Dear Friends,
As we honor the Muslim holy fast of Ramadan, we draw our inspiration from the Muslim Sufi mystic poet Hafiz celebrating the preciousness of life and eternal life:
God's Bucket
If this world
Was not held in God's bucket
How could an ocean stand upside down
On it's head and never lose a drop?
If your life was not contained in God's cup
How could you be so brave and laugh,
Dance in the face of death?
There is a private chamber in the soul
That knows a great secret
Of which no tongue can speak.
Your existence, O love my dear
Has been sealed and marked
"Too sacred," "too sacred" by the Beloved -
To ever end!
Indeed God
Has written a thousand promises
All over your heart
That say,
Life, life, life
Is far too sacred to
Ever end.
- Hafiz (Sufi poet)
You may be familiar with the ministry of Fr. Roy Bourgeois to close the School of the Americas which has long been engaged in training assassins in Latin America and elsewhere. We ask your help in calling and adding your voice to this crusade:
The Deadline has Arrived, and We Need Your Help Once More!
The deadline for the congressional sign-on letter asking Obama to close the SOA/WHINSEC is here! Thanks to all your support, we managed to get 69 Representatives on board. A great accomplishment! Now is time for the essential task of delivering the letter to President Obama, and once again we need your help. The letter will have the most impact if it is accompanied by calls from interested people from all over the country telling the President to "Shut It Down". So we are asking you to call the White House this Tuesday, August 16th and let him know that you support the closure and investigation of the SOA/WHINSEC.
Please spread the word about the SOA and the upcoming White House Call-in Day. Click here to tell your friends about it!
This is an important time in the search for justice for victims of massacres committed by SOA graduates. On Monday, August 8, 2011, nine former soldiers and government officials from El Salvador were arrested for their role in the 1989 the massacre of 14-year-old Celina Ramos, her mother Elba Ramos and six Jesuit priests at the University of Central America in El Salvador. More information is available here. SOA violence continues today in Colombia, Honduras and other places. In order to prevent atrocities in the future, it is imperative that we take advantage of this push to close the school and to end U.S. militarization in the Americas. Accountability for the perpetrators of the 1989 Jesuit massacre, while a long time coming, appears to be within sight. However no such accountability has been applied to the institution in the US that trained them.
We have provided a petition that succinctly defines some of the key problems with the SOA, and why it needs to be closed. If you have not signed the petition, please do. We will also be sending you an email on Tuesday, reminding you to call the President's office. In the meantime, let your friends and family know about this call to action. This would be a perfect time to talk with someone who might not know much or anything about the School of Americas, and encourage them to call in next Tuesday.
In order to help you get this message out to as many people as possible, we have created a Tell-a-Friend page with some information about the School of Americas and the current legislative campaign to shut it down. Please take contact up to 20 of your friends and family with this crucial call-in action. Click here to start notifying people!
Thanks,
The Folks at SOA Watch
May your monastery of the heart be abundantly graced and well-lived in....
Ron & Jean