Our congregation was fortunate to have Dorothy Parker as a return guest speaker on the day Larry Mitchell”s interview with her was published in the religion section.
Dorothy”s heroic nonviolent resistance against the School of the Americas (since renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) is an inspiration to those of us who unequivocally oppose the teaching and training of torture methods. HR 1217 is a bill pending in Congress to suspend operations at the facility and to conduct a full investigation into Defense Department training in Latin America. Despite the renaming of the School of the Americas and claims of reform (in 1996 infamous training manuals were discovered that advocated torture and execution), academic and human rights organizations maintain that any reforms are superficial and do not change patterns of support for human rights abusers who graduated from the school. I personally do not want my tax dollars used to support the commission of atrocities. I encourage all people of good will to hold our government accountable by supporting the proposed legislation, which would suspend operations at the facility pending an investigation.