“¡Presente!” This was the simple word we sung before the gates of the School of the Americas (SOA), as the names of thousands of victims were proclaimed. At the fourteenth annual Ignatian Family Teach-in for Justice last weekend, 20,000 people, including myself, gathered to promote peace around the world, especially in the war-torn countries of Latin America. The focus of our goal was to shut down the SOA at Fort Benning, Georgia, where many foreign military insurgents are trained. In particular, we remembered a certain massacre in 1989, when six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered in El Salvador. In honoring these martyrs, we renewed our call to social justice; these dead had not died in vain.We wanted peace through peaceful means. But is peace a tangible possibility, or is it simply an ideal? Better yet, how do we attain peace and justice? In our world, conflict may be an inherent part of the human condition, and with countries like Iran and North Korea increasing their nuclear arsenals and aggressions, peace may seem like a distant goal.
But the teach-in I attended is a grass-roots effort, and it shows that we don’t have to travel to the other side of the world to fight for justice. We can work for peace by praying, by writing to our legislators, and by simply acknowledging that a different world exists outside of our American paradise.
Despite our common desire to close the SOA for the sake of peace, I encountered many people with whom I disagreed. I listened to an attorney speak about how the redistribution of wealth was the ultimate solution, and he praised men like Che Guavara for their bold, revolutionary efforts. I was shocked when he received a standing ovation; I certainly did not want to stand. I talked to a vendor who was selling copies of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and he sincerely believed that communism was the best option for the United States. I read many pamphlets that urged people not to enlist in the Army, and I saw a sign proclaiming that 9/11 was Bush’s hoax. These encounters caused me to leave Georgia with mixed emotions.
I will protest the SOA, but that is as far as I can go. I cannot denounce the value of individual worth for the sake of absolute justice and equality. I cannot denounce the value of the American soldier; on the way home I saw a soldier at the airport, and at a time when certain peacemakers may feel ashamed, my heart swelled with pride.
But I also admit that there are some flaws in America’s ambitious foreign policy, and the injustice that has been created is indeed something that I oppose. I believe that innocent individuals should never be killed in order to advance the economic goals of imperial nations. If closing the SOA will spare lives, then I will participate in peaceful resistance.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and I don’t believe that a perfect peace can ever be attained. But we can certainly try.
