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News

1) November's Offerings from SOAW-W
2) The First Amendment Is Alive and Well in Columbus
3) SOA Watch West News ~ SOAW-W News ~ October 29, 2001
4) December happenings
5) December News & Future Events

Subject: The First Amendment Is Alive and Well in Columbus

From:      Jeff Moebus

Date:      Fri, 16 Nov 2001 22:25:11 -0600

Late Friday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth denied a request by the City of Columbus, GA that would have made any street marches conducted in conjunction with this weekend's annual School of the Americas (SOA) Vigil illegal.
Judge Faircloth -- who in May sentenced 26 SOA protesters to federal prison sentences ranging from three months to one year with fines of between $500 and $3,000 -- refused to grant the City's request for a restraining order prohibiting any marching on that grounds that to do so would constitute "prior constraint" and violate the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Citing President Bush's declaration that "the most American thing we can do after the September 11 terrorist attacks) is back things back to 'normal' as quickly as possible," Judge Faircloth stated that, for eleven years, "normal" in Columbus on the weekend before Thanksgiving was a march down Fort Benning Road from Victory Drive to the Main gate at Fort Benning by people protesting the School of the Americas. Saying that he agrees with President Bush, the Judge said, "Let's get back to normal. Let 'em march."

SOA Watch West News ~ SOAWW News ~ October 29, 2001
www.PeaceHost.net/soaw-w/ ~ www.soaw.org
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Three events this week - hope to see you soon!
1) SOA Watch West Meeting
Thurs. NOV. 1, 7:00-8:30 pm
Unitarian Universalist Church (Franklin at Geary, San Francisco)
Agenda includes update on plans for vigil and travel to GA
Contact: Judy Liteky at jliteky@aol.com
2) SOA Watch West Dinner, "VOICES OF PEACE"
Fri. NOV. 2, 6 PM social, 7 PM dinner and talks
Speakers: Charlie Liteky, Laura Slattery, Eric LeCompte, and David Hartsough.
Unitarian Universalist Church (Franklin at Geary, San Francisco)
The cost is $25 per person. Choice of seafood or veggie.
RESERVATIONS needed by WED OCT 31.
Contact: Dolores Priem
3) NONVIOLENCE TRAINING
Sat. NOV. 3, 8:30 am - 3 pm
(Very Important for anyone considering attending the demonstration
at the School of the Americas on Nov. 17-18 at Ft. Benning, GA)
Unitarian Universalist Church (Franklin at Geary, San Francisco)
Afternoon program offers 2 options: civil disobedience training or discussion
about specific media focus for SOAW work and new expressions of opposition to the SOA/WHISC.
Contact: Inga Olson
Upcoming Events
1) SPEAKING EVENT
Charlie Liteky, "U.S. Complicity in Third World Oppression"
Tues. NOV. 6
Commonwealth Club
595 Market St. (Mezzanine Level), San Francisco
Reception 4:45 pm; Program 5:15 - 6:15 pm
$3 for students; $6 for members; $9 for nonmembers
Reservations advisable: 415-597-6705
2) MEMORIAL VIGIL - University of Central America Murders
Thurs. NOV. 15, 5:30-9:00 pm
University of San Francisco
Dinner, Prayer Vigil and Dramatic Reading
marking the 12th Anniversary of the Assassination
of the 6 Jesuits and 2 Coworkers in San Salvador..

