Your Diocese

ROMEOVILLE, IL — In the late 1960s and early 1970s, college students and recent graduates were wrapped up in anti-Vietnam war protests. The movement gradually garnered enough support to influence an American military pullout from northeast Asia. For the past 17 years, Americans with a cause have relied on protests and acts of civil disobedience for the purpose of closing the doors to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Ga., where Latin American military personnel are trained. It’s not the training that protestors abhor; it’s the history of human rights violations associated with graduates from the school formerly known as the School of the Americas.

In the aftermath of the 1989 massacre of Bishop Oscar Romero, six Jesuit priests, the housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador—an incident linked to officers trained at the SOA—activists have staged non-violent protests each November to demonstrate against the United States government’s sponsorship of a school in which a number of graduates have been connected to terrorists activity throughout Latin America, including the murder of three nuns and three missionary companions in 1980 in El Salvador. Defenders of the WHINSEC argue that they do not teach abuse. Under guidelines adopted in 2001, each student is subject to eight hours of training in a component explaining human rights issues.

One human rights activist, Buddy Bell—a 23-year-old education major at DePaul University in Chicago—was among a group of 32 protesters who crossed the line onto the property of the WHINSEC in the Nov. 20, 2005, demonstration, which was attended by 19,000 people—3,000 more than last year, according to Hendrik Voss of SOA Watch, a group that organizes protests. In the eyes of a friend and fellow WHINSEC opponent, St. Joseph Sister Dorothy Pagosa of the 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago, Bell is an example of a man whose faith stirred him to act out against a record of military oppression.

A member of the DePaul University branch of Amnesty International, Bell was convicted Jan. 30 in Columbus, Ga., on a misdemeanor charge of trespass for his role in the demonstration. The music director for St. Joseph Parish in Addison, Bell said he admitted to crossing the line at one of this nation’s largest military bases, Fort Benning, located approximately seven miles from Columbus. At 182,000 acres, the base resembles a community. Voss said the base is generally open to the public. A major thoroughfare, Georgia Highway Route 27, runs through the middle of the base.

On an annual basis, however, protesters from around the nation converge on the site and military personnel are assigned to stand guard against activists. Bell’s conviction puts him in the company of numerous vowed members of religious communities, including his friend, Sister Pagosa, 88-year-old Franciscan Sister Dorothy Hennessey, Franciscan Father Louis Vitale and 72-year-old Franciscan Father William O’Donnell, to name a few.

Bell explained in a Feb. 3 telephone interview with the Catholic Explorer that he was prepared to spend his three-month sentence in a federal penitentiary. He is also obligated to pay a $500 fine. While he doesn’t know at which institution he’ll be directed to serve his time, he suspects he’ll be assigned to a minimum-security facility for men in Oxford, Wis., or Terra Haute, Ind.

Tim Frost, clerk for the ruling judge in the case, U.S. Federal Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth, said Feb. 2 that because Bell stipulated to the facts, he was offered an opportunity for leniency in sentencing. Bell is expected to serve his time in a facility in the same region as his home. However, Frost said the prison officials are not obligated to assign him within the Midwest region.

Bell said his attitude about social justice in general was inspired by the words of Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. She reportedly advised her colleagues not to worry about being effective; being faithful is more important, she stressed. Bell said he further relied on the example of Jesus. “I try to tell the world that this (WHINSEC) is such a waste of human life … We pay soldiers to keep populations oppressed. The objective behind the WHINSEC is about control. It goes to class and issues of poverty,” he said.

Describing the details of the events that led up to his arrest, Bell recalled that the temperature hovered around 40 degrees on a gray autumn day. He was one of the first to crawl through a loose opening in the fence about 11 a.m. on Nov. 20. Facing the object of his protest, Bell approached a 10-foot-tall chainlink fence topped with barbed wire. Although canvas had been draped over one side of the fence to prevent a view of the school, Bell said he and a group of others discovered a weak area and crawled under the fence. “I was able to get in and kneel down for about 20 seconds before I was lifted up by two officers.” At the base, military officers were courteous, he recalled. But the drive to Columbus was a tedious one, he said. “I wore shackles. … It was a bit dramatic.” The overnight stay at Muscogee County Jail in Columbus was different than he had imagined. Three protesters were put in a cell with 13 other inmates. “There were cubbies with beds and a table and chairs in the middle.” Speaking of the reaction protesters received from fellow inmates, Bell said, “They were supportive. They told us to keep fighting for what we believe.”

The experience at the county jail as well as the upcoming sentence in prison is destined to leave an indelible mark on the life of a man with no previous encounter with the law. So far, his parents and three younger siblings from Lowell, Ind., have shied away from public statements about Bell’s involvement with WHINSEC protests. “My mom came to Columbus for the trial,” he said. SOA Watch supporters have offered insights and words of encouragement, which helped his mother come to an understanding of her son’s willingness to sacrifice himself for a situation he perceives as serving “the common good.”

In a statement Bell read before the judge, he said, “I have an obligation to stand for the rights of the poor, hungry and landless peoples. While the SOA/WHINSEC concerns itself with making the hemisphere safe for corporate investment, my concern lies with empowering the powerless and spreading real democracy.”

Sister Pagosa is among a long list of Bell supporters. Practically speaking, Sister Pagosa said she hopes his arrest on a misdemeanor charge won’t interfere with his career aspirations. “He’s really concerned about issues of torture.”

Meanwhile, Father Thomas Cargo gushes with compliments about a man who for the last two years has worked at the Addison parish. The priest said he expects he and his parishioners, particularly the members of the bilingual choir, will miss Bell in his absence. “Buddy, as a person, is one of the most idealistically, spiritual young men I have every met.”

Addressing the idea of Bell’s criminal record, Father Cargo said he stands behind Bell’s decision to cross the line in protest of U.S. policy. “Americans have a right to express an opinion. … We have fought for that right.”

Already, Bell said he is planning to cross the line again if the latest round of legislative proposals aimed at dismantling the WHINSEC fail to cause its closure.