Local peace group opposes school for security forces

Local peace group opposes school for security forces

EDITOR:

The poor of Latin America cry out to us for justice as they have suffered brutal oppression at the hands of dictators and their security forces. The people of this region of the world live in dire poverty, yet all attempts by church leaders or workers trying to form cooperatives to increase their wages are met with swift and often deadly force.

There’s a school right here in the USA, at Fort Benning, Ga., that has been training military personnel and security forces from Latin America for the last 30 years. The School of the Americas as it used to be called has produced graduates who have committed over 2,000 documented atrocities against civilians living in Latin America including torture, murder, kidnapping, the assassination of religious leaders and the slaughter of an entire village.

While our Congress came within a 10-vote margin of closing down this school back in 2001, Pentagon bureaucrats who are not our elected representatives acting on their own agendas simply repackaged it with a few cosmetic changes including a name change: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Security forces trained at this school ensure the low wages desired by powerful business interests, thus church and union members who struggle for fair wages and a better life for their children instead conveniently go missing or are murdered.

Faithful missionaries from the United States who minister among the poor of Latin America (See www.soaw.org), have worked tirelessly to try to close this school supported by our tax dollars. We of Pax Christi Mahoning Valley support the closing of this school and so we’re sponsoring a prayer vigil/protest Wednesday, that will begin on the steps of St. Columba Cathedral at 4 p.m., and then process to the Thomas D. Lambros Federal Building and Courthouse downtown. We hope you’ll consider joining us as we pray for peace, for justice for our Latin American brothers and sisters, and for the closure of the School of the Americas (WHNSEC).

VICKI VICARS

Boardman

X This letter was also signed by , Mildred Ruffing HM, Sr. Ardath Blake HM, Ceil Schlosser, Mary Grace Manning, Monica Baytos and Phyllis Cooper.

A word from the students

EDITOR:

We would like to thank Youngstown voters for voting yes for the school levy.

We are happy because we love our school

Since the levy passed, we will learn more.

The voters are nice because their money will go to our school.

Our schools are glad the voters helped us.

Taft school is very special.

At Taft we will try our hardest with the levy money.

We study so we will be good citizens.

The best part of school is being able to learn.

LAURA SULLIVAN

Taft Elementary School

Youngstown

X The letter was initiated by Laura Sullivan, literary coordinator at Taft Elementary School in Youngstown, with students from several classes completing the letter during a lunch hour.