SOA Watch West News ~ SOAWW News ~ November 28, 2001
www.soaw.org ~ www.PeaceHost.net/soaw-w/
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Meetings with Reports on recent Bay Area and GA Events
SAN FRANCISCO - Thurs. Dec. 6, 7:00 pm
Unitarian Universalist Center, Franklin at Geary
WALNUT CREEK - Tues. Dec. 4, 7:30 pm
Grace Presbyterian Church
Roger Reabor is the minister The meeting will be in the sanctuary.
Directions: Go through the tunnel and get off Hwy 24 at Pleasant Hill Road
South. Follow to dead end (about 3/4 mile) Turn left. At the first light
turn right and go through 2 lights. After the 2nd light, make a left turn
into the parking lot for Grace Presbyterian Church.
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DEMONSTRATION commemorating El Mozote (El Salvador) Massacre
and in protest of Salvadoran government plan to privatize social services
Monday, Dec. 10, noon to 3 pm
Salvadoran Consulate (near Powell Bart station)
Sponsored by CISPES
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Below - you will find some "News from Georgia"
Bay Area people in the news in GA
(1) Don Haselfeld
(2) George Johnson
(3) Laurel Paget-Seekins
(4) Laura Slattery
(5) First Amendment Rights Upheld
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(1) DON HASELFELD
November 19, 2001 - Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer
"A 72-year old veteran from San Francisco . . . went down the hill and over a
creek. At last, he was on Fort Benning [property], walking tall until a
Department of Defense officer leaned him against a tree and took him into
custody." Don received a Ban and Bar.
(2) GEORGE JOHNSON
November 19, 2001 - Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer
George Johnson, 58, carried the American flag attached to a stick of wood.
In place of the 50 stars, however, was a peace symbol.
"It's like the ones we used to carry when we protested the Vietnam War,"
Johnson said. "People are always asking me where I got it."
The Navy veteran has been attending the SOA protest for the past five years.
"I drove in from North Carolina," Johnson said. "But I've been on the road
for about a week," visiting friends and family.
Johnson has six children and eight grandchildren.
"They're all pretty supportive of me," he said. "They know they can depend on
me to be against war."
When he's not protesting, though, he said you can find him watching football,
walking in the park and "doing all the things normal people do."
But protesting is his first love.
"My favorite memory is here in Columbus," Johnson said. "I was having
breakfast at a restaurant and got to talking with some retired army
officers." After a long conversation about SOA, he said he left making new
friends.
"Southern hospitality is alive and well in Columbus, Ga.," Johnson said. "The
people here are just wonderful."
(3) LAUREL PAGET-SEEKINS
November 19, 2001 - Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer
Laurel Paget-Seekins wasn't waving a cross, holding a banner or verbally
protesting SOA, but her statement rang loud and clear.
The 21-year-old graduate of Oberlin College, Ohio, has been fasting on juice
and water for the past 18 days.
"It's for those who not only die at the hands of SOA, but for those who
suffer from hunger around the world," Paget-Seekins said. "I wanted to be in
solidarity with that."
She's not alone.
Six other friends who were unable to attend the protest are participating in
the fast, including those who are currently in prison for their protest
efforts.
Paget-Seekins rode in from California on a Greyhound bus. She's been
attending the SOA march for the past four years and has fasted the past two
years.
"I get tired really easily," Paget-Seekins said. "You find that you kind of
lose the hunger after awhile."
She plans to break the fast today with fruits and vegetables.
"It's just a personal way to make a sacrifice," she said. "I hope to inspire
others."

(4) LAURA SLATTERY adds US Army uniform to SOA/Ft. Benning Memorial
By Marc Schuler - November 19, 2001
Independent Media Center - http://atlanta.indymedia.org:8081
At 10 pm on Sunday evening, after the Columbus Police and Muscogee County
Sheriff's Dept. cleared Ft. Benning Drive of the last of the School of the
Americas (SOA) protestors, a detail opened the gates of Ft. Benning to begin
clearing away the memorial that had been created at the gates.
During the Funeral Procession earlier on Sunday, many of the participants had
left items of memorial for the victims of the School of the Americas. The
small white crosses that had been carried by the marchers in the procession,
each bearing the name of a person killed by a SOA graduate, had been placed
in the openings of the chain link fence, and placed against the bottom of the
fence. There were also signs and posters, along with pictures of some of the
victims.
Yet, when the detail emerged from Ft. Benning to destroy this memorial in
order to open Ft. Benning Drive for renewed traffic, they found one item they
didn't expect. Laura Slattery, as her memorial to the victims of the SOA,
left her last uniform jacket from her service in the US Army. It was complete
with insignia of rank and the badges that she had worked hard to earn during
her service.
The detail, which had been taking thousands of memorial crosses and tossing
them aside as if they were firewood, stopped when they reached Laura
Slattery's uniform jacket. The soldier who found it held it up and inspected
it, obviously recognizing it for what it was. He then showed it to the other
members of the detail, before carefully laying it aside on the ground.
Laura Slattery, now a resident of Oakland, CA, is a graduate of the West
Point Academy, class of 1988. She served with the 25th Infantry Division.
Before that, she had served at Ft. Benning, where she had earned her jump
wings and her air assault badge, and an Expert Field Medical Badge. The Jump
wings signify the completion of Paratroop training. The Air Assault Badge
signifies the completion of helicopter assault training, where soldiers repel
by rope from a helicopter. The Expert Field Medical Badge not only includes
advanced medical training, but the physical fitness training to be able to
take the medical skills to where ever they are needed. Each of these badges
is difficult to obtain, and the combination of all three on a uniform is one
that is not often seen.
Laura stopped by the IndyMedia office on Monday morning, and talked with us
for awhile about why her uniform jacket was added to the Memorial at the gate
to Ft. Benning. "Yesterday, I wasn't going to put my uniform out. But I
decided.... well, I didn't know what I was going to do with it. It was the
last uniform I had. All my other uniforms, I got out of the service in '91,
and all the other uniforms that had, I took off the badges, and the insignia
and the medals and all that, and gave them to Good Will. I saved the badges
and stuff. But I kept one uniform. Just for nostalgia sake, as a memento. You
work for those badges, each of those badges, it was like, like the Expert
Field Medical badge you have to do a 12 mile road march in three hours, in
full ruck. A lot of blood and sweat goes into that."
"But I've been in Colombia with Witness for Peace, six months ago. And I felt
like, gosh, we are doing such bad things down in Colombia ...we are training
them in Low-Intensity Conflict, and Low Intensity Conflict is a War against
Civilians. How could I do something to stop that? I felt I wanted to
participate in the parade. But I needed something more than that, to really
stand out and say 'No!'. And I thought that, maybe, putting my uniform up
there might do that."
Laura made a dedication as she made her uniform jacket a portion of the
memorial:
"I refuse to continue to believe that a military solution is any solution at
all.
That guns and violence do anything more than kill my brothers and sisters."

