Marty Rosenbluth speaks on Israel/Palestine

Amnesty International at UNCA Presents:

Marty Rosenbluth

Country Specialist on Israel/Palestine

for Amnesty USA

and Documentary Filmmaker

Thursday, September 7^th, 9:00pm

In the Highsmith Grotto (1^st floor)

Lecture by founder of SOAW

Upcoming Amnesty Event! Here's the press release:

Rev. Roy Bourgeois will be giving a public lecture “The Struggle for Peace and Justice” on Sept. 26 at 7:30 in Alumni Hall of the Highsmith Student Union.

Father Roy Bourgeois, M.M. is an American priest in the Maryknoll order of the Roman Catholic Church and founder of the human rights group School of the Americas Watch.

Bourgeois was born in Lutcher, Louisiana in 1938. He attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in geology. After graduation, Bourgeois entered the United States Navy and served as an officer for four years. He spent two years at sea, one year at a station in Europe, and one year in Vietnam. He received the Purple Heart during a tour of duty in Vietnam.

After military service, he entered the seminary of the Maryknoll Missionary Order. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1972 and sent to Bolivia. Fr. Roy spent five years in Bolivia aiding the poor, before being arrested and deported for speaking out against Bolivian dictator General Hugo Banzer, an SOA graduate. In 1980 Fr. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America after four American churchwomen, Sister Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Sister Ita Ford, and Sister Dorothy Kazel, were raped and killed by a death squad consisting of soldiers from the Salvadoran National Guard. In 1990 Fr. Roy founded the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), an organization that seeks to close the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, through nonviolent protest. In 1998 Fr. Roy testified before a Spanish judge seeking the extradition of Chile's ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

Roy Bourgeois has received the following awards:

· Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award (1997)

· Thomas Merton Award (2005)

The talk is sponsored by the UNCA Chapter of Amnesty International.

Welcome Back!

Hey, everyone! Time for a new year of Human Rights Activism. Our first meeting will be Wednesday, August 30th, at 5:00pm, in the Blue Ridge Board Room (Highsmith Union room 235).