I just got word that a dedicated Prisoner of Conscience, Theresa Cusimano, will be released July 11 after serving (in every sense) 6 months for stepping onto Federal "property" at Ft. Benning, GA. I briefly covered Theresa's last-minute decision to cross the line at last years School of the Americas Watch vigil, an annual pilgrimage that has seen hundreds of North American activists choose jail in solidarity with Latin American activists and martyrs.
I hope you will join me in thanking her for her work in and out of jail, below the puffy thing.
For those unfamiliar with SOAW, it has waged a 25-year struggle to close a U.S. Army school with a horrendous record of training future dictators, tyrants and assorted sociopaths to make war on their own people. Besides work and actions in D.C., they maintain strong ties to Latin American labor and human rights groups by sending delegations to various countries and arranging tours of the U.S. for their representatives. It's most known for its annual pilgrimages to Ft. Benning on the anniversary of the murder of the six Salvadoran priests along with their housekeeper and her daughter by officers trained at Ft. Benning. Those who commit civil disobedience are typically sentenced by a local Federal Magistrate to six months for misdemenor (?) trespassing. Theresa, who had sacrificed her freedom previously, decided to cross the line when she heard that, otherwise, 2011 would be the first year no one made the sacrifice to solidarity.
While in jail, Theresa has comforted the sick, the addicted and the dying while fighting to keep up her own health. In the immortal (if sarcastic) words of Frank Zappa: "We need some more like dat!"
Please drop our heroine a note of thanks (soon!) at:
Theresa Cusimano #93611-020
FMC Carswell
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127
P.S. For those who get discouraged- On Thursday, after meeting with a delegation from SOAW including it's founder, Rev. Roy Bourgeois, the President of Ecuador announced that he was withdrawing the Ecuadoran Army from participation in SOA!!!