Die In At US Embassy

by Patrick O'Neil Fri Dec 08, 2006 21:56

Diane Schultz has trouble saying the words, “in prison,” in reference
to her mother, Valerie Fillenwarth. However, that’s likely to become a
reality for Fillenwarth, a mother of seven and grandmother of 17 who was
arrested Nov. 19 for trespassing onto Fort Benning in Georgia to
protest the U.S. Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation.

Fillenwarth, 64, of Indianapolis, who has been a member of St. Lawrence
Catholic Parish for 34 years, joined 15 others who were arrested by
federal authorities during the annual protest. She was released on $1,000
bond and given a Jan. 29 court date. In recent years, those arrested
have received 90-day to six-month prison sentences.

“We’re worried about her,” said Schultz, a mother of three who, along
with her sister, Sheila Mays, accompanied their mother to the protest.
“It just shows her level of commitment, sacrificing herself.

“All of us, all the kids and our spouses are going to help out however
we can while she’s in prison. Just even saying the words, ‘in prison,’
is kind of bizarre.”

Fillenwarth, who entered Maryknoll as a postulate in 1960 and stayed
for two years, said that during the years that she was consumed with the
work of raising her children, she didn’t keep up with world affairs.
That ended, however, when news reached her of the Dec. 2, 1980, murders
in El Salvador of four churchwomen, three of them from Maryknoll.

“It just slammed me,” she said. “It just hit me so hard.”

After the killings of Maryknoll Srs. Maura Clarke and Ita Ford,
Maryknoll lay missioner Jean Donovan and Ursuline Sr. Dorothy Kazel,
Fillenwarth got involved with Witness for Peace (her husband Ed, a retired
lawyer, is on the Witness for Peace board), and Pax Christi USA. In 1998,
she made her first trip to the School of the Americas protest, where some
of the men implicated in the killings of the four churchwomen had been
trained.

In 2000, Fillenwarth crossed the line at Fort Benning, but instead of
being arrested, she was given a five-year “ban and bar” letter, which
she honored.

On Aug. 6, 2005, Fillenwarth’s 17-year-old grandson, Ben, was killed in
car accident. She said his death helped her to see how painful the
death of a loved one can be. “I think that helped me to understand what we
are doing to the people in Latin America,” she said. “It made it seem
more real.”

Fillenwarth told Fr. John Beitans, pastor of her “quite conservative
parish” of her plans to be arrested. “He grabbed both of my hands tight,
right there in the narthex and said a prayer for me. ‘May your voice be
heard,’ he said.”

So on Nov. 19, Fillenwarth, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the
handprints of all of her grandchildren, joined 15 others and faced arrest at
Fort Benning.

“We’re very proud of her,” Schultz said. “They’ve always taught us to
think of others and try to help people. It’s been wonderful to watch
both of them, Mom and Dad, how they’ve just really taken this on as their
retirement. ... It’s such a wonderful example that they’re setting for
us and for our kids.”

Fillenwarth says she’s as ready as she can be for her likely prison
sentence. Fillenwarth said she’s thankful that her husband, children and
their spouses, will help care for her youngest son, Billy, who is
autistic. “I have the total support of my husband and the children and their
spouses. There’s no way I could do this without them.”

While some of her loved ones advised her to seek other ways to work for
peace without going to prison, Fillenwarth said she told them: “To me,
it’s like a sacrament in solidarity with the poor.”

by Priz Solidarity Fri Nov 24, 2006 12:28 SOA, Ft Benning, Georgia, USA

Write to the Prisoners:
Jonathan Robert from Georgia was arrested at the vigil to close the SOA in November 2005 and is still incarcerated. Margaret Bryant-Ganer from West Virginia is in Muscogee County Jail since November 19, 2006. Please write them a message of hope, solidarity, encouragement and/or your thoughts. A simple postcard or a letter from Ireland will be great solidarity.

Keep the defendants who were arrested in November 2006 in your thoughts and prayers as they prepare to go to court to put the SOA on trial.

Jonathan Phillip Robert #92558-020
FCI Tallahassee
Federal Correctional Institution
501 Capital Circle NE Tallahassee, FL 32301

Margaret Bryant-Ganer
Muscogee County Jail
700 E. 10th St. Columbus GA 31901-2899

Song about the SOA Resistance by David Rovics
http://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/default.cfm?bandi...=song

by SOA 16 Thu Nov 23, 2006 12:25 SOA, Ft Benning, Georgia, USA

16 human rights activists were arrested on Sunday, November 19 after carrying the protest to close the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) onto the Fort Benning Military Reservation, publicly defying the laws which prevent political speech on military bases and making a bold call for justice and accountability.

