SOA Watch – West Guestbook
Welcome to the School of the Americas Watch – West guestbook and message board. You may sign in and add your questions or comments by clicking on the "MAIL" button at the bottom of the page. Thanks!
Name: Mike Pelepko
E-mail Address: mikepelepko@hotmail.com
Comments: Attended "our" rally at Fort Benning on Saturday and Sunday (11/20 - 11/21/04).
Thanks!
My wife telephoned the Lebanon Daily News (PA) early Monday morning when I was just waking up in Columbus for the trip home; the paper carried a wee bit of "our" story and the AP photo of Nashua Chantal, the most enduring of "peace clowns." (Mister Mel Gibson, where were you this past Sunday?)
"Peace and Justice!"
Mike Pelepko, a former Maryknoll seminarian
1847 Martin Drive
Lebanon, PA 17046-1830Posted: Wednesday 11/25/04 17, 2004
Name: bobby crosby
E-mail Address: bobbycrosby@hotmail.com
Name: joseph schaffer
E-mail Address: starry@californiaexcitement.com
Comments: Thank you, I found everything I was looking for right here!Posted: Nov 17, 2004 10:24 AM
Name: bobby crosby
E-mail Address: bobbycrosby@hotmail.com
Comments: The propagandized media machine is the fodder for most US citizens. Sucked up and believed as truth. SOA watch needs more press in order to educate. For now only the people who are already aware of the atrocities----are the only ones aware. This movement needs to get BIG.Posted: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 16:57:02 -0700 (PDT)
Name: Krissy McGivney Roleke
E-mail Address: soawsocal@hotmail.com
Comments: Hi Daniel.I am an SOA Watch West member who has moved to southern CA. Please put me down as a contact person for the Los Angeles area on the SOAW West Web site's "Contact Persons" section. I want to organize a group down here, and figured that this would be a good way to start.
Posted: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 15:05:16 -0800
Name: Ken Russell
E-mail Address: law_man12@hotmail.com
Comments: Great site,,,my family is Native,,we know what the US Govt is capable of.
Posted: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 18:01:51 -0800 (PST)Name: Betsy Fox
E-mail Address: betsyfox@vtc.net
Comments: I am very interested in receiving the SOA Watch Newsletter. I am on Father Ricardo Elford's e- mailing list for j&p (justice & peace) out of Tucson, Arizona. Today I received an excellent article entitled 'Backyard Terrorism' from the London Observer. It deals with the SOA.Thank you.
Betsy Fox
Cochise. Arizona
Posted: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 18:01:51 -0800 (PST)Name: John Pointon
E-mail Address: pointy66@hotmail.com
Comments: This is an article that appeared in today's Guardian in the UK (Tues 30th Oct 2001) I thought you might be interested. –John
Posted: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 07:12:18 -0800 (PST)Name: Sarah Nelson
E-mail Address: Library_S@yahoo.com
Questions: Is there a local SOAW chapter in my area of Davis, CA which is very near Sacramento? If so, please let me know when the next meeting is being held.
Comments: I am a Santa Clara Law School Graduate & human rights activist who has attended the demonstrations at Ft. Benning 3 years in a row. Last year I received a 5 year Ban-and-Bar letter for crossing the line onto the military base with 4,000 other protesters. The SOA is extremely dangerous and uses our tax dollars to teach oppression and torture worldwide. I was very moved by the speech condemming the SOA given by a Major who taught at the SOA for many years. He said the SOA was where Latin American drug pushers go to launder their drug money. The testimonials/evidence available from declassified documents and participants/witnesses is overwhelming. Our government teaches and uses torture. NOT IN MY NAME! Another reason I am so vehemently against the SOA is that I am an ongoing victim of torture by the US government as well. If you are interested in more info this, send me an email.
Posted: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:13:39 -0700 (PDT)Name: Janice Freeman
E-mail Address: janice@compudigital.com
Comments: Fr. Roy coming to Sacramento. May 2...Varsity Theatre in Davis 7PM May 3....Jesuit High School... Carmichael 7PM.... May 4 Trinity Cathedral 7PM
Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 23:00:58 -0700 (PDT)Name: Carolyn Bower
E-mail Address: Nineveh00@aol.com
Questions: If SOA is so bad, then why the heck isn't it closed already?
Comments: Reading over two emails from people who were/are in the armed forces, it intrigues me that they think what the schools graduates have accomplished is good for their countries. Sure, the graduates may be brave, and I can understand that they live in a society very different from ours, but does that justify human rights violations such as torture? I'd like to know how the instructors at the school sleep at night knowing somebody they taught could do such things.
Suggestions: Good site, very informative, but some pictures would be nice.
Posted: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 07:52:49 -0700 (PDT)Name: Jonathan Kelly
E-mail Address: jonnyk@jps.net
Questions: I am a Junior at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, CA (where San Jose contact Larry Lauro teaches), and I am going to write a US History research/interview paper on the SOA. I'd appreciate any kind of help. ThanksPosted: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 18:21:42 -0700 (PDT)
Name: Adam A.
