WAMM Activist: Betty McKenzie

Typically, the WAMM Activist column provides a profile of a WAMM member. Sometimes, however, an activist's own words provide the best window into her character. So, this month, we publish an excerpt from a statement made by Betty McKenzie as she defended her decision to commit an act of civil disobedience at what was formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia. Betty and fellow activist and WAMM member Mary Vaughan reported to Pekin Federal Prison Camp on July 17, 2001 to serve six-month sentences.

Why I do civil disobedience at Fort Benning:

I'm a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Our community has been in existence for 350 years, the last 165 in this country. We go to places where life is very poor or absent. We hope that the Spirit of God will bring healing and wholeness there.

The School of the Americas did not teach life. Torture, murder, diminishing and killing life -- that is what they have been teaching. In Latin America there have been many violent deaths: Oscar Romero; four churchwomen; six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter; the whole village of El Mazote. Of those responsible for these deaths, and thousands of others, the majority in each case were graduates of the SOA. These people died because they were teaching people to value their rights and not just to accept poverty and misery.

Our government does things that our people would not support if they knew about them, so the government keeps silence, or misleads, sometimes by twisting the meaning of words. The silence and misleading statements have built up over the 225 years of our country's history . . .

They use words like: "Defending our country, helping our allies toward democracy, protecting the interests of the United States." But we don't talk publicly about from whom we need to defend ourselves. We don't talk about our military budget that is way bigger than the budgets of all our "enemies" and the "rogue nations." We don't talk about the human-rights abuses of governments in the countries who send their soldiers here for training. And we certainly don't talk about our interests.

Oil. We refuse to get along without oil. We haven't put significant resources into developing sustainable alternative energy sources. And U.S. corporations who have moved factories offshore . . . Our government wants to protect these companies.

The silence and the "news" released to the media are like a drug for the American people. They lead us to be content, and think the world is in great shape.

We cross the line onto the base to point out to the American people, and to the newly-named SOA, what their graduates are doing and that it is wrong. They don't seem to want anyone crossing who has a confrontive kind of message to give to the commandant. They call it a "political message, against the law," and arrest us. I call it whistle-blowing, a way of exercising responsibility as a citizen.

All through our country's history, all through the 225 years, there have been whistle blowers . . . I like to think we're in their company. I want to stand up for what I think is right, and I want the freedom to continue to do so. Other ways of addressing the problems at Fort Benning are closed to us. We are a nonviolent people. We respectfully and solemnly crossed the line onto the base with our message.

Some people think we are beating our heads against a brick wall. I talked recently with a woman who maintained, "The problems are too big, and I can't make even a dent in them, so I just mind my own business and live out my life." I agree that the problems are too big, but, a defeatist's attitude? Responsible citizenship dictates that we do something.

This is one school -- one of about 150 installations that teach this kind of material -- and it is only a tip of the iceberg. I understand that only a small part, about ten percent, of an iceberg is visible. This iceberg is 225 years old. It's huge and complex. If we don't deal with a tip that we can see, how can we get to the rest of the iceberg?
That's why I come to the School of the Americas. I want life to take root and grow here again. Fort Benning has a beautiful entrance, the road winding up, surrounded by the park-like lawn and trees. When we walk up the road in procession, with chant and silence, it's like a procession in a cathedral. It will be wonderful when what goes on inside the base is beautiful also, and brings hope and healing to the world.

SOA Resources

Do you share Betty McKenzie's concern about the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known about the School of the Americas)? Contact Minnesota SOA Watch (MnSOAW).

MnSOAW
c/o Resource Center of the Americas
3019 Minnehaha Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55406
612-276-0788 x12
mnsoaw@circlevision.org
www.circlevision.org/mnsoaw.html

MnSOAW meets on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the above address.