By Kathleen Kern

Bethel College professor and Christian Peacemaker Teams colleague Julie Hart asked me in March to consider writing a column encouraging people to contact their congressional representatives about a vote in June to cut funding to the School of the Americas.

Renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC, in 2001, the school has produced hundreds of graduates who committed egregious human-rights abuses all over Latin America and the Caribbean.

Some of their worst atrocities occurred in El Salvador, including the massacre of 900 evangelical Christians in El Mozote, and the assassinations of Archbishop Romero, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

In March, my coworker Tom Fox was murdered in Baghdad, and three other kidnapped CPTers were released, so my April column had to cover that.

In May, as a jury debated whether to put Zacharias Moussaoui to death, I thought I should write about the double standard our government applies to Islamic and Cuban terrorists.

Because indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff was awaiting sentencing on a fraud conviction in June, for that month’s column I wanted to interview Steve Cheramie Risingsun — who pastors two Native churches — regarding Abramoff’s racist remarks about indigenous peoples.

Congress thus voted down HR 1217 in June without my having written about it.

The defeat did not seem to discourage anti-SOA activists. SOAWatch thanked its supporters: “Your work and the amazing contributions of over 40 national religious, labor and political organizations delivered an incredible vote on Friday, June 9, in what is possibly the most conservative Congress in U.S. history. . . .

“[F]or the first time in six years, we won the debate, and we had a vote in Congress that garnered the support of 188 Representatives who voted to cut funding for the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, including almost 30 Republicans! . . .

“Each Representative in favor of the amendment gave compelling and specific examples that supported their arguments. Those speaking against the amendment were not nearly as eloquent — and didn’t even have enough speakers to fill their time!”

SOAWatch has adopted a new strategy of visiting Latin American governments and asking them not to send students to the school. Father Roy Bourgeois told Time magazine: “A school that has no students will have to shut down.” Uruguay and Argentina have already agreed not to send more troops, and Bolivia is reducing the number it sends.

I believe the optimistic attitude of SOAwatch activists regarding their defeat models the way that citizens in the kingdom of God are supposed to think. Jesus, after all, did not bring an end to systems that dominated, oppressed, tortured and killed. Instead, he taught his followers how they should behave in a world ruled by these systems.

Whatever Congress does, those who have worked for decades to close the School of the Americas will continue, every November in Fort Benning, Ga., to bear the white crosses with the names of those murdered by SOA graduates. They will continue to lobby Congress to cut funding for the school. They will celebrate every small victory until the SOA/ WHINSEC closes.

For my part, next year when the amendment to close the SOA comes up again, I will try to remember to call my congressman. And in December, I will try to remember to write about the 25th anniversary of the El Mozote massacre.