Making Sure Everybody Gets an Apple
Susan Sarandon and the Indigo Girls Talk About Their Activism and Fame
Recently Joan Osborne sat down with Susan Sarandon and Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers to discuss political activism and how being an activist affects both their careers and their personal lives. If youÍd like to listen in, click the icon. Or you can read a transcript of their conversation below. (Transcript has been edited for length and clarity.)
Joan Osborne: Okay, you guys have met before. Can you talk about where and when you've met?
Amy Ray: When did we meet?
Emily Saliers: We met at that Woody Guthrie tribute. We were just backstage hanging out.
SS: I remember it was backstage.
AR: (Laughs)
JO: So have you guys worked together on any projects?
ES: Well, we were both involved in protesting the School of the Americas. I had seen "Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins," a documentary about the school... I guess you narrated that film, didn't you, Susan?
SS: I keep updating it. I've done it a few times.
ES: So I went down [to the School of the Americas] and played at a protest. I guess part of the reason I did that is because I had seen the documentary.
JO: What is the School of the Americas?
SS: Well, it’s a "school," in quotes, that has trained just about every bad guy that takes over or murders somebody in South and Central America. When, for instance, priests and nuns were slaughtered in El Salvador, when they finally put the finger on some of the guys that were responsible for the slaying, they turned out to be graduates of the School of the Americas. And people started to see the correlation: When there was a human rights atrocity in Latin America, it was usually connected to a graduate of the school.
[Editor’s note: The School of the Americas, based at Fort Benning in Georgia, trains Latin American military personnel in counterinsurgency techniques. In 1993, the United Nations Truth Commission Report linked graduates of the School of the Americas to many notorious killings. In 1996, the White House Oversight Board issued a report that supported these allegations and the Pentagon released reports indicating that graduates were trained in killing, extortion, and torture techniques for interrogations. Graduates include Manuel Noriega of Panama, Bolivian dictator General Hugo Banzer, and El Salvador death squad leader Roberto d'Aubuisson.]
JO: Wow.