Maureen Lavely bearing witness at last year’s Vigil at Fort Benning, Georgia

Our Senior Warden, Maureen Lavely, is traveling to Arizona this week, responding to God’s call and acting in love to be Christ’s presence on our border with Mexico. Here is a note from her:

I won’t be with you this Sunday and thought I’d share where I will be and what I will be doing.

On Thursday I will fly to Tucson, Arizona to attend the first School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) convergence at the US/Mexico border. School of the Americas is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 2001, it was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Since 1964, the SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics, which were put to use by U.S. backed dictators “to maintain order”.

I’ve attended rallies in Georgia for many years. When it was learned that our U.S. border guards were also to be trained at Fort Benning, it was decided to change the focus.

The event will be October 7-10 and will include veteran-led marches, rallies, concerts, crossing the border for a memorial for a young boy who was in front of a store on the other side of the wall, who was shot and killed by a border guard, and first-hand witnessing. One of our stops will be at the Eloy Immigrant Detention Center.

I will be thinking of you all while always thankful for the opportunity to satisfy my need to say “No Mas, No More”.

Maureen Lavely..