While leaving the School of the Americas Watch protest on the afternoon of Nov. 23 a protester went up to one group of police officers at the exit and said, “Thank you guys, and goodbye. I will see you next year, unless they close it; then I will see you somewhere else.” This moment embodied the spirit and the whole idea of the protest.

“It was the most peaceful protest I have ever been to, and the police officers were really nice,” said Oberlin first-year Krista Lewicki.

The School of the Americas Watch is a movement that started in 1990, and ever since, it has organized protests in November every year. The goal of the protesters and their sincerest desire is to close down the School of the Americas, which trains foreign soldiers, mostly from Latin America. According to the website of the SOAW, a lot of the graduates of the SOA, which in 2001 was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, are responsible for the tortures, rapes, assassinations and massacres of thousands of Latin Americans. Thousands more have been forced into exile by those trained at SOA/WHINSEC. Colombia alone, where a civil war is still ongoing, has more trainees in SOA than from any other country in the world.

On the weekend of Nov. 21-22 at Fort Benning, Ga., where the SOA is currently situated, the annual watch organized by SOAW served a double purpose: to educate people about SOA and encourage them to take legislative action to close the school down and to also provide a vigil for all the victims of SOA graduates.

More than 60 Oberlin students took part in the protest and the vigil now joined by 15 thousand protesters from all over the country. People from Texas, Michigan, Canada, Oregon, Wisconsin, Missouri, Haiti, Indiana, California and North Carolina were there. Organizations from all over the U.S., even Buddhist monks from Atlantic City, came to participate along with the many speakers and organizers.

Many of the speakers were Latin Americans who have lived through terror in their own countries. Eva and Andrea were from Argentina and Colombia, respectively, and spoke of how their fathers had been taken away. Neither of them looked older than 20, but they spoke with confidence in front of the huge mass of people. They said that in their countries, everybody thinks that American people support the government, but they know this is not true.

A few years ago, the SOAW gained the right not to be searched as they enter the protest, which they consider to be a huge step forward. This year there were big signs at the entrance, listing all the forbidden items and materials, but no one even came close to the protesters on their way in. Still, on both sides of the ropes, leading the Watchers in, there were men and women in uniform all the way to the stage and around it, in front of the gates and houses nearby. Yet most of them were smiling, nodding at the protesters and greeting them with hellos.

Another change from last year was the double gate on the entrance road to the base. The big tombstone-like sign of the School of the Americas, to the right of the main gate was covered and surrounded by a metal fence for the first time this year. This was done because last year, protesters climbed on it. Yet some speakers saw this as an answer to the protests, a sign that there is a reaction to their actions.

On the road to the base, there was also the symbolic line. Every year, at least 10 people cross it in an act of civil disobedience and thus express their support to the SOAW. This line was thick and painted, but on it with orange pencil, somebody had written, “Cross the line everyday.” A stage was set up in front of that line on Saturday, and in front of the stage gathered the more than 15 thousand protesters.

Oberlin’s red SOA t-shirts blended in with other bright dresses, togas, shirts and heads of multi-colored hair. There were people of all ages — students from many universities, elderly citizens with walkers, babies, even four to five year-olds running around squirting water at each other or drawing with chalk on the street.

Like actress Susan Sarandon said, quoting the radical historian Howard Zinn, “All of these busloads of people who are going back to all these communities that speak so many languages believe that American society is not divided by heart.”

Sarandon confessed that this is the first year she managed to make her way to the protest, but she said that she has “been here every year in her heart.”

“America’s youth is not absent,” she added.

One of the speakers who managed to stir the crowd with his words was Reverend Greylen Hagler.

“The blessed of us should help the rest of us until the rest of us become the blessed of us,” he said.

Another very influential speaker was Sister Helen Prejean, the author of the book Dead Man Walking, on which the Sarandon movie was based. She spoke in front of a crowd that was full of music and desire for change. As Bertita Martinez said, “Beware of a movement that sings, that means they have a sense of rhythm and know what they want.”

This statement was confirmed on Saturday evening when the protest moved to the Convention Center in Columbus, Ga. Many workshops on civil disobedience and non-violence took place, as well as a presentation of the new SOAW movie.

The movie was based on the stories of a few prisoners of conscience from last year, the people who crossed the line and served federal prison terms. Some of them were present at the showing of the movie and briefly spoke afterwards.

“I think you’ll agree that 2004 has brought us to a global movement,” said one of the “trouble-making” nuns, as speakers on the movie presentation referred to them. Another prisoner of conscience stated that he “is guilty and proud of it.”

Linda Barns, who served six months in federal prison and paid $500 in fines, was also at the presentation of the movie with her son, ,Luke.

“I came here to tell you that I will not be a prisoner of fear,” she said. “Fear is the enemy, not what we are shown on TV as the enemy.”

She spent her term in a federal prison in a wing on the gate of which there was a big sign that said “Condemned. Unfit for inmates.”

Many of the speakers at the presentation shared the opinion that civil disobedience means causing tension and attracting attention. The same statement was made by some Oberlin students later on.

“Fifteen people crossing the line doesn’t make a difference but 15,000 will,” said Oberlin sophomore Stacy Litner.

Others were a little skeptical about the non-violence aspect of the protest.

“We go back to Cleveland, and is this going to even be on the press? Agitation and struggle is what brings progress, and not necessarily violent agitation and struggle, but they have to be there,” said Bret Wilhelm from Kent State University.

More than 200 prisoners of conscience have served 80 years altogether, or up to 18 months each.

“The trick with non-violence is that you can do something non-violent, but it makes no difference,” said Oberlin resident Glenn Goll. “Last year this protest caused legislation action and it got very close to closing [the SOA down].”

The last vote in Congress on whether WHINSEC should be closed down passed by a mere 10 votes, 214 to 210.

“Unfortunately, in this country, it takes breaking the law to get attention,” said a speaker from the new movie of SOA, one of the prisoners of conscience.

Protesters at all times talked about “crossing the line” as both a physical and emotional experience, which relates to the way most of them perceived the whole experience.

At 11 p.m., after the workshops and the presentations at the Convention Center were over, the student protesters went on the rainy streets of Columbus, singing and dancing, chanting, “Show me what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like,” and “Oh, hey, hey ho, SOA has got to go.”

The next day began early with more speakers. Amy Ray from the Indigo Girls and actor Martin Sheen, who plays the president of the United States on the television show The West Wing, addressed the protesters before the vigil began at 10 a.m.

“We all know what I do for a living, but this is what I do to stay alive,” said Sheen.

“As the active president of the United States,” he went on, referring to his television persona, “I promise that the School of the Americas will be closed down. The base will be known from now on as the School of Entertainment and will serve to train circus performers.”

Shortly after that, he was at the beginning of the funeral procession in memory of the victims of SOA graduates. The reading of the names alone lasted more than five hours. The very procession began with about an hour-long vigil, during which names were chanted aloud from the stage. The protesters stood on the two sides of the street and after each name they said “Present!” in one voice. Thousands of white, handmade crosses were held in the air every time they said it. This created a breath-taking sight.

As Ray put it, “We can be here from all religions and embrace each other and know that we have allies.”