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Thanks for supporting daughter

To the editor:
The trials for those arrested at last Novemberís protest for their act of civil disobedience at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of the Americas), that included my daughter Anika Walz, are over. She pleaded guilty, freely admitting that she crossed the line on the property of Ft. Benning because our government had crossed the line in training terrorists at the former School of the Americas. She was sentenced to 12 months probation, 250 hours of community service work, given a $1,000 fine and a five-year ban and bar letter by the military that forbids her being at Ft. Benning for 5 years.
There were 10,000 protesters this year at the annual protest at Ft. Benning. The protest is on the anniversary of the death of the seven priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador by graduates of the School of Americas.
The protest was organized by Fr. Roy Boudreau, a friend of the dead priests. This year over 100 protesters committed an act of civil disobedience, that is, they committed a peaceful and nonviolent act to be arrested. They walked around a fence onto the grass of the military base, a perfectly legal activity except as part of a protest. The protest was legal, but the permit restricted them to the street in front of the base.
Of the 100 arrested, about double the number from the previous year, 14 were under 18. The under 18 were released. Of the remaining 86, they were held for up to three days and released on bail. Most of their trials were held at the end of January and the second week of February. They ranged in age from 18 to 78, about 20 percent were ministers or religious and another third were college students, and they were equally divided by gender. They were put into three groups, those pleading guilty, those pleading guilty with stipulation, and those pleading not guilty. Those that plead guilty, like Anika, received a sentence similar to hers. For the most part, those exercising their right to plead not guilty received 6 months in prison and the others received 3 months in prison. Of the 86 arrested, about two-thirds received prison sentences, which as one defendant stated, appeared to be excessively harsh punishments for peacefully and non-violently walking on the grass.
My family would like to thank everyone who supported Anika with prayers or financially with her fine and legal fees. The support was overwhelming, helping her and several other defendants. Anikaís actions were motivated by the values she learned in her confirmation class and in her faith. We are proud of her willingness to stand up for her convictions and accept the consequences of her actions. At the same time, the purpose of her act of civil disobedience was to draw attention to the School of Americas, educate the public how our tax dollars are being used to support foreign military who terrorize and kill their own people (http://www.soaw.org), and urge them to put pressure on congress to close it. It was almost closed two years ago because of public outcry. The movement continues to build and hopefully it will be closed as more Americans learned that their tax dollars are being used to train terrorists, such as Manual Noriega.
Robert G. Walz
North Branch

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