I received a letter today from the brave and resilient School of Americas Watch. I'll reprint an excerpt below, but the short version is that the church which has provided the bulk of the funding for their organization has dropped them because Father Roy Bourgeois, SOA director, supports the ordination of women!! (see more...)
School of the Americas Watch was recently informed that Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, which has previous contributed $17,000 annually to SOA Watch, will not support our efforts for peace and justice in the Americas this year. Their decision is due to SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois' personal belief that women, as well as men, should be able to be ordained into the priesthood...
Our immediate need is to cover a $17,000 budget gap caused by this unfortunate situation. With seven new US military bases opening in Colombia, members of the media and opposition continuing to be targeted in Honduras, and military solutions to crime threatening to send the situation in Mexico spiraling out of control, there's little room for SOA Watch to back off its demands for humane foreign policy.
We need to make up for the shortfall before this November, when human rights activists, religious communities, torture survivors, and movement organizers from around the Americas will gather at the gates of Fort Benning for the 20th Anniversary of our annual vigil. We will be hosting over 100 workshops and trainings that teach skills that people can put to use back in their communities. Without our annual grant for Maryknoll, however, we need your direct support to make it all happen...
Their postal address is SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC 20017
or go to www.soawatch.org to contribute online. Please women's rights Kossacks can you step up and help?