calling all abuelas...

...and those who are de-facto grandmothers to march on the
School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, GA in November and shut the place down for good!

If we want to look at the reasons why people risk life and limb and the long arm of the law to get into the U.S., it seems safe to say that the U.S. has had a role in fostering some of the desperate conditions people have been trying to flee from. The School of the Americas (renamed in 2001 as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) has

"trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School...."

From the School of the Americas Watch.

After the Grandmothers shut down the SOA / WHISC, perhaps they can march on the White House and / or Capitol Hill and give those places a good scrubbing too. No doubt there are already a few grandmothers in Congress but I don't think there are enough to tip the balance of power in their favor which is what we want, essentially a silent coup of grandmothers, or a controlling interest in the shares of government stock.

Which brings up a great idea I have for the Republicans, maybe somebody already thought of it, and that is to get the government completely out of this expensive governing business and let private companies take care of it. One parent company could win the bid on the federal governing and perhaps the states could be wholly owned subsidiaries, or else state governments would be run by other, smaller companies. This could actually require some corporations to hire on a few more U.S. workers to administer the programs...or not. Imagine, you could call EDD for your unemployment benefits and someone in India could take the call. Trying to draw the line between corporate influence peddling and our elected representatives is too hard, why not just stop trying. The government corp. could provide stock options to youth to help them get a start, maybe even pay for college. Folks who want to vote for something can do that as long as their stock has voting rights.