Bus to SOA
Early this evening we had a small rehearsal of the street theater we have planned for our nonviolent action Saturday starting at 12 noon at Marquette University in front of the Union. The cut-out buses will represent the busing of students from eight local colleges and universities for military training at Marquette University. After the recruits go through their training we have a surprise for them. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits who run MU, will be asking them to lay down their weapons as he did after his conversion to a deeper faith. As history has told us, Marquette University will eventually respond to calls to follow the Gospel. (Read some of the 40 year history of resistance to the military.) Researching that history I saw a picture of a friend of mine, a student leader in 1968–69 who was bloodied by police for just observing an ROTC activity. It reminded me how in those days the University used to expel students, have them arrested, and punish them in other ways for disagreeing with a policy of the university, such as teaching military values over Gospel values on campus. As students in those days we needed courage to stand up for our beliefs and values, the very ones the Jesuits and Gospel taught us. Today the University just ignores students’ protest and no longer reacts to them. In the history you can read about an occupation of the ROTC building by Catholic Workers in 1997 when the university did nothing to remove them. However, today students are more afraid to do anything that might be seen as contradicting the administration. As the administration they can talk a good game and even take action as long as it is not connected to the campus. For example, students from almost all Jesuit Universities make the annual trip by bus each fall to Fort Benning to protest what they used to call the School of the Americas (SOA), an army-training base for Latin American soldiers. Yet on their very own campuses the same Army Manual and values are taught. Yet they fear to confront this SOA, School of Army at home.
On the greener side of life I got some more cleaning and planting in the sunroom. I even started some basil in a plastics container with putting another plastic container over it. Basil seeds need about 70 degrees to germinate and looks like, with a little help from the sun and pockets of air, I can reach that mark. The other herb seeds I planted last week still are not germinating but I still have hope. I do not want to miss the bus when it comes to planting timely.
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