Priest speaks on protests

Those were some of the provocative comments made recently at The College of Saint Rose in Albany where Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest, spoke about his efforts to close the School of the Americas.

Located in Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas is now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. It trains military personnel from Latin American countries. According to SOA Watch, Father Bourgeois' group, graduates of the school have been implicated in murder and torture in their own countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala and Colombia.

But the school's commandant, Col. Richard Downie, said the school has changed since it was closed and reopened under its new name last year. Human rights, he said, was introduced as a topic in the classes.

Nonetheless, following the example of activists like Dorothy Day, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Father Bourgeois continues nonviolent protests at the school.

"Their way was our way," he said of his role models. "We can be what they were during their day: voices for peace and justice."

Every November, the School of the Americas Watch meets in Georgia to protest, remembering those who have been killed by its graduates. Last November, the priest said, 10,000 people took part. However, some people argued that no protest should have been held in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11.

"The President keeps saying to us to go to the places where training for terrorism exists," he said. "What better place than in our backyard? We really cannot take peace-making seriously until we start to look at our country with critical eyes. We have to keep our hands on our plow, keep our eyes on the prize. Those who have a voice must speak for the voices that are silenced."

(Editor's note: The author is a student at The College of Saint Rose. Information for this article was also provided by Catholic News Service.)

(05-02-02) [[In-content Ad]]