(5) FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT for memorial procession upheld by the federal
district court on Friday Nov. 16. The following account was published in the
Columbus GA newspaper.
JUDGE: MARCH ON
Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer
www.ledger-enquirer.com
November 17, 2001
By Richard Hyatt
His words were clear, free of legal jargon. He talked about war and history
and legacies and of the American way of life. More than anything, G. Mallon
Faircloth talked about the U.S. Constitution.
For 36 minutes the U.S. Magistrate judge talked, sometimes sounding like a
civics teacher, sometimes sounding like a preacher. After 31/2 hours of
listening, he wasted no time. He had reached a decision and, needing no
notes, he rendered it.
In the same Columbus courtroom where six months ago he sentenced two aging
nuns and 24 other SOA Watch protesters to federal prison, Faircloth ruled
Friday that the group could conduct its symbolic funeral procession as it had
for 11 years, marching down Benning Road to the edge of the historic Army
post.
To the judge, a former University of Tennessee football star, it came down to
the document that has long served as a Bible for jurists.
"It was a question of First Amendment rights, and you can't play with that,"
Faircloth said afterward. "I am sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution. I
think I did that today."
The city of Columbus had sought an injunction against four SOA Watch leaders
and had planned to establish a buffer zone at least 50 yards in front of Fort
Benning's main gate during an anticipated Sunday march.
In denying the city's request, Faircloth said years of tradition have
established that roadway as a public forum and a site for political dissent.
He said the city's efforts "were directed at the political grievance
expressed by SOA Watch."
While chiding the city's suit for claiming America was at war, he said even
war doesn't take away safeguards for basic liberties. He agreed with defense
attorneys who classified the city's request as prior restraint against SOA
Watch leaders, taking away their First Amendment rights.
As he rendered his judgment, Faircloth's voice broke at times. His words made
people laugh and at times moved them to tears. Gerry Weber, legal director of
the Georgia American Civil Liberties Union and one of the SOA Watch
attorneys, understood how difficult it must have been for the judge to rule
in this case.
"That's what makes a great judge," Weber said. "He made a decision for all
concerned."
As Faircloth left the courtroom, a stunned Roy Bourgeois hugged Weber and his
fellow defendants. Speaking to no one in particular, the Catholic priest and
SOA Watch founder said, "Tell me this is happening."
In that same 12th Street courtroom, Bourgeois had seen 60 of his followers
sentenced to prison for violating the boundaries at Fort Benning. He had
stood in front of a judge there himself on his way to a federal cell. Friday,
he could only talk about joy.
"But this isn't a victory for SOA Watch," Bourgeois said. "This is a victory
for our First Amendment rights as the judge so eloquently said."
Friday also was the 12th anniversary of a massacre in El Salvador that
Bourgeois connects to graduates of the School of the Americas, the Fort
Benning training center he has protested against since 1990.
"Those martyrs have blessed us today," he said.
A physically drawn Mayor Bobby Peters said the decision will give the city
guidance as the protest begins this morning at Golden Park. Peters and police
officials talked with SOA Watch organizers after the ruling. He said police
plans won't have to be altered.
The city's injunction would have barred Bourgeois and fellow SOA Watch
leaders Jeff Winder, Eric LeCompte and Ken Little from participating in
Sunday's mock funeral procession. The group already has a valid permit to
demonstrate at Golden Park today and Sunday.
The city filed suit Wednesday in Muscogee Superior Court, but SOA Watch
attorneys successfully had the case transferred to federal court. Friday's
action followed more than three hours of negotiations Thursday night between
the two sides.
Assistant Police Chief Wesley Mott was the first witness Friday. A 36-year
veteran of the Columbus Police Department, he said he had worked with the
protest group for 10 years and in that time had made no arrests at the
demonstration.
"But I don't think it could go without incident this year," Mott said, citing
information he had garnered from the group's Web site and concerns he has
with groups other than SOA Watch, including counter-protest groups.
Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson said the city does not have jail cells
available if mass arrests are made. He said the local jail has room for only
300 to 600 short-term prisoners.
Columbus attorney Robert Lomax, one of three lawyers representing the city,
argued that the baseball stadium gives protesters "a place to voice their
speech." He maintained their march would put a hardship on local authorities
by creating a second protest site that officers must secure.
Weber told the court that in their testimony Bourgeois and Winder - both with
a history of non-violence - showed neither would be threats if they marched
on Sunday.
"The city wants their feet tied so they can't march and mouths gagged so they
can't speak," Weber said in his closing statement.
Faircloth told both sides that people ought to follow the president's charge
for Americans to get back to living. He said living here includes the SOA
Watch protest.
"We are all here to protect the American way of life and to protect it with
the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution," the judge said. "If we can do
that, we will leave a legacy to our children's children."
Contact Richard Hyatt at (706) 571-8578 or rhyatt@ledger-enquirer.com

