News

Speaking out for justice

By Jeff Kurowski
Compass Assistant Editor

Two men from the Diocese of Green Bay were among 32 defendants who stood trial earlier this week for peacefully walking onto the Fort Benning military base located outside Columbus, Ga.

On Nov. 17, 2005, the advocates were arrested at the annual protest of the School of the Americas, which is linked to training soldiers who have tortured and killed thousands of civilians in Latin American countries.

Scott Dempsky of Denmark was sentenced to three months in federal prison and a $500 fine.

Del Schwaller of Appleton was sentenced to two months in prison. He did not receive a fine.

Dempsky, 30, is active with Peace Action Wisconsin. He has attended protests at Fort Benning since 1998.

"I first heard about the School of the Americas while I was a student at UW-Oshkosh," he said. "When I transferred to UW-Green Bay, I met students from St. Norbert who were involved in SOA Watch. The first year we marched on the base, there wasn't a gate. The Army gave everyone a ban and bar letter. The Army wasn't prepared to arrest everyone. They put people on buses to take them off the base."

Dempsky's decision to get arrested this year was a calculated one.

"I thought about getting arrested last year, but when I spoke to people from SOA Watch, they asked me, 'Are you ready for this?'" he said. "I wasn't ready. I needed to be prepared. I guess you're never truly prepared, but I felt comfortable making that commitment this year. The abuses by the graduates of the School of the Americas continue."

For example, nearly a year ago, eight members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community in Uraba, Columbia, were brutally murdered. The killers were identified as members of the Colombian military, under the leadership of officers trained at the School of the Americas, which the U.S. government renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001.

Among the victims were three young children and Luis Eduardo Guerra, a peace activist and co-founder of the Peace Community. In 2002, Guerra spoke at Fort Benning about the brutal impact the School of the Americas training was having in Columbia.

Schwaller, 81, has seen the struggles of people in Latin American countries firsthand as a member of the Fox Valley Mission Group.

"I've been going to Central America for the past 10 years," he said. "I've had a chance to observe some of the offenses and atrocities. I don't sleep very well after seeing it. My friends in Nicaragua and some of these countries aren't sleeping very well at night."

"I love my country, but I don't like its foreign policy," said Schwaller, who had crossed onto Fort Benning in previous years without arrest.

Lakeshore Pax Christi of Manitowoc held a rally in support of Dempsky and Schwaller prior to their trials. Joyce Ellwanger of Milwaukee, who was arrested for civil disobedience at the 2002 protest at the School of the Americas, spoke at the rally held at St. John the Evangelist Church in Green Bay. Ellwanger served a six-month prison sentence following her arrest.

"The training manual at the school of the Americas states that it promotes democracy," she said, "but it has left a bloody path. Abp. Oscar Romero was the Martin Luther King of El Salvador. His homilies were broadcast on the radio. In his last homily before he was assassinated in 1980, he said, 'I beg you, I command you to stop the killing.' Two of the three people responsible for his death were graduates of the School of the Americas."

"They call the actions of people like Del and Scott civil disobedience," she added, "but it is actually holy obedience to God."

Dempsky, whose parents are members of All Saints Parish in Denmark, said he would not appeal his sentence. He welcomed the opportunity to speak in court.

"We are on trial, but it's a chance to put the School of the Americas on trial," he said. "I want to speak of what has occurred there and what it represents. The anti-democratic training serves as a tool for materialism. Wealth in some of these Latin American countries is controlled by military muscle."

Schwaller, a former Appleton alderman, is a member of St. Therese Parish. Taking a stand against the School of the Americas is matter of human rights, he said.

"I have been involved in my community," he said. "I have a daughter with cerebral palsy. We have been very much involved with people with disabilities and the efforts for understanding and support in the community. It becomes a part of your life to be attentive to what happens to the people around you and to be aware of how people are treated. I have been interviewing people at the food pantry for 18 years. I've met people from around the world. I hear their stories. I've been to Guatemala and the diocesan mission in the Dominican Republic. I've seen the poverty in the hills along the border of Haiti. We need to look at social justice and human concerns. We need to take action."

For more information on School of the Americas Watch, visit www.soaw.org.