I have never met five-year-old Maria Delores Amaya Carlos. Up until November 18, 2007, I did not even know that this young girl existed in El Salvador where she laugh, played, cried, went to school and had a family that loved her. I can imagine her home filled with the scents of platanos fritos, pollo encebollado, pupusas, tamales de elote and flan de leche. All these imagines fill my imagination, but there is only one fact I know about young Maria, and that is at the age of five she was murdered by soldiers who were trained at the School of America located at Fr. Benning, GA. the School of America (SOA) has been renamed, the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union-organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared", massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

In a protest against the Western Hemisphere institute for Security Cooperation, twenty-five thousand men, women and children marched in solidarity, not only for the five-year-old Maria Delores Amaya Carlos, but for the thousands of others who have been murdered by graduates for each assassinated person whose name was read. After the reading of each name the people gathered chanted the word, "presente" so that those who were murdered by their states aren't forgotten but are remembered and brought present as a great cloud of witness against WHIS.

I can imagine much about this young five-year-old girl, but I cannot imagine how a five-year-old girl: no less than anyone at any age, i9s such a treat to the security of a nation that they need to be assassinated in cold blood. I cannot imagine how those who work for the poor and marginalized are such a threat to the powerful and wealthy that they feel they need to silent those voices. I cannot make sense of such actions and how the United States is training others to murder in the name of their state.

As a Christian I ask myself what should be my response to such actions, what can I do and is there any hope against such atrocities. I read in Isaiah 1:17, "Go home and wash up. Clean up your act, sweet your lives clean of your evildoings so I don't have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong, learn to do good, work for justice. Help the down-and out, stand u for the homeless.  Go to bat for the defenseless." Or in Isaiah 58:6-9, "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts, What I'm [God] interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, "here I am." And finally, Matthew 25:34-45, "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me." Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? when did we see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me.'"

Back in the 80's in the early years of the AIDS epidemic there was a slogan that ACT-UP created: "Silence = Death". As a lay brother I know that I cannot remain silent while others are being tortured and murdered. I also know that it is not my actions that will shed light on the evils done in our name, but I am only a humble messenger for the one who is the light so that through his light transformation can take place. I need to stand in solidarity with God and the people as I participate in God's continued work of reconciliation.

I know that I cannot change the world, but I can be "presente" for others, I can be "presente" to remember the Maria Delores Amaya Carlos' of this world so that her life, and the lives of countless others, aren't forgotten and erased by powers and principalities. I can be "presente" to be a messenger of the One who is the light, I can be "presente"! My being present is how I work out my salvation as I live out in my life by what I confess with my mouth.

Thank you, Maria Delores Amaya Carlos, for teaching me what I should be doing with my life by your death.