The 16 were arraigned in federal court on charges of unlawful entry. 15 of the 16 arrested were released after bail money ($500 - $1,000/per person) was posted. One person, Margaret Bryant-Ganer, opted to remain in prison, awaiting trial; she is being held at Muscogee County Jail in Columbus, Georgia. The 16 will apprear in federal court in Columbus on January 29, 2007 to put the SOA itself on trial.

The "SOA 16" are:
Margaret Bryant-Ganer, 38, Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia
Tina Busch-Nema, 48, Kirkwood, Missouri
Rev. Don Coleman, 69, a co-pastor at the University of Chicago from Chicago, Illinois
Valerie Fillenwarth, 64, a homemaker from Indianapolis, Indiana
Philip Gates, 70, a retired school teacher from Prescott, Arizona
Alice Gerard, 50, a freelance journalist from Grand Island, New York
Joshua Harris, 30, from San Diego is a graduate student at Claremont University
Melissa Helman, 23, a student from Ashland, Wisconsin
Martina Leforce, 22, Berea, Kentucky
Julienne Oldfield, 69, Syracuse, New York
(Katherine) Whitney Ray, a 17 year old college student from Indianapolis, Indiana
Sheila Salmon, 71, Sebastian, Florida
Nathan Slater, 23, Berea / Edmonton, Kentucky
Mike Vosburg-Casey, a 32 year old piano tuner and chicken farmer from Atlanta, Georgia
Grayman Ward, 20, a fitness equipment specialist from Raleigh, North Carolina
Cathy Webster, 61, a peace activist and grandmother from Chico, California

by Update Mon Nov 20, 2006 21:44

Fr. Joe Mulligan SJ served two years in federal prison for the "Milwaulkee 14" draft board raid against the Vietnam War. For the past 20 years he has been based in Managua. Following the massacre of the Jesuits and co-workers he was arrested at the White House marking its walls with the blood of those slain by the SOA grads. He served 6 months for a trespass action at the SOA a few years ago,

Here he reports this past weekend from the UCA Chapel, San Salvador, the scene of the 1989 massacre.

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1424

by update Mon Nov 20, 2006 14:03 Arizona, USA

http://www.jonahhouse.org/Huachuca.htm

by Update 16 arrested Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:43

*Link to slide show of Sun 22,000 strong procession & 16 Arrested

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/multimedia/ledger-enquir....html

*Link to full report of convergeance on School of the Americas, Ft. Benning, Georgia, USA

www.soaw.org

by Update 13 arrested Sun Nov 19, 2006 19:40

The crowd processing to Ft. Bening exceeds the 20,000 from last year.

13 people have made their way on to the base through cutting a hol;e in the fence. They have been arrested by Military Police and are handcuffed. MP's are guarding the hole in the fence to prevent more folks from entering.

by Update Sun Nov 19, 2006 16:33

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/multimedia/ledger-enquir....html

by Update Sun Nov 19, 2006 16:27

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/multimedia/ledger-enquir....html

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Dublin Catholic Worker Sun Nov 19, 2006 14:27

As much as the U.S. war on the Middle East defines our present time consciousness and the U.S. wars in southeast asia were at the forefront of the 1960's - it was the U.S. wars on Central America that dominated our thoughts in the 1980's. It doesn't mean that these wars started or stopped in those designated areas and decades - but these seem the times and the places that evoked solidarity movements in the west.

I was living in Los Angeles on Nov 16th. 1989, heading for the daily grind at the Catholic Worker soup kitchen when the word came through that six Jesuits, their Salvadoran housekeeper and her daughter had been butchered at the university in San Salvador.

The IWW folk singerUtah Phillips has a saying "Mother Nature isn't dying, she is being killed and her killers have names and addresses!" Well one of those addresses is the Ft. Benning Georgia, USA, that hosts the "School of the Americas" (aka the "School of the Assasins", the "School of Coups"). Those members of the elite Salvadoran Atletica Battalion who butchered the Jesuits bayoneted their brains from their heads, turned their flamethrowers on their library and killed their co-workers had graduated from the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia, USA.

By the evening of Nov 16th I headed with the L.A. Catholic Worker crew, Martin Sheen and scores of other solidarity activists to the downtown Salvadoran church where we joined the grieving Salvadoran and Jesuit communities.

