Disturbing the Peace tells the story of a Cajun priest, a former gung-ho Navy officer injured in a bomb blast in Vietnam, who has tirelessly championed human rights and aroused the conscience of a nation. The fast-paced historical biography also profiles the movement he founded to close a notorious U.S. Army school whose graduates have committed atrocities across Latin America.
The journey of this "spiritual hobo" has more twists and turns than the Mississippi River: from love affairs that ended in heartbreak to patriotic impulses that ended in disillusionment. From dreams of wealth to missionary work among the poor. From protests and prison terms to a cloistered monastery. From confrontations with church hierarchy to political battles on Capitol Hill.
Bourgeois’ opposition to militarism began after a blind Vietnamese orphan opened his eyes to the realities of war. Since then, his human rights work has landed him in half a dozen war-torn countries.
The assassinations of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989 spurred Bourgeois to investigate the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, then a little known training installation whose graduates were later linked not only to the Jesuit massacre, but to gross human rights abuses throughout Latin America.
The book also profiles the movement he founded to close the school; the Congressional battles over its funding; the Pentagon’s forced admission that the school used manuals advocating torture and assassination; and the courage of average Americans – including WWII and Vietnam veterans, students, teachers, union workers, professionals, clergy and elderly nuns – who have risked imprisonment each year at the annual November demonstration at Fort Benning, Ga., where the school is located.
After a ten-year battle, the Pentagon closed the school, only to re-open it under a new name -- the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The SOA Watch movement continues to be one of the strongest voices of dissent since Sept.11, 2001, winning court battles that have helped safeguard First Amendment rights.
Time and again throughout the struggle, Bourgeois, along with his fellow provocateurs for justice, lends credence to Margaret Mead’s belief "that a small group of committed citizens can change the world."
Disturbing the Peace tells the story of a Cajun priest, a former gung-ho Navy officer injured in a bomb blast in Vietnam, who has tirelessly championed human rights and aroused the conscience of a nation. The fast-paced historical biography also profiles the movement he founded to close a notorious U.S. Army school whose graduates have committed atrocities across Latin America.
The journey of this "spiritual hobo" has more twists and turns than the Mississippi River: from love affairs that ended in heartbreak to patriotic impulses that ended in disillusionment. From dreams of wealth to missionary work among the poor. From protests and prison terms to a cloistered monastery. From confrontations with church hierarchy to political battles on Capitol Hill.
Bourgeois’ opposition to militarism began after a blind Vietnamese orphan opened his eyes to the realities of war. Since then, his human rights work has landed him in half a dozen war-torn countries.
The assassinations of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989 spurred Bourgeois to investigate the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, then a little known training installation whose graduates were later linked not only to the Jesuit massacre, but to gross human rights abuses throughout Latin America.
The book also profiles the movement he founded to close the school; the Congressional battles over its funding; the Pentagon’s forced admission that the school used manuals advocating torture and assassination; and the courage of average Americans – including WWII and Vietnam veterans, students, teachers, union workers, professionals, clergy and elderly nuns – who have risked imprisonment each year at the annual November demonstration at Fort Benning, Ga., where the school is located.
After a ten-year battle, the Pentagon closed the school, only to re-open it under a new name -- the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The SOA Watch movement continues to be one of the strongest voices of dissent since Sept.11, 2001, winning court battles that have helped safeguard First Amendment rights.
Time and again throughout the struggle, Bourgeois, along with his fellow provocateurs for justice, lends credence to Margaret Mead’s belief "that a small group of committed citizens can change the world."
Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas
224
Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of the Americas
224
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781570754340 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Orbis Books |
| Publication date: | 11/28/2004 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d) |