I missed my regular post this past Sunday... I was in Columbus, Georgia standing in solidarity with over 20,000 others working to raise awareness about the atrocities of the SOA/ WHINSEC. I also stood in solidarity with the many murdered by graduates of the SOA including Oscar Romero, Rufina Maya, and Amano Lopez. Saturday gives all those involved the opportunity to listen to speakers and musicians while browsing the many tables of merchandise and social justice information. Sunday commences the vigil which involves a funeral procession for all those murdered by SOA graduates following by a celebration of life. During the funeral procession names of the murdered are read allowed and the crowd respond "Presente!" while raising a white cross that has the name, age, and country of origin of one who was murdered. These crosses are then placed in the chain-link fence at the gates of the SOA (the picture shows the cross I carried among the others). This year I carried a cross in remembrance of Amano Lopez. I was really touched by the realization that the response "Presente!" is the crowd saying "yeah ____ is here." It seemed like such an appropriate way to stand in solidarity - that my tax dollars have helped fund this School and so in some way I am responsible for all those killed by these graduates. So it felt quite appropriate to stand up for Amano Lopez and speak out against the SOA.
As predicted last week was quite short and this week has gone quite quickly. After spending the week either on a bus in route to the SOA or protesting the SOA, I was able to spend some time with friends and family in Dayton and Cincinnati. It can be a bit stressful to make sure I'm budgeting my time appropriately among my friends, family and myself especially when there's so many great friends and so little time in my sort stay. It was also fun to play and take care of my parent's new puppy - Snickers. He's definitely a smart and cute dog, despite how overly excited he can get.
I return to West Virginia tomorrow (Saturday) to regroup and settle in before working on Monday. The next two and a half weeks the staff will spend pretty much all their time preparing for our Christmas parties and visits. Each staff member bakes 20 dozen cookies (I'm making the peanut butter ones with a mini-Reese cup in the middle). We also spend an entire week visiting everyone we've worked with in the previous year. We also host a Christmas party for the entire county (and anyone else who's interested) at the Doddridge County Park. We have Santa ride in on a fire engine and have all kinds of presents for all the kids who come (given to the farm by numerous donors). Besides that we also have all our community friends over for a smaller Christmas party right before we leave for break. I should be back home somewhere around December 17th for a good 2 and a half week break. Any free time I can find will be spent brainstorming and producing homemade Christmas presents (I'm on a cheap budget this year so I'm going to do my best to make anything I can).
So its time to bake away and get annoyed by any Christmas carol that's ever been made (we listen to them repeatedly while we work).
If you're interested in more info on the SOA/ WHINSEC and why it is such a violation of human rights, check out http://www.soaw.org.
Also, if you're interested in donating Christmas presents to the Farm for our Christmas celebrations let me know by email.
