Minute of Encouragement and Support
for Shirley Way
Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in its Meeting for Worship with a concern for Business held July 31, 2004, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, sends its support and encouragement to Shirley Way and her co-defendants for their witness on behalf of peace. At this time when our government has undertaken preemptive war, we believe that taking visible actions on behalf of peace is critically needed.
On November 23, 2003, ten thousand people participated in the annual rally and prayerful procession at Fort Benning to urge closing of the U.S. Army School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC). Shirley Way was one of 43 protesters arrested and held overnight in the Muscogee County Jail for committing civil disobedience by “crossing the line” onto the base. SOA/WHISC trains soldiers, officiers and even civilians from Latin America in counter-insurgency techniques and combat. Training manuals released in 1996 advocate torture, extortion, execution, false imprisonment, and the kidnapping of a target’s family member. Graduates are known to commit human rights atrocities against the people of their home countries. More than 60,000 have graduated since the school’s inception in 1946. SOA Watch (www.soaw.org), the organization that sponsors the annual rally, began calling for the school’s closure in 1989, following the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter in San Salvador. Nineteen of the twenty-six soldiers responsible for the murders were graduates of the School if the Americas. In 1994, Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) recorded its support for closing the SOA (Y94-47).
The week of January 26, 2004, Shirley was among 27 defendants tried and found guilty on trespassing charges for crossing the line at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Of the 27 tried, fifteen, including Shirley, received sentences for three months in federal minimum security prisons, eight received six month sentences, three received one year probation, and one received two years probation. Fines ranged from zero to $1500. Many of the defendants delivered very moving, first-hand accounts of the “work” of graduates, effectively putting the SOA/WHISC itself on trial. Shirley began serving her sentence in June 2004. Until imprisoned, Shirley and her co-defendants spoke out about SOA/WHISC and about HR 1258 which calls for suspension of the school and investigation into its history as recommended by Amnesty International.
Such actions provide a beacon of hope to seekers of peace everywhere. Shirley, we wish to let you and your co-defendants know that we are deeply touched by, and grateful for, your courage and faith, both in committing your acts of civil disobedience and in accepting and facing your sentence. We will be holding you in the Light as you move forward in your commitment to the cause of peace.
Shirley is the daughter of Foxdale residents Mary and Roger Way of State College Friends Meeting and Baltimore Yearly Meeting; she lives and works in upstate New York and is a member of Central Finger Lakes Monthly Meeting of New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Approved by Baltimore Yearly Meeting in session on July 31, 2004