A Collection of Photographs from SOA Watch

This is what the road between Grinnell, IA and Columbus, GA looks like (Mer took this picture on the way down.) According to MapQuest, it's 1,040 miles. Since it's fall, the trees were really beautiful and orange/red. We drove mostly at night so I really only saw Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky in the day time.This is our campsite in Pine Mountain, GA in the AM. You can tell it's morning because things are zipped up and the air looks cold. We slept on the ground in these four GORP tents- mine was the second from the right- 45 miles outside of Columbus. I slept in the Volvo wagon the second night because the ground was too cold and too uncomfortable. I was the only one to take a shower in four days. I seriously hate camping. HATE ITI believe the bottom on the right is Leigh's. The main stage is where all the musicians and speakers were located. At Saturday's rally, we sat on this small patch of grass next to a garbage can for five hours. SOA Watch, the organization, spent an incredible amount of money to ensure everyone could hear what was happening from the stage. Large speakers were erected all throughout the protest site. Most of the offerings from the stage were in both English and Spanish and interpreters wearing special badges walked around to ensure everyone's message was fully accessible.

The watch tower was set up to the left of the stage. Military police and local police personnel lined the perimeter of the crowd. Helicopters flew overhead the second day of the protest in an attempt to drown out the speakers and spot people crossing the line. Everyone was video recorded when they entered the site.This picture really captures the political and social diversity of the crowd. Nuns and punks marched together in solidarity. Many students from Jesuit schools were in attendance (they were flown in by their schools and put up in hotel rooms) because the SOA was initially questioned when two Jesuit priests and several Catholic missionaries were murdered in South America at the hands of SOA graduates. The protest was like nothing I have ever attended. I plan to go every year I am able.

The South. Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Holy crap.