School of the Americas Watch West ~ SOAWW ~ 12/20/01
www.soaw.org

Read below for information about:
(1) SOAW Regional Strategy Meeting
(2) Fr. Roy Bourgeois' schedule of talks in February 2002
(3) SOAW/Colombia Lobby and Rally Days - April 19-22 (Fri-Mon)
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(1) Northern California
School of the Americas Watch (SOAW)
Regional Strategy Meeting
February 9, 2002 (Saturday) from 9 am - 5 pm
Oakland/Berkeley, California area
Dear Northern California SOAW activists,
     The SOAW movement is facing critical questions like how to proceed in the post September 11th world and how to merge the new younger energy into the movement.
     In order to have a democratic grassroots based movement everyone's input is needed. That's why you are invited to attend a Northern California SOAW strategy meeting on February 9th, 2002 from 9 am - 5 pm at a location yet to be determined in the Oakland/Berkeley, California area.
     The day-long meeting will bring together activists from all over Northern
California working to close the SOA/WHISC. Participants will evaluate the state of the movement and set goals for next year. The meeting will allow local activists to give feedback to the national leadership, in addition to providing a setting for local networking and sharing of ideas. We will discuss regional strategy and set up local committees and coordinators.
     Everyone working to close the SOA is welcome. Pre-registration is encouraged
so that we will have an idea of how many people to expect.   We are asking for a sliding scale $5-15 donation at the door to cover the costs. Lunch will be served and housing for people coming from out of town will be provided for Friday and Saturday night, if needed.
For more information contact:
Laurel Paget-Seekins
(707) 895-2966
or
Judy Liteky
(415) 334-4770.
To register please send this form back to:
laurelrose@riseup.net or
Laurel Paget-Seekins
607 23rd St, Oakland, CA 94612
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Name:
Phone Number:
Address:
E-mail address:
SOAW group:
Do you need housing? Which nights?
Are you willing to help organize the event?
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Towards the end of January we will send directions to the retreat center,
more details on the program, and a list of questions we will be discussing so
you can start thinking about them and get input from others who can't attend.

(2) Fr. Roy Bourgeois will be speaking
Feb. 23 (Sat)   Chico, CA
Feb. 24 (Sun) Abraham Lincoln Brigade Program, Oakland, CA
Feb. 25 (Mon) Modesto, CA
Feb. 26 (Tues) Davis, CA
Feb. 27 (Wed) Sacramento State University Newman Center
Feb. 28 (Thur) Peace and Conflict Studies Dept, UC Berkeley (day)
                College of Marin (eve)
(3) Thinking of Washington, DC in the Spring?
April 19    (Fri) SOAW Vigil and Lobby Day
April 20    (Sat) Colombia Teach-In
April 21    (Sun) Colombia Rally
April 22    (Mon) Colombia March and Nonviolent Direct Action
SOAW is working with Witness for Peace and Colombia Support Network on these
events.