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This article post is by Emma Cushman Wood, a Sophomore at DePaul University majoring in Creative Writing and Minor in Religious Studies (ethics and social justice concentration). She serves as the President of the DePaul Chapter of Amnesty International and as an Interfaith Scholar within University Ministry.

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In my dictionary, the words “faith” and “activism” are one word. When I think of faith I think of activism and when I think of activism I think of faith. My parents taught me at a very young age that your faith invokes you to be an activist, to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and free the oppressed. Even when I was in the womb my mother carried me on marches through Times Square protesting the Persian Gulf War with friends from seminary. And when I was older my father carried me on his shoulders as we sang “We shall overcome” on numerous worker’s rights marches.

My father, ever since I could remember, has been involved with an interfaith activist group called Interfaith Worker Justice. He, being a Methodist pastor, worked with other clergy from all faiths— rabbis, nuns, priests, monks and Muslim religious leaders.

I remember when I was a sophomore in high school I stayed up late one night to write a paper. It was one in the morning and my father was just getting home. I asked him why he was home so late and he said that he had been arrested and went to jail. I smiled. He had been arrested for performing civil disobedience in opposition to an executive refusal to allow janitorial staff to unionize at the downtown mall. He, along with my mother, have been my role models for how people of faith should act. I have continued to carry my religious calling to be a peace keeper and promoter of justice with me into college.

This past November I, along with my co-organizer Mark Jacobs, helped plan for DePaul’s chapter of Amnesty International to go down to Ft. Benning, Georgia to protest against the School of the Americas (SOA). The School of the Americas, or how it is known today as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) is a U.S. Army training school that trains soldiers and military personnel from Latin American countries in subjects like counter-insurgency, military intelligence and counter-narcotics operations. SOA/ WHINSEC graduates have included some of the worst and most notorious human rights abusers in Latin American history, and for much of the world, the school, under any name, is synonymous with torture and impunity. Every year Amnesty International, including DePaul’s chapter goes down to protest in Ft. Benning, Georgia.

This trip was a reminder of my childhood. With people singing “Down by the riverside” and “We shall overcome” I couldn’t help but feel like I was four and sitting on my father’s shoulders again. There were even religious group there that I recognized such as the Presbyterians for Peace Fellowship. It was a joyful and yet sorrowful experience because while I had memories of marches and peace sit-ins with people smiling and singing, I also remembered those that we were marching and singing for— the oppressed, hungry and poor.

On the second day of the trip, during the vigil, we went on a march, which was only a block or two long but right in front of the gated fort. As we marched names of those massacred by graduates of the SOA were sung. The names were sung continuously for one hour and even then it only made a small dent into the recognition of those whose lives have been unfairly taken. Leading the mass of people was a group dressed in black robes with painted white faces and red paint splattered on their clothes, symbolizing blood. They were carrying fake coffins. As I marched with students from both Amnesty International and DePaul Interfaith, I could not help but become overwhelmed with sorrow and spiritual enlightenment. This is what my faith calls for; this is what Jesus calls for— to go out in the world and stand up against the injustice and spread hope, justice and peace.