“Stop the killing! I beg you. Stop the killing! You don’t have to obey an order that breaks God’s law. I plead with you. Stop the killing!” The words filled the air, bulging the walls balloon like in an already packed church. Fully regaled in miter and crosier, Archbishop Oscar Romero beseeched his flock.
We remember his plea to stop the horror at the 30-year anniversary of the event. The story continues. The very next day, this courageous voice fell silent. At his daily mass, a sacred time, this voice of the people turned to face his beloved faithful, preparing to give a blessing. Other eyes–through the crosshairs of a soldier’s rifle–found the heart of the one overflowing with compassion. The good bishop’s blood spilled on the altar like that of the cross.
Previously, what had ignited the bishop’s words, was the agony of his villagers. His flock experienced utter decimation from methodical attacks by the military. Innocent villagers became easily surrounded and dispatched with rifles and machetes, a genocide. One wonders at the kind of military training that sanctions attacks on unarmed innocents.
The peasants and farmers needed land to grow crops to feed themselves and their countrymen of El Salvador. However, the land–still held in grants from the Spanish invaders—remained with the wealthy few who sent their officers to train at the School of the Americas located at Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia. “USA” was found engraved on the bullets retrieved from the archbishop’s heart.
Forty years earlier, another leader began a task that saved untold lives. Character distinguished George C. Marshall. Because of his preference for strategy, he had a huge hand in saving Western Europe. From the last U.S. battle of World War I at Meuse-Argonne, he rose from captain to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in World War II. After World War I, his assignment was to improve training at the School of the Americas. Rather than killing, General Marshall excelled in strategy. He built out the U.S. Army and led the United States to victory in World War II. Reporting to Marshall were Eisenhower (as supreme commander during the D Day invasion of France) and McArthur (who island-hopped to victories in the Pacific). That expertise brought him from war fame into government. President Truman chose him for Secretary of State.
At that horrible time, Europe lay in ashes and rubble. Starving, freezing and grief-stricken survivors had nothing but rags to wear and roots to eat. Factories and farms, homes, schools and hospitals lay in waste. Dresden and Berlin, London and Paris wallowed in destitution. Secretary of State Marshall recognized the dire need for recovery to avoid chaos and possibly communism. He persuaded Congress to pass the Economic Cooperation Act, committing the United States to spend $13 billion (in 1947 dollars) in aid to help European nations recover. Machinery, medicine, food, equipment, parts and supplies were sent. This “Marshall Plan” rebuilt Europe and saved the people from communism.
Today, the Middle East needs a Marshall Plan to save the people from the terror of ISIS. The whole Middle East smolders in ashes and ruble. As our bombs kill, Jihadists recruit. Our humanity demands another Marshall Plan.
We admire these two courageous men whose lives intersect at the infamous School of the Americas. General Marshall’s expertise focused on strategy yet current strategy calls for killing that makes war. A Marshall Plan could make peace.
Two men of courage–one military, one religious–whose lives unbelievably intersect at Fort Benning, give hope to humanity. The Nobel Committee awards the 1953 Peace Prize to Secretary of State George C. Marshall. In 2014, the first pope from South America sends Archbishop Oscar Romero on the path to sainthood.