Letter from Louis Vitale, SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience

[roody]

Father Louis is in prison again for having trespassed on Fort Benning, home of School of the Americas

Letter from Father Louis Vitale, SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience:

Two weeks have passed since David Omondi and I began our sojourn here at Irwin
County Detention Center in southern Georgia. Some may say, "Vitale has protested
himself back into the pokey below the Mason-Dixon line" and "He has been jailed
again in an effort to bring peace and social justice." SF Chronicle 11/28

LouieMany ask, "Why do you keep doing this?" We try to respond: "Because the
oppression goes on and our nation is a major participant in that oppression of the
poor and of all creation." Specifically this manifestation of mourning focuses on
the School of the Americas (WHINSEC) at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where U.S. military
have taught counter-insurgency techniques, including torture and disappearance, to
Latin American military. It still goes on, as recently observed with the outrageous
coup in Honduras carried out by graduates of the School of the Americas. In fact,
our involvement in oppressive militarism extends throughout the world!

But why so many times at Ft. Benning (my fourth arrest and incarceration, and so far
from my home base)? The School of the Americas is an icon of our intrusion into
developing countries over many years and the source of horrific massacres including
religious leaders and thousands of peasants. Also Ft. Benning is a major military
base feeding vast numbers into the war machine. Thousands gather annually to mourn
the victims and to call for an end to our war machine that continues to grow into
more bases, nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities, even into space war (and the
new X-37B militarized version of the space shuttle).

Are we ready to declare peace and act in its presence? Let's call - with all our
energy - for nonviolent solutions now, transforming many peoples' lives and our
world. Our work is cut out for us as we must be vigilant and active with nonviolent
resistance. May we move towards peace in the new year.

Irwin County Detention Center on December 15, and is currently in transit. We will
let you know as soon as he reaches his final destination.]

_______________________________________________
Write the the Prisoners of Conscience

To write to Louis, please direct correspondence to:
Fr. Louis Vitale, c/o The Nuclear Resister, P.O. Box 43383, Tucson, AZ 85733

To write to Michael David Omondi, also sentenced to six months for trespass at Ft.
Benning, please direct your correspondence to: David Omondi, c/o The Los Angeles
Catholic Worker, 632 N. Brittania St., Los Angeles, CA 90033

________________________________________________
If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation of $100 or more, please write a
check to "SOA Watch Educational Fund" and mail it to: SOA Watch, PO Box 4566,
Washington, DC 20017.

[roody]

1. k

[EFerrari]

2. Thanks, roody. K&R

[Octafish]

3. Thank Goodness for Fr. Louis and Mr. Omondi. SOA is a conservative Academy of Murder Inc.

School of the Americas

[OutNow]

4. Peace on Earth

Is it worth going to jail to achieve?

Yes it is.

If you ever have the opportunity to listen to Fr. Roy Bourgeois, the founder of SOA Watch, you will be convinced that you can help, must help, to close the School of Assassins at Fort Benning, Georgia.

[Judi Lynn]

5. SOA grads led the military coup in Honduras, and the oppression of the people since then.

The protesters have ALWAYS had their number, activists have every moral right to protest this school of assassins.

How they cloak it all in lies, misdirection, and remain below the radar with the majority of US Americans is one of the greatest mysteries. Why should they operate using the money taken from U.S. taxpayers and LIE about what they have done with it when it means the widespread torture, mutilation, grief, suffering for so MANY absolutely helpless poor people trying to live in their OWN homelands?

There isn't a word brutal enough to cover what they have done, are doing, and will do unless they STOP.

The only peace they're interested in is the deathly calm after they have murdered everyone they don't like.

[gratuitous]

6. We'll keep protesting until the U.S. gets out of the business of training terrorists

That would definitely be some change to believe in. The justifications for keeping it open are just plain bullshit.