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Update on Prisoner of Conscience
Originally published in E-Leaven, June 1, 2009, Issue 9
by Amy Sheber-Howard

In November, Denver resident Theresa Cusimano joined five others from around the country in protesting US policies of torture by doing civil disobedience at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, GA (see www.soaw.org for more information). For her misdemeanor trespass, Theresa was sentenced to two months in federal prison and a $500 fine. Though she was sentenced to serve in a minimum security facility, she was assigned to a maximum security federal prison in Fort Worth, TX.

The frustration she experienced at US policies of supporting torture are described in the statement she made at her trial in federal court on January 26, 2009. Theresa offers her reflections on the contrast between her life of privilege and what she was about to enter on the morning of her reporting to Ft. Carswell Federal Prison on March 10, 2009. Theresa has continually expressed amazement at how the women inmates she was with withstand the treatment, lack of dignity and constant noise of the prison environment for such long periods of time, with the exact end dates of their time there unknown. These indignities weighed on her heavily even with a short prison term, whose end was identified.

Theresa has shared stories of kindnesses shown by other prisoners and of their desire to learn and better their lives. She served as GED tutor, softball coach, and book-lender, sharing the titles friends sent while she was in prison. She was gifted by other inmates with an afghan, a thicker mattress, nutrition tips and pointers for getting through the crazy-making, ever-changing, often-arbitrary system of rules. She has expressed heaviness and deep sadness at feeling and seeing first-hand what she had known intellectually previous to her time at Carswell: the seeming hopelessness of generational poverty and institutional racism played out in the federal prison system.

Theresa was released from Carswell on May 8, 2009. Even though her prison term is now ended, she encourages continued correspondence to senators and representatives to urge the closing of the School of the Americas.

Theresa’s Denver address is:
Theresa Cusimano
Regis University
3333 Regis Blvd, B-7
Denver, CO 80221

Choices of Conscience, Not Logic
(Excerpts from Theresa Cusimano’s Statement in Court, 1/26/09)


I had gone to the School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia, wanting in my heart to “cross the line” but knowing in my head is was an illogical thing to do.

This U.S. military training school taught Latin American countries torture techniques, which we outlawed after World War II by signing a series of international treaties. Unfortunately, our U.S. signature has come to mean very little… as we continued to invest $30 million American tax dollars a year in this known human rights abuser, the School of the Americas. Among the many accomplishments of the SOA graduates are six murdered Jesuits, two of their staff family, and four religious women.

Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. Training techniques include arbitrary detention similar to Guantanamo Bay, and torture similar to Abu Ghraib.

A friend’s family was taken at night, “disappeared” in Latin America. He was not one of the “lucky ones,” as he put it, because his grandfather’s and uncle’s bodies were never dumped in the middle of the street, after their torture and death. So his family never had the luxury of closure. They consider themselves lucky however, because his sister who was kidnapped was returned. She, however, doesn’t feel so lucky.

After seeing the images of U.S. torture from Abu Ghraib, I recognized I could no longer be a silent bystander and still consider myself a person of faith. So many areas of my Catholic faith that are grey but the concept of respecting life is pretty basic. My love for my country demands me to speak now…

I stand proudly in your courtroom today, because our system of checks and balances was not working… If the U.S. had recognized the abuses of the School of the Americas, the same human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib may have been avoided. It’s a sad day sir, if I’m all our country has left in this resistance.

As a part of my discernment about civil disobedience, I sought the advice of my sister who taught at the Pentagon as a part of her tenure as a political scientist who specializes in International Relations at Catholic University of America. As a human rights advocate for the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, she helps their International Human Rights Committee articulate its policies and moral values. Through her, I also consulted with her husband, who gave the commencement speech to the Western Hemispheric Institute last year. Both of them told me my actions were illogical and would not affect the policy change I felt our country so desperately needed. I don’t know if my civil disobedience will bring policy change or make my government accountable. But at least I know that I am no longer a silent bystander. I am a nonviolent objector. I sleep peacefully knowing I’ve made a choice of conscience, however illogical my choice may seem to others.

