600 arrested at School of Americas protest: young and old join in non-violent action and civil disobedience - Fort Benning, GA - Cover Story

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 5, 1997 by Pat Marrin

"This can be a life-changing event," Linnehan said, "a way of taking responsibility for our own lives.

"We cross a line our whole cultural experience has conditioned us to respect as the legitimate authority. The decision to act is hard because, while you can be of two minds on an issue, you only have one body. By crossing the line you are speaking with your body, putting it on the line. In this issue we are on the right side of history. President Clinton and Congress are on the wrong side. Our goal is not just to close the School of the Americas, but to challenge a policy of the United States that has been so cruel to so many people," Linnehan said.

Early on, it looked like the protest was going to be carried mostly by graying veterans of the antiwar and civil rights movements. Among the many activists from across the ecumenical and political spectrum, many congregations of Catholic sisters, who now have more than 900 women serving in Latin America, sent seasoned representatives.

But as Sunday approached, the median age plummeted as hundreds of young protesters began to arrive, representing political organizations, colleges, peace and justice groups. They joined veterans, tax resisters, environmentalists and nuclear activists.

Carol Rave, a Winnebago Indian from Tacoma, Wash., blessed the gathering with smoke and declared the site sacred ground.

The art of networking has clearly gone electronic, as group after group told NCR they had kept in touch with the SOA Watch and with one another via the Internet.

Among the many speakers was Michael Katz Lacabe, who maintains the SOA Watch website from his home in California (Keyword: SOA Watch). He proclaimed the gathering "the best intergenerational protest I have ever witnessed."

Among the younger protesters were Audrey and Jessica Stewart, 18-year-old twins who had just "crossed the line" earlier in a nonviolent protest at a shipyard in Bath, Maine. They had used floor plans for the Aegis Class cruiser displayed on the Navy's website to enter and pour blood on a missile-carrying ship.

Angus MacDonald, 85, Syracuse, N.Y., was quick to point out that a 91-year-old had taken oldest honors at the protest. He said his decision to join Sunday's procession would mark the first time he had ever been arrested.

MacDonald said he had never protested before because other people were depending on him. After his wife died last January, he realized that now he was only risking himself. "Through the SOA, our country is engaged in atrocities," he said. "I want to be proud of my country again."

The procession MacDonald joined was solemn and silent, its mourners offering themselves, their wooden crosses and eight coffins to the Department of Defense security force waiting up the road inside the fort.

Christine Reichman was with them. Lil Corrigan chose not to go this time, saying that her energies would go toward convincing her congressman, Rep. Newt. Gingrich, to support legislation to cut funding for the SOA.

"Fr. Roy promised to get me canonized if I could get Newt to change his vote," she said. "I wrote him a letter asking him not to deny me the chance to be a saint."