asylum seekers. While attending the protests at Ft Benning. , a side trip to a private prison in Lumpkin, Ga, an impoverished rural town, again led to an arrest. This private prison housed over 1700 men under questionable physical and mental conditions. Dressed as the statue of Liberty and holding my torch high the good sheriff handcuffed me in the front as I reminded him of his mother! This gave me he opportunity to hold my cuffed hands out the rear window, torch in hand, on the way to police headquarters..
The Spirit leads where it will. My personal encounters with civil disobedience are accompanied by and with like minded individuals. We commit to these actions from our different responses to beliefs, cultures, knowledge and experiences. Often our first responsibilities are to family, children, and financial concerns. Only then are we free to consider the possibility of prison, of fines, of the loss of civil rights.
Somehow, in faith we trust that all is evolving as it should to what Teilhard de Chardin called the Omega Point. And we ask “Oh Holy One, is it I?” as we await the response knowing He goes before us always.
May the restlessness of Christ continue to inspire us all.
Rita Lucey is a member of FCM in the Southern Region. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and a Roman Catholic Priest. https://arcwp.org/en/biographies/#L
For information about the School of America Watch…
https://youtu.be/CzeJ4UEdAuE
SOAW video by FCM Member, Jack Wentland. Jack is a member of the Northeast Region.
https://www.facebook.com/jackwent2/videos/10217301289060804/