Friday marks the day when hundreds of people will withstand weather, intimidation and possible arrest to stand outside the gates of the US Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, to call for the closure of the school and ask for a change in US foreign policy.
The decades-old military training school, recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,provides military training for the purpose of destabilization, insurrection and murder among governments and against individuals involved in social movements in Latin American countries from Chile to Guatemala.
Locally, we ask that supporters light a candle in a window at 5 p.m. on Friday to show support for the courageous stand ofpeople everywhere who support the permanent closure of the School of the Americas, and for a more just and peaceful world.
Thank you, for keeping those candles burning.
Sandra Hartline, KAIROS Rep, Kootenay Subregion, Nelson