E-mail Address: aa2b92@hotmail.com
Comments: Having served as a trainer with the School of the Americas I find your comments and efforts totally bogus! There are two kinds of people in this world; those who take a stand to defend freedom and democracy, and those who stand on the sidelines criticizing the brave and the strong. We've trained people to defend their nations against communist takeover, and that training has been instrumental in accomplishing just that. I helped to teach students basic small unit military operations such as patrolling, recon ops, ambush and counter ambush ops, which they have used to protect and defend themselves. There was no similarity between the military training I was conducting and the lies you are promoting. These people took a stand to defend themselves against aggressors and all you do is manipulate the truth. Lets say a few cops wrongfully abuse someone's civil rights at the scene of a crime, does that mean we should dismantle all of our nation's law enforcement agencies? Of course not!Groups like yours claim to be for the bringing of piece [sic] to the world and the disarming of armies, but you only focus on the United States and other democratic nations. Why don't you take your efforts into the fields of operation and protest the communist forces threatening free nations everyday? If you want to focus on protecting human rights, you should move to Communist China, Vietnam, or North Korea. There is certainly a lot more human rights being violated in those countries than anywhere else.
The truth is you are hiding behind the wall of security our military and its allies provide, and enjoying rights you haven't earned or fought for. Some of those I trained were very young teenage boys, boys with more courage and character than you'll ever have. These boys had no choice but to take up arms to protect their homes, and some most likely died in the process. If children are all that is left to defend nations and freedom, the least we can do is give them the training, equipment, and support necessary to do it.
Oh by the way, I hear you have proof that it was Elvis on the grassy knoll in Dallas.
Posted: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 01:13:37 -0500
Name: Matt McAndrew
E-mail Address: thebigdrive@hotmail.com
Comments: Hello. I am a freshman at the University of Portland. I am very concerned about the continued existence of the School of the Americas. I have been involved here on campus with helping to plan a vigil to coincide with actions down at Ft. Benning. Barring the miracle of the School closure, I would like to cross the line next year. Could you please put me on any mailing list you have, or when plans for next years actions begin forward me any information you have. Thank you very much for your time.
Posted: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 00:20:41 -0800Name: Susan Jackson
E-mail Address: sjax@bigfoot.com
Website: Netnet.net
Questions: I will be in San Francisco from December 19, 2000 until January 9, 2000. Is there an active SOA Watch Group? Also, where are you located?
Comments: The first I knew about the School of Assasins was during the El Salvadore years of terror. I learned about SOA Watch as a student at Maryknoll School of Theology (class of '94). During my work for the House of Representatives I am happy to say my boss voted to close. Saddly we were not reelected and the current Member is in lockstep with supporters.
Posted: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 20:29:59 -0800 (PST)Name: Kathy Niece
E-mail Address: Kathy4Paz@aol.com
Website: School of the Americas Watch UCSB Chapter
Comments: &nring from you!
Posted: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 17:52:48 -0700 (PDT)Name: Heather Kiger
E-mail Address: aaaaaagh@umail.ucsb.edu
Website: School of the Americas Watch UCSB Chapter
Comments: Glad to know the movement is so strong along the West Coast! There's a group of us in Santa Barbara trying to get a SOAW chapter off the ground, and while an actual structured group is slow coming, there's been a pretty huge response over all. We just need organizing. I'd like to know if and when a regional meeting is held so a group of us can come visit. Please email me with any semi-local info, or any additional comments (such as how your group got off the ground), and you can also list me as a Santa Barbara contact person, if you like. I look forward to hearing from you!
Posted: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 11:05:06 -0700 (PDT)Name: Laura McNamara
E-mail Address: ljbmcnamara@yahoo.com
Comments: As a government student I was horrified and appalled to learn about this state sponsored institution in my Violence and Terrorism Class! Since then I have become active with the SOA and attended last year's protest. I would love to hook up with like minded activists in California (especially fellow college students). Any interested parties, please contact me at the above.
Posted: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 22:13:52 -0700 (PDT)Name: KAT
E-mail Address: mitras99
Comments: I am a dual citizen (Canadian/American) living in the U.S. for the first time since my birth here. I recently became aware of the School of the Americasa through NPR. I was horrified; perhaps this reaction is due to the fact that I was raised in a kinder and gentler society. Perhaps it is due to the fact that this institution SHOULD NOT EXIST. Once again, I am ashamed to be American.
Perhaps you could write a form letter and make it available to those of us on the net, that we could sign and forward to a list of whoever we should be sending it to. (Obviously, I am not familiar with the American political system.)
Please take this under consideration.
In your corner. . .
KATPosted: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 07:43:49 -0600
Name: Judith Gips
E-mail Address: comadre@mindspring.com
Comments: glad I found you folks. I'm in Berkeley and would like to know about local Bay Area organizing. I'm going to bookmark the page under my "human rights" file. Just got linked via a posting on the counter-recruitmkent mailing list regarding the vote in the House on Wednesday.
would love to exchange peace and justice links with someone else. I'm slowly building up my on-line resource library..foci now are casualties of drug wars (foreign and domestic), international environmental justice, militarization and young people, human rights, civil liberties in US. keep me posted.
Posted: Mon, 15 May 2000 07:42:47 -0700 (PDT)Name: Beth Benson
E-mail Address: bbenson@edgewood.edu
Comments: I am a college student who was shown an enlightening film about the School of the Americas, that was not filled with "emotional misinformation", in a class recently, and I'm appalled. To be honest, I had no clue that this "school" had even existed before viewing this video. I now know of the destruction that some of it's graduates have created and can't see how the school is beneficial for anyone. It's extremely horrifying that the SOA can even be rationalized as a means to keep the communists from Central America away from our "door steps". Were the 900 innocent civilians whom were murdered in the El Mozote Massacre really threatening the strong democracy of the U.S.? Why do our taxes go towards the training of killers? The whole thing boggles my brain and I'm in the process of writing my Congressman.
Suggestions: Keep up the good work. It shows a lot of intelligence to present both views and varying comments on the subject.
Posted: Sun, 30 Apr 2000 13:42:13 -0700 (PDT)
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