Retired Teacher Charged in Protest; Newton Resident Opposes Military Training Program

By Emily Sweeney, Globe Correspondent

A retired Newton schoolteacher faces charges in Georgia for protesting in front of Fort Benning, the home of the former School of the Americas, a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Ralph Madsen, 68, is scheduled to go on trial with 42 other human rights activists tomorrow in federal court in Columbus, Ga., according to a spokewoman in the US attorney's office for the middle district of Georgia.

Madsen faces a maximum of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine if found guilty of entering a military base without permission last November, when he joined thousands in a peaceful protest to close the school.

The protesters include a 72-year-old Catholic priest and high school students, according to the School of the Americas Watch, an activist group that seeks to close the school. The group contends that some graduates of the school are responsible for human rights offenses, such as assassinations and murders of Latin American civilians. Madsen, who once served as an enlisted soldier at Fort Benning, described the protest as a "solemn funeral," with some demonstrators dressing in black shrouds and carrying mock coffins. After an hour, he said, he was handcuffed by police and "processed" without incident.
Madsen retired from teaching second and third grade at the Franklin Elementary School in Newton in 1998.

It was not the first time Madsen had been arrested. In the Vietnam era, he was arrested in Newton during a protest against the draft, and he was arrested at a demonstration on Lexington's Battle Green in 1971. Three years ago, he was arrested for protesting at the Pentagon during a School of the Americas Watch gathering.

He has never served any jail time, but he is expecting to this time.

"I feel fortunate because I've had very good experience with the police and military police," Madsen said. "They've been respectful and polite, and they've done their job."

The goal of Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation is to train military, law enforcement, and civilian students from Latin America, and also teach them about democracy and human rights, according to Gina DiNicolo, an Army spokeswoman.
The curriculum has evolved over the years, she said, and fewer than 1 percent of the school's 63,000 graduates have been accused of wrongdoing.

"From what we read and what we hear, [the protesters] are well-meaning people, but I think their concern is the overall US foreign policy in Latin America," DiNicolo said.

"We say, 'Talk to your congressmen, talk to the White House, those people who make the policy,' " she said. "They say, 'What is taught at the school hurts the poor of Latin America.' We've said, 'Well, when you're looking at courses like democratic sustainment - to us, these things help Latin America.' "

Ann Eno of Westford, a former SOA Watch board member, said the actions of Madsen and the protesters are "brave, good, and wonderful," because they are "standing up to this war machine."

"I think the fines and possibility of jail is absolutely ludicrous when you think what's being done by the - this sounds extreme - but the warlords who rule this country. I think the Bush administration and Pentagon and all people in power, including a sleeping Congress, are really taking this country down a terrible, terrible road."

In an e-mail message sent to the Globe shortly before he left for Georgia, Madsen wrote:

"What I am able to do is very small in light of the suffering and injustices in the world. This is our world. This is our country. We need to do the best we can to take care of our world, our country, our human lives."

Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company