Since I came to WWC, I feel like I spend my weekends in white vans wandering to various points with occasional stops at Waffle House to eat and wondering "where is Bennett?" when we leave. (Inside joke.) This past weekend was no exception as I joined a group that Andy Summers took to attend the Vigil and Action at the gates of the U.S. Army School of Americas in Columbus GA. (See last Commode for info about SOA.) I wanted to share what our group did and saw.

We had arrived in Columbus the nightbefore and spent the night on the floor of a Gymnasium. A friend of Andy's ran a community center and let us stay on the condition that we not reveal where we were staying. He was afraid that he might lose his United Way funding if word got out that he was supporting people involved with any protest against the base. We arrived fairly early at the protest because we had offered to set up the small stage we were using. Most of the organisers were in a meeting all morning to discuss the planned civil disobedience with those who planned to "cross the line" and face arrest. While we set up, a man with dark glasses sat in a car with USGOVERNMENT tags snapping pictures of all of us. He had this oh-so-serious G-man look about him. Every protest I've attended that involves a Military base has one of those guys snapping pictures. Someone else then set up a video camera and started taping us. I thought of how dangerous we must have been to warrant such attention. We didn't look dangerous in my eyes, but I guess to the people on the "other side of the line" we threatened the very existence of their institution and thus were quite a threat to them.

Soon several Columbus Police cars drove up and loads of police started positioning themselves around us. I must admit that they made me quite uncomfortable at first. At one point I was checking on the Warren Wilson sign we had brought (and that Mrs. Laursen would kill me for allowing any damage to be inflicted) when one of the cops asked me if I had a program. I was reluctant to get him one, questioning the motive, but got I did anyway. Turns out that he wanted to know when the Civil Disobedience would start so that they could block traffic at that time and allow us to pass through the gate without cars getting in our path. The cop noticed some words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the program and made note of that. This lead into a half hour discussion about why we were here. At one point he asked me, "but what are the economic reasons for having this School? U.S. policy isn't concerned with human rights as much as it is in the economic benefit." After that, I knew I was trying to preach to the converted. The encounter made me much more comfortable with the Police force that was there and also made me rethink my "bad cop, no doughnut" stereotypes.

Most of the day was spent listening to speeches made by religious leaders, including Jesuit and Maryknoll Catholics, veterans groups, Amnesty International, and the like. A brilliant oration was given by Andy as he represented Witness for Peace. (This is called kissing up to your boss.) We were given a view of the inside of the school by a retired Major who used to teach at the SOA. He spoke of, "American faculty members readily accepting all forms of military dictatorships in Latin America and frequently conversed about future personal opportunities to their new 'friends' when they ascended to positions of military or dictatorial power some day." As is common in events like this, the speeches seemed to take forever. Finally we were ready for the Civil Disobedience action to begin. The 60 that were going to participate were gathered into the center of the crowd of 500 or so people. The walkie talkies of the Columbus Police chirped wildly with activity in the background as they moved to block traffic entering the base. As we blessed the ones who were crossing the line, the Army MPs moved to get into position. Catholic priests exorcised the base of evil using an ancient and seldom used ritual. We moved toward the line and the tension mounted. We each held in our hands a white wooden cross inscribed with the name of an innocent person killed by a SOA graduate. In the background, a woman read the names over the loudspeaker in a sing-song chant much like you would hear in a Mass. After each name, we responded: "Presente", which Andy tells me is a way of honouring the dead. We lined up with our crosses and faced the "enemy" as the 60 crossed the line. Behind the chanted names and the police radios was the sound of the voice of the Army Captain as he came forward and read the statute that made it illegal to trespass on military property to perform a political protest. It was all so eerie and surreal; I felt as if I was watching a movie rather than actually being there. The 60 walked past the Captain and proceeded to plant their crosses in the ground inside the base. They expected to be arrested at that point, but they were not. They continued into the base and disappeared from our sight. As they disappeared, I had a powerful feeling that I should be with them, but knew I couldn't because I was with a group that would have been affected by my actions. The MPs immediately started pulling up the crosses and threw them all into the trunk of a white car and then sped off. The rest of us planted our crosses outside the base and prayed the others would not be harmed.

I remember just before we left looking at the crosses in the ground and reading the names. I heard a little girl ask her mother, "Mommy, why do they teach people to hurt people here?" I looked up and saw the Captain standing there behind that imaginary line that we could not cross. As I looked down at the crosses and then looked up and looked at him, our eyes met. I wanted to say something, but I could not. I wanted to ask him to answer the little girl's question. But I could not. I wanted to hate him, but I could not bring myself to doing that. I just felt very sad, maybe for the Captain most of all.