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Blind activist enters Elkton prison
There will be a party when the professor is released.
ELKTON — A professor emeritus at Seton Hall University, with a doctorate in history from Columbia University, was in Elkton on Thursday morning to turn himself in to the federal prison.
Dr. Edwin R. Lewinson, 78, of South Orange, N.J., is to serve a 90-day sentence on a misdemeanor charge of trespassing on government property.
“Justice is blind,” said one of his supporters, Terry Vickers of Boardman.
Vickers wasn’t referring to the statue of Lady Justice, but to Lewinson.
“I’ve been blind from birth,” the professor said.
He was arrested last November at what many still call the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga.
Protesters maintain that the school, which has been renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, continued to teach the use of torture, including waterboarding, long before its use was criticized in the war in Iraq.
During a lifetime of fighting for justice, Lewinson said he had been arrested eight or 10 times but the charges were dismissed. He said he did spend one night in jail but was released the next day.
Along the way, he said he fought for blacks who were barred from hotels between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and fought to desegregate restaurants.
Many liberals went into action during the 1960s for various causes. What’s different about Lewinson is that he has never seen any of the things he’s been involved in.
The last three times he was arrested protesting at the school, he was released.
One judge dismissed a trespassing charge based on the professor’s lack of sight.
Lewinson recalled, “He said in effect I didn’t know I trespassed.”
The fourth and last time he was arrested for protesting at Fort Benning, the judge offered to let Lewinson serve his term under house arrest.
“I refused,” Lewinson said.
Prisoners are often assigned tasks such as mopping floors and doing laundry but Lewinson said he has no idea what he will be doing during his stay.
He did ask that he be allowed to bring his cane, a special tape recorder for blind people, a similar writing device, and his Braille watch.
He was also ordered to pay a $500 fine, which he said he’ll do.
Local residents active in church peace movements came together after learning Lewinson was headed to the prison. There are memories of security forces in El Salvador who in 1980 raped and killed Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, nuns of the Maryknoll Congregation in New York, and Dorothy Kazel, a nun in the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland.
And, the debate over waterboarding to get information continues.
Juanita Sherba of Canfield, who is a member of St. Michael Church, said, “The U.S. should not be setting the example.”
Vickers said that last year, legislators failed by a few votes to end funding for the School of the Americas.
A local party is being planned for Lewinson when he is released, his supporters said.
wilkinson@vindy.com