By Annie Jones
Columnist
Protestors danced and sang in the streets of Columbus, Ga., Nov. 19-21 at what was once called the School of the Americas, where the U.S. government is accused of teaching “terrorism tactics.”
This year, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College’s Peace and Justice committee sent five students: junior Jordan Bedella, junior Brittany Coy, sophomore Colleen Daum, senior Danielle Sommers, and me to visit and observe the SOA Watch along with Sisters of Providence including Sister Jenny Howard and Campus Minister Malia Hoffman.
“I wanted to learn about it as much as I could. We held a prayer service for all those murdered by the hands of SOA soldiers,” said Howard when asked about her first time attending an SOA protest.
This year was Howard’s tenth attending the SOA Watch.
The SOA Watch has been going on outside the main gates of Fort Benning since 1990, but for more than 64 years the SOA has trained more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques such as sniper training, interrogation tactics, commando psychological warfare, and military intelligence. 
It all began in 1946 when the SOA was first established in Panama and called the U.S. Army Caribbean Training Center. The training center was established to help “professionalize” Latin American and Caribbean militaries at the time.
In 1963, President Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress led to the training center’s name to be changed to the School of the Americas. Twenty years later, in 1984, the school was forced to move from Panama to Fort Benning, Georgia because of the terms of agreement in the Panama Canal Treaties.
Many student groups, like Peace and Justice at SMWC, now participate in the three-day long Watch, side-by-side with countless faith communities, veterans groups, and national and local labor unions.
The Watch is now a large movement with more than 10,000 people that is rooted in helping the people that are the most affected by the SOA, the poor and oppressed.
We first arrived late Friday night in Phoenix City, Ala., at our hotel where we would be staying for the next two nights. The five of us girls were excited about the watch that laid ahead on Saturday.
When we arrived to the SOA Watch it seemed quiet and somewhat reserved but as we got closer the presence of the Watch grew.
As we walked towards the barricaded street that was housing the Watch it became noticeable that it led to the main gate of Fort Benning.
Soon after this realization we became swarmed with people who were handing out flyers, preaching for the cause, and looking for donations.
As we kept walking farther in the streets they became more congested. There were little souvenir shops and equal trade vendors scattered all along the sides of the road. There were also booths from different student groups, faith communities including the Sisters of Providence, and veterans groups scattered throughout the crowd.
The farther we went into the street, the more we began to discover. At the end of the street, just before the gates of Fort Benning, there was a stage set up. This stage housed speakers from all over the world who stood up in front of Fort Benning and the crowd to tell their horror stories.
The stage also housed performances from Kuumba Lynx, a hip-hop group from Chicago that works with the youth throughout the city, and Rebel Diaz, a group of three that “report from the trenches” and make music from their experiences.
Sunday, however, was as if we had returned to a different watch. The majority of the shops and booths had been shut down and there was a mass of people and groups that where all lined up for the march on Fort Benning. There was a man on stage, announcing guidelines that were to be followed for the march.
“I didn’t think it was going to be that touchy of a subject, but then they began to call out names and they started telling the stories of the survivors and what the SOA had done,” said Bedella. “It changed everything for me.”
The march onto Fort Benning was a profound moment. All I could see was an ocean of people who were singing and holding crosses with names of people whose death had been traced back to the SOA. The sea of people were together for one reason and one reason only. Justice.
As the march began the mass of people in line and on stage began to sing.
As I looked up at the fence of Fort Benning I could see that it was covered with photos of the people who had been lost. Their names and ages were written across each cross that scattered across the fence.
On our way out of the march there was a scene of the six original monks who had been killed by SOA trainees on Nov. 16, 1989.
After that it was over and the crowds began to disperse, the vendors started to pack up, and the cops were moving in.
The line that separates the protestors from the military base is not to be crossed. Those brave enough to cross that line are automatically arrested.
“Being arrested is something that people plan,” said Howard. “I don’t think that anyone wants to be arrested, but it is all done to make people aware about what’s going on.”
There were a total of 24 people arrested for crossing that line onto Fort Benning that weekend.
On Sunday, a local judge found 23 out of the 24 people who were arrested by the city guilty on charges including unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, and parading without a permit. The total of bonds and fines exceeded $75,000.
In 1998 more than 2,000 people crossed the gates of Fort Benning during the SOA Watch. With 8,000 supporters present at the watch it was one of the largest civil disobedience actions in the United States since the Vietnam War.
There were no prosecutions that followed.
More than 300 people have been tried as a result of nearly 200 SOA Watches throughout the country.
Human rights defenders have collectively spent more than 90 years in prison and more than 50 probation sentences ranging from six to 36 months. Most defendants have received fines that ranged from $500 to $3,000.
“I was not worried about my safety at the protest,” said Howard. “It is non-violent and there are no weapons, no drugs, and no alcohol. The greater violence is being done to those who suffer at the hands of the SOA.”
For more information on the SOA Watch or how to participate in their upcoming events, visit www.soaw.org or call 202-234-3440.
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