Annual Demonstration at the “School of the Americas”

(or whatever they’re calling it this week)

Ft. Benning, GA, Nov. 2009Photos by Paul Crum of Pax Christi

Memphis

What Is the School of the Americas?

One of the CIA atrocities Steve Kangas mentions in his article “Origins of the Overclass” featured on the Articles page was its establishment of a torture and genocide training facility for fascists at Ft. Benning, GA. This is where tyrants and their minions across Latin America have been and are still trained, including the killers of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador. This is why so many Roman Catholics who identify as Left participate in the annual protest each November. The facility was “closed” and then renamed to a pathetic euphemism in a failed attempt to stop the demonstrations, which attract about 10,000 protestors each year.

Mrs. Crum before brave stilt-walking musiciansI’d like to go myself someday

Frankly, it’ll never happenPope John Paul I was poisoned by conservatives shortly after his election because he was about to ordain women.That’s one reason why I’m an Episcopalian!

I prefer the one in the backgroundAt age 7, I had declared that cartoon programming was for babies and decreed, “Give me live action or give me death”

Haven’t shopped there since 1989My gay choir director sports a variation of the one in the background

The one barely visible in the background is just as urgent, especially considering the propaganda

plastered on so many license plates nowadays

Sadly, this also applies to ObamaAs the Everly Brothers might’ve said, we’re in trouble deep

Where the speeches were madeAs well as music acts

Mr. Crum at the entranceNote the multiple gates. If I remember correctly, I believe Kathy Kelley served time for scaling one of those. Note the loudspeakers at far right, which have been known to blare loud military music.

Portrayal of genocide enabled by the facility

Not everyone there was Roman CatholicThese are in almost as hopeless a situation, unless they’re from Texas, where progressives and liberals split from the Southern Baptist Convention. Why don’t the Texans just join the American Baptists?

We still have to study its dynamics to learn how to stop it (i.e. its propping up of a failed economic theory)Especially its domestic forms (e.g. see the Anesthesia Reform page)

These are in a hopeless situationFortunately, monastic orders exist in the Episcopal Church, and new ones are always welcome

The white crosses each bear the name of a victim and the person’s country

A blurred picture of Jacob FlowersDirector of the Midsouth Peace and Justice Center and a non-Catholic

A better view of Jacob

Jacob is at far right

The Crums holding the Pax Christi Memphis bannerGerry Vanderhaar, its founder, is with them as a saint from the hereafter

The Crums own a printing business called Bartlett Arts. I plan to use their services to print my manuscript Bad Connections: The Evolution of Racism when it is finished, as well as future manuscripts, e.g. anesthesia reform.

UNTIL NEXT YEAR…Thank God it didn’t exceed the 30 MB file size limit for uploading!