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CounterPunch
January
14, 2003
A Real Patriot
Standing Up
to the School of the Americas
by FRAN QUIQLEY
NUVO
For someone just 20 years old and talking about
the prospect of spending 18 months in federal prison, Charity
Ryerson seems pretty matter-of-fact. She discusses her plans
to have books shipped to her over the course of her sentence
and the arrangements to take correspondence courses from prison.
All things considered, she says, this is not a bad period in
her life to be serving time.
If asked, though, Ryerson admits her
mother has shed a few tears. There are times when Ryserson herself
can scarcely believe what is facing her just a few years after
graduating from Brebeuf Jesuit High School.
"Sometimes I wake up in the morning
and say to myself, 'I'm going to prison.' And then I have to
think, 'OK. Breathe ... Breathe.'" But Ryerson insists such
anxious moments are rare, and quickly resolved when she revisits
the reason for her sacrifice. "It helps a lot to realize
that one and a half years in federal minimum security prison
is not the same as spending one and a half years in a Latin American
community where School of America graduates inflict terror on
the people."
Ryerson and Jeremy John, 21, both Indianapolis
natives now living in Bloomington, face trial on Jan. 21 on charges
of trespass on federal property and destruction of property.
The allegations are based on events that occurred during the
annual protest to close the U.S. Army's Fort Benning-based Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known
as the School of Americas (SOA). Ryerson and John are charged
with cutting a padlock off a fence to allow other protesters
to enter the Georgia base.
(Actually, John is charged with destruction
of federal property while Ryerson faces a nearly-identical "aiding
and abetting" charge. "I don't know why they charged
me with just aiding and abetting," Ryerson says, rolling
her eyes. "It's probably because I'm a girl.")
The School of Americas has a half-century
of history as a training ground for some of Latin America's most
notorious war criminals, including Panama's Gen. Manuel Noreiga,
the assassins of El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero and two
Guatemalan dictators accused of genocide. The curriculum sponsored
by the U.S. Army included manuals on beatings and executions
and medical doctors who instructed SOA students on torture techniques.
School of Americas graduates have been implicated in the murders
of thousands of civilians, including six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.
The anniversary of those killings is
commemorated each November with a non-violent protest outside
Fort Benning, attended this past year by some 11,000 people,
many bearing crosses with the names of civilian victims of SOA
graduates. Eighty-six of those protesters, including Ryerson
and John, face trial later this month on federal trespass-related
criminal charges.
In the Hoosier tradition of Eugene V.
Debs, who famously insisted that he could not be free while anyone
is in prison, Indiana is well-represented in the dock. Sister
Adele Beacham, 74, and Sister Rita Gerardot, 76, both of St.
Mary-of-the-Woods, face six months in federal prison for walking
onto the base grounds. Sister Kathleen Desautels, originally
from Indianapolis, and Father Jerry Zawada, originally from East
Chicago, are still serving sentences for trespassing during the
November 2001 protest.
More necessary than
we think
Ryerson, who twice attended previous
SOA protests without being arrested, says civil disobedience
is a vital component of a movement that has come as close as
five votes away from having the U.S. House of Representatives
stop funding for the SOA's successor. "There are all sorts
of different resources we are using in this effort: While we
are getting arrested, there is a bill going through Congress
every year [most recently H.R. 1810, which counted Rep. Julia
Carson (D-Indianapolis) as one of its 112 co-sponsors]. Thousands
of people are writing letters, and of course there is the mass
mobilization every November.
"But civil disobedience is often
more necessary than we think it is. Education is probably the
most important and hardest step in any kind of effort to make
social change, and civil disobedience really helps with the education
piece," she says. "If I wasn't going to prison, I wouldn't
be doing this interview with a newspaper. I have friends and
family who have never been politically active at all who are
now incredibly mobilized. Multiply that by 96, the number of
people arrested this past November, and that's enormous."
Ryerson is a student at Loyola University
in Chicago and a national campus coordinator for the World Bank
Bonds Boycott, which aims to reform the institution whose debt
policies cripple developing countries. She views her activism
and impending prison sentence in the broad context of flawed
U.S. foreign policy. "I consider the SOA to be the military
arm of the World Bank in Latin America," she says. "I
am doing this not just for Latin American SOA victims, but also
for people working in sweat shops in Asia. I am really protesting
U.S. foreign policy worldwide."
That foreign policy presents an ironic
twist to opponents of the SOA. The Bush Administration is using
opposition to terrorism as justification for preparing for war
with Iraq, all the while refusing to shut down a U.S. institution
that has nurtured Latin American terrorists. Anti-SOA activists
also face a post Sept. 11 citizenry with newly energized pro-USA
sentiments. But Ryerson says that a time when flag decals are
again in vogue presents the perfect chance to demonstrate the
true meaning of engaged citizenry.
"A real patriot is someone who appreciates
the positive things about their country and the standard of living
in their country, but also can criticize and make sacrifices
for social change to make their country one to be proud of,"
she says. "My sacrifice is for a much greater cause than
my own comfort, and I'd do it again in a second."
Fran Quigley
is a contributing editor to
NUVO, where this article originally appeared. For more
information about School of Americas activism, check the Web
site for SOA Watch.
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