The weekend before Thanksgiving, over a hundred SLU students traveled by bus and van down to Fort Benning, GA, to protest the continued existence of the School of the Americas. For those of you who don’t know, the SOA is where the United States (using your tax dollars) trains Latin American Soldiers in sophisticated means of warfare. They then return to their home countries (many of them dictatorships) and function completely independently of any U.S. oversight. Training these soldiers helps maintain stability in these countries for U.S. corporations to exploit the cheap labor available in Latin America, and suppress any popular reaction against economic exploitation by the native population.
Graduates from the School of the Americas have committed a multitude of human rights abuses in the past few decades, including the murders of six Jesuits who dared speak out against the government and the martyrdom of Archbishop Romero. Continued U.S. support of these countries and militaries is an affront to basic human rights and in direct opposition to everything that Jesus taught.
Saint Louis University is a Catholic, Jesuit institution with an obligation to promote the ethical development of its students, not merely facilitate their intellectual growth. Being a full human being means more than merely knowing calculus and biology. Father Biondi realizes this. He has, for the past few years, offered substantial financial support to those of us willing to speak out against this school. This year he joined us on the trip, speaking at the protest, and joined a number of us who went an additional step in committing an act of civil disobedience. Now as I struggle to make up some papers I didn’t have time to do while I was away, he must face a Board of Trustees that does not entirely approve of his personal decision. That is what it means to be a Christian-to do what is right, to stand firm on one’s convictions.
Jesus spent his life speaking out for the poor and oppressed of his time, and asked his followers to do the same. He paid for it with his life. The Jesuit martyrs and Archbishop Romero were following him, ministering to the poor, and speaking out against injustice in Latin America. They suffered the same fate. I am lucky enough to live in a society where I will not face that threat-the few sacrifices I made to go to the SOA are nothing in comparison-but I too feel compelled to speak truth to power. We can make a difference in this world, if we only try.
That is the hardest part-deciding to make a difference. Are you completely satisfied with the state of the world? Do you have a cause that you care about? Get involved, think about yourself in the world and decide what is really important to you.
Whether you volunteer your time at a suicide hotline, work at an AIDs clinic, attend the pro-life march in Washington, D.C., next January or join us at Fort Benning next November, don’t just wander through life thinking of only your limited self-interest. I urge you, in the Jesuit tradition, to be “Men and Women for Others.”
Matthew Schmidt is a junior majoring in philosophy.