As I crossed the U.S. over the next couple of months I attended many vgils, commemorations and protests calling for Dady Bus to stop the war on Central America and to close the School of the Americas. When I hit the east coast I met up with Jesuit Fr. Joe Mulligan based in Managua. He had travelled from Nicaragua (at the stage under siege fom the U.S. backed contras) to the scene of the massacre at the San Salvador uni collected some earth containing the blood of the martyrs and brought it to Washington DC. Joe and Phil Berrigan were then arrested marking the White House with the blood of the Salvadorans.

When George Bush Sr. was later to unleash his war on Iraq (equivalent firepower of 8 Hiroshimas) he reflected, "I found all the church leaders very helpful at this time. Who I didn't find helpful was the likes of Fr. Philip Berrigan staining the White House with blood!" Oh to be found unhelpful in prosecuting a massacre....not a bad epitah!

As the year (1990) rolled on, a group of us were preparing to nonviolently resist the war on Iraq. Before we headed north to the B52 base where we would act, we had a Native American sweat with Charlie and Pat Litkey who were heading south to join up with Fr. Roy Bourgeois to mark the first anniversary of the Nov 16 killings. Charlie a former priest & army chaplain, is a Vietnam Vet he won the Congretional Medal of Honour in Vietnam. He had returned this rare medal at the Vietnam Vet memorial (it was picked up and placed in the Smithsonian) and his military pension in protest at ongoing U.S. war on Latin America. Cajun Roy Bourgeois, is a Vietnam Vet and a Maryknoll priest, he had already served a couple of years jail time for nonviolent resistance at the SOA. Roy had rnted an apartment directly oppositie the huge Ft. Benning and that is where he is based today 16 years on.

Before Charlie and Pat headed south we donated blood for their action. On Nov 16th. 1990 Roy, Charlie and Pat were arrested after pouring a massive amount of human blood over the entrance to the offices of the SOA, Ft. Benning. We went north to disarm a B52 Bomber on New Years Day '91. We were fortunate to be out of jail on bail at the time of the sentencing of Roy, Charlie and Pat. It was quite a surreal experience. Most of the folks who turned up in solidarity were Vietnam Veterans. I remember we had a meal in "Zapata's" restaurant in the nearby conservative town of Columbus. Lt. Calley (My Lai Massacre) has a jewellry store in the town.

The sentencing took place in a big old traditinal southern court house, we stood outside singing civil rights songs. 86 year old Judge Elliot ( a former golfing partne of Calley and who once banned a march by Martin Luther King was in session). As Roy was being sentenced to 18 months he interrupted the Judge walked up to the bench and left a copy of Martin Luther King's biography anbd stated "You didn't stop that movement and you won't be stopping ours!"

This small action intiated a huge movement based on nonviolent direct action and solidarity. During the lean years of the 1990's after the defeat of the peace movement with Gulf War 1 and preceeding the explosion of Seattle, the anti SOA movement grew steadily.

Many of those who will be risking arrest today and have gone to jail before for resistance at the SOA (Kathy Kelly, Scott Schaeffer Duffy, Joe Mulligan, Ken Crowley etc) are irish Americans. Knowing them personally, I'm sure they will get a lift from the solidarity action that happened at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin yesterday. It was good to go from the U.S. Embassy to the Latin American Solidarity Centre AGM and hear the speaker from Colombia. We have so much more room to move in the west to act up & speak out....it's all about solidarity and resistance. The movement against SOA is a good example of that.

Check it out
www.soaw.org

by Ploughshares Sun Nov 19, 2006 13:43

Approx 15 irish and American and Irish citizens gathered at the U.S. Embassy to remember all those slain by graduates of the "School of the Americas" ( SOA), Ft. Benning, Georgia (USA), call for the immediate closure of the school and stand in solidairty with the more than 20,000 folks presently converging on SOA, Ft. Benning.

Robbie Sinnot opened the gatheirng with a song in Irish, Ciaron from the Catholic Worker reffelcted on the killingof the 6 Jesuits and two Salvadoran women by SOA grads on Nov 16th 1989, the nonviolent resistance an solidarity with all those suffering under U.S. low intensity conflict in Latin America it has inspired, a young Galway student reflected on her recent volunteer work with a human rights group in Bolivia and Justin (Peace People) suggested a die in.

Late this aternoon (Sun Irish time) the 20,000 opponents to SOA gathered at Ft. Benning will begin to process on the base, a number of people will carry the nonviolent resistance into the base (at a probablecost of 6-12 months jail time).

For updates on the unfolding action at Ft. Benning, check the following website
www.soaw.org