SOAW–West News for September, 2004

1) Events & activities of note.
2) Note to Fort Benning Vigil Participants.
3) Fort Benning Travel Tip.
4) Carlos Mauricio organizing bus caravan.
5) Radio project anniversary.
6) 2 new books
7) New info for participants attending the Vigil at Fort Benning
 

 


School of the Americas Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
September 13, 2004
Unitarian Universalist Society, S.F. - www.uusf.org/Committees/SOAW/
San Jose: - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro [wocdoc@earthlink.net]
Los Angeles Website - www.soaw-la.org
National Website - www.soaw.org

******

Note:  Items for SOAW–W e-mails should be sent to:
Dolores Perez Priem

SOAW Vigil at Ft. Benning, GA – 
Nov. 19-21, 2004


NEW EVENT/ACTIVITY:

SOA/WHINSEC Nov. demo-goers take note: Pace e Bene will be conducting "Violence to Wholeness Trainings" in October.
For details, see our calendar by clicking below:


Fort Benning Vigil Participants: We are compiling a list of SOAWWers going to Fort Benning.  Could you please contact your SOAWW area leaders listed below to let them know your plans; or if you prefer, let our compiler, Bhaskar, know the following information, by emailing to him at bhaskar.ghosh@oracle.com
  • Name
  • Address
  • Home Phone
  • Cell Phone while in Georgi
  • SOAW Area Group (if any)
  • Travel:  Airline/Time Leaving/Time Returning
  • Hotel:   Name/Phone #

* Fort Benning Travel Tip:  Katharine and Tom Samway recommend contacting SouthWest Airlines and fly to Birmingham, Alabama.  They say the fares are great and it's closer to Columbus.

* SOAW activists!  Carlos Mauricio is organizing a bus caravan to the SOA Vigil in Ft. Benning.   He will leave San Francisco on about November 7th and go through LA, Phoenix, Tucson, cities in Texas, and New Orleans, giving speaking engagements as he goes through.  If you want to help organize this or have contacts with activists along
this route, or want to go on the bus caravan, please contact Carlos at stopimpunity@cs.com.

* The National Radio Project celebrating its 10th Anniversary
Thursday, September 23.  Details.  Contact 510-839-3100 or visit www.radioproject.org.



School of the Americas Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
September 28, 2004
San Jose Website - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro
Los Angeles Website - www.soaw-la.org
National Website - www.soaw.org

******

Note:  Items for SOAW–W e-mails should be sent to:
Dolores Perez Priem

SOAW Vigil at Ft. Benning, GA – 
Nov. 19-21, 2004

NEWS!
 
There are two important new books just out which may be ordered from the SOAW DC office (202-234-3440 or info@soaw.org).  Lesley Gill's book The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas, Duke University Press - is important especially because this author is an independent researcher.  She is Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University.  Here are some quotes from her "Conclusion" to peak your interest, plus a review by Michael Parenti:

"... The military represented the most basic form of imperial control in the Americas.  Maintaining U.S. hegemony depended on soldiers to uphold a particular form of capitalist order that shifted over time, and it was a fundamentally violent process.  Because of the strategic importance of Latin America for the United States, the School of the Americas played a vital role in training over 60,000 troops between its founding in the Panama Canal Zone after WWII and its reincarnation as the WHINSEC in 2001.  The School constituted part of a hydra-headed, repressive apparatus that included armies, police forces, paramilitaries, training centers, arms manufacturers, and think-tanks.  This ravenous beast consumed ever more public resources as the cold war spurred its expansion throughout the middle decades of the 20th century.  ....  Even though threats, political and economic manipulation, and brute force were key to sustaining U.S. power in the Americas, the new opportunities offered to rising members of the Latin American officer corps by the United States secured their collusion in the U.S. imperial project to a considerable degree. ...."

"Lesley Gill has produced an in-depth expose of the militaristic mentality, socio-ethnic tensions, and outrageous atrocities of the empire's Praetorian Guard. Insightful and richly researched, a work of superior quality." - Michael Parenti, author of The Terrorism Trap and The Assassination of Julius Caesar

Also recommended: Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas by Linda Cooper and James Hodge, Orbis Books (Maryknoll Press). This biography is about the inspiring journey of a prophetic priest and the campaign to close the Army school responsible for training dictators and death squad leaders, and the founder of our SOAW movement.

New info for participants attending the Vigil at Fort Benning:
 

  • Flight Information -- Saturday departure results in less flight and availability. Again Delta has the best availability and price. Flights depart 7:15 AM, and afternoon at 1:23, 3:00, 9:45.
    • Frontier airlines has a 9:15 AM flight for $257, w/one stop and 6 hr flight time.
    • America West has 3:36 PM flight for $265, w/one stop and almost 6 hr flight time.
    • Delta also has an 8:00 AM  & 10:10 AM nonstop for $370 with a 4-1/2 flight time.
    • Southwest Airlines has flights into Birmingham, AL (as close to Columbus as Atlanta).


    All of these fares are available over the Internet at "travelocity.com" and were current as of 7:00 PM Thursday, September 16. If you have a credit card and Internet access, you can get these same fares yourself.  If you have difficulty attempting to do this, remember that you do not have to have a computer of your own try to get to a friend's computer -- OR please contact me at 510-845-6151 if you need assistance in obtaining these fares.

    J.C. Orton Travel Coordinator for SOAWW. 2003/2004  Thank you, JC!

  • Hotel information --  Natalie Russell may be able to help out with hotel rooms which she has reserved.  Please contact her at 925-934-0759 or russell1626@juno.com.
More buses have been chartered for groups in the East and Midwest to travel to Fort Benning this November than has ever been the case. The anticipated number of vigilers seems to be up, borne out by the fact that all rooms are apparently booked in Columbus over the vigil weekend. Arrange for rooms NOW if you haven't done so already.  You may have to look to Phenix City, AL, just across the river from Columbus.
  • New funeral procession schema has been approved and will be implemented this November. Rather than a linear procession along Benning Road to the front gate of Fort Benning, where the group tends to congregate and then disband, a racetrack type of circular procession will be accomplished where the group will process around the stage, past the gate, and then up and down Benning Road past memorial shrines in a circular fashion. It will still be a solemn procession but hopefully participants will find the new process more significant and engaging. Participants are still encouraged to bring their religious symbols and sacred artifacts to leave at the front gate or at one of the memorials.


LOCAL EVENTS, see Calendar:


 

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[For archived news from previous posting,
click on: August.]