With courage, they walk into that dark night

Over
the years I've had the bounty of meeting many incredibly brave people.
People who face off with the military in Chiapas and look down the
barrels of AK47s. People who step softly and assuredly into prison time
and time again to expose the US reign of terror and torture. People who
live on the backroads alone and centered, facing the rangers and
herding their sheep, facing the border patrol and tribal police. They
are Mayan, Maori, O'odham, Mohawk, Yaqui, Pueblo and Navajo. They are
Indigenous, Australian, Canadian and European. They come from all walks
of life, rich and poor, young and old.
Still, there are times when
the courage of these people stops me into stillness. I am spellbound by
their courage. Here is one of these, an invitation and a poster, from a
delegation going to El Salvador. It is from the School of Americas
Watch, struggling for closure of the US military's training school of
assassins in Fort Benning, Ga.:
"Join Fr. Roy in events
commemorating the 30th anniversary of Monseñor Romero´s assassination
at the hands of SOA graduates. Walk in the footsteps of martyrs Ita
Ford, Maura Clark, Fr. Ignacio Ellacuria, Celia Ramos and others.
Accompany SOA Watch's Partnership America Latina (PAL) Coordinator Lisa
Sullivan in visiting high level Salvadoran government officials in
asking that El Salvador send no more soldiers to this school of
assassins."