Judge Faircloth, you have the power to see our actions in this global context. You have the opportunity to broaden your view, instead of narrowing it. As of today 237 people have served more than 90 years in prison as a result of your court rulings. Your approach is not working. We need you to be a part of our country’s checks and balances that are failing us by changing your rulings, in your court, on this day.

From Utter Privilege to Prison Update on Prisoner of Conscience
by Theresa Cusimano

Today I enter a federal prison in Carswell, Texas. Along with hundreds of others, I have failed to convince Judge Faircloth from Georgia and judges before him, that their protection of the military school training torturers is a crime against humanity.

I believe:

It is my hope that anyone who knows me or considers me a friend or respected colleague will join me in inviting our government to put forward its better self. It is my opinion that the last election was a resounding rejection of the Politics of Fear and Hate around an Axis of Evil, not on a partisan level as much as a basic human rights level. I don’t believe the two party system serves us well. It is my deep desire that issues such as humane treatment do not continue to become political preferences, but rather we return to knowing that these are basic, inalienable human rights. Polling and public research show that over 90% of Americans DO NOT believe in torture. It is that 90% that I trust all of you fall into, and I am now begging you to act, to speak, to make your voices heard.

Join me in my journey and others who want to end this U.S. military legacy at Support the SOA Six FaceBook group. Under the Discussion groups section, you will find legislative talking points to write and call your U.S. Senator and Representatives. Many have scheduled visits to talk with legislative assistants about why this issue is important now, more than ever before. If you want to learn more, click on www.soaw.org and read the legislative section that provides even more information.

Please, whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me or make me into some kind of hero for my actions. I know that my beliefs are within each of you. We just express them differently at different times in our lives. There is nothing to worry about, I’ve been downing chocolate bars, shoveling Ben & Jerry’s in, ordered a massage and pampered myself leading up to today. I live in utter privilege.

But please DO one thing for me --  let me know you too believe torture is never an option. Life is sacred. Everyone has inalienable human rights, including dignity. Join me in getting the U.S. government back on track. Fear is not productive. Torture, at the very least, is not efficient nor effective. Even those who implemented it have told us that. If you make your voices heard, we can regain a moral high ground that as U.S. citizens, we say we believe in. Remember “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, for all”?

Lowest Common Denominator Update on Prisoner of Conscience
A Reflection from Prison by Theresa Cusimano


In my search to find my purpose at Carswell Federal Medical Center, I’ve become a tutor for inmates taking the GED standardized test. I eagerly accepted, wanting to be useful in some way. Then the reality of high school math sank in, those subjects I disdained… trigonometry, algebra, mixed fractions. I seem to recall choosing my college major based on which one had the least amount of math. I am a casualty of that arrogant generation of male math teachers who didn’t want to waste time on girls. Regardless of gender, though, sitting silently with a pencil, working a long problem, was not my natural inclination.

As my gold-toothed African sister and my toothless Native sister sit me down to make sense of their Princeton guides, I laugh to myself at the irrelevance of it all… needing to get a GED to take the Cosmetology certificate. I feverishly read their books to try and remember those nightmare formulas and find the one instruction that finally made sense. Reduce to the lowest terms. I read it again, Reduce to the lowest terms. I can almost hear Mr. Harmanos’ voice, my honors Calculus teacher. His approach was to get all the intellectual lightweights to drop his course in the first two weeks of the semester. I quickly obliged and stopped the pain.

But these women have no choice. The GED stands before them, blocking their access to economic opportunity. The schools in their neighborhoods didn’t teach basic or college prep math. So now they learn how to reduce to the lowest terms, in prison… so that they may have the privilege to cut someone’s hair back home, in their ghetto or on the reservation. How utterly ridiculous - and so totally irrelevant. Princeton is not waiting for them, just perm rods. Reducing them to the lowest terms. These are not lessons I wish to teach.

 

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