- Playing
- Protesting the School of the Americas
- From
- Gretel Carlson
The School of the Americas has been tied to countless deaths in South America. For the past eleven years, protesters, now numbering in the tens of thousands, gather to show their discontent with this aspect of the United States' political dealings. In this compilation, we talk to a first-time protest attendee, Grinnell College students, a political dissenter arrested twice for her civil disobedience, a conscientious objector and an event organizer.
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Piece Description
The School of the Americas has been tied to countless deaths in South America. For the past eleven years, protesters, now numbering in the tens of thousands, gather to show their discontent with this aspect of the United States' political dealings. In this compilation, we talk to a first-time protest attendee, Grinnell College students, a political dissenter arrested twice for her civil disobedience, a conscientious objector and an event organizer.
Broadcast History
Broadcast on KDIC 88.5 fm Grinnell College, Grinnell IA during Listen Hear
Transcript
Introduction: (Tamacun)
Gretel: Convincing a bunch of Grinnellians to get out of Grinnell for a weekend doesn't sound like a hard sell, but if it entails outdoor camping in near-freezing temperatures and thirty-some hours on a bus, you might run into some resistance. But for this bunch, resistance is the whole point.
A group of twenty-three Grinnell students, one alum, a library staff member and her daughter all piled on the bus that would be out home away from home the weekend before Thanksgiving.
This particular weekend is an annual tradition starting in 1990 by Father Roy Bourgeois as a reaction to the unjust deaths of six Jesuit priests, their coworker and the coworker's daughter who were killed in El Salvador by alumni of the School of the Americas. The 13-person strong movement in 1990 has blossomed into an annual gathering of over twenty-thousand resisters and a non-profit orga...
Read the full transcript
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamacun | Rodrigo y Gabriela | Rodrigo y Gabriela. | Rubyworks | 2006 | 00:00 |
| If I Had a Hammer | Peter, Paul and Mary | Peter, Paul and Mary. | Warner Bros | 1962 | 00:00 |
| Sodom South Georgia | Iron & Wine | Our Endless Numbered Days. | Sub Pop | 2004 | 00:00 |
| Pepperland | The Beatles | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. | Parlophone Capital | 1967 | 00:00 |
Related Website
Hrishikesh Deshpande
Posted on February 08, 2009 at 08:22 PM | Permalink
Review of “Protesting the School of the Americas”
The School of the Americas, which I had never heard about, was the subject of this rather informational feature piece. Gretel Carlson did a great job gathering interesting interviews and the description of the protest was very vivid. Why only two stars then? Well, although Gretel’s interviewees were interesting, it was a little difficult to keep track of them all. The piece also was rather long, and it didn’t hold my attention very well. A shorter piece might have kept it more interesting. My most nagging complaint however, was the music. It was obtrusive and kept me from being able to listen to the piece clearly. I had to keep a window of the transcript open just so I could understand what was being said as the music interrupted. In the end, it was a good topic, hampered by only a few fatal flaws.
Adjectives: informational, emotional