We're all pretty beat tonight. It's been an amazing and exhausting day. Listened to the stories of torture victims from various Latin American countries -- Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Argentina. They talked about being beaten, raped, strapped to iron beds and electrocuted, ejaculated on: they told of threats to their loved ones and family members if they didn't confess to the "crimes" they were accused of; they wept and we wept with them; they were courageous and defiant and have all dedicated their lives to ending torture. Many of them said that when they saw pictures of the torture in Abu Ghraib, they recognized the same "techniques" that were used on them. They reminded us that School of the Americas/WHINSEC is not the only school for torturers and assassins in the United States and that we need to close all such institutions and do away with the policies that make them possible.

The rally at the gates of Ft. Benning was full of passion, outrage, joy, grief. Lots of wonderful music, including some songs by our own Marin County hero John Fromer. (Last night at an SOA benefit concert, 12-15 performers and/or groups did one piece each -- John F. and Francisco Herrerra performed a powerfully tender and touching Malvina Reynolds song about the injustice of even one child being allowed to go hungry.)

Lots of tabling happening at the rally, a cornucopia of T-shirts and sweatshirts, pins, books, posters, bandanas, CDs, DVDs, crafts from Latin American countries -- a little bit like the moveable communities that used to spring up outside Grateful Dead concerts.

Some of us got to join with the Puppetistas. There were three separate groups of puppets, each doing a different show. One was about the kidnapping and torture of El Salvadoran teacher Carlos Mauricio, who will be here tomorrow to tell his story. (We heard Carlos here last year and were deeply moved by the sweetness of his spirit and the iron of his will as he campaigns to turn the national headquarters of the Salvadoran police into a museum of torture and of human rights.)

Tonight there was another concert in the ballroom of the Columbus Civic Center. We stayed to hear a couple of bands -- one playing music of the Andes, another doing a kind of Latin rock/jazz. People dancing in the aisles, spilling out into the hallways, then out into the streets, drumming, chanting, "El pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido" and "SI se puede" and "Whose streets? Our streets!" and "This is what democracy looks like!"

Between bands, the executive director of SOA Watch told us that organizers estimated the number of people in attendance at somewhere between 14-15 thousand. But as he was leaving, he spoke with the Columbus chief of police who told him that the police were going to announce to the press that they had estimated the number at 16,000 -- which would make it the largest Saturday rally in the 15-year history of the protests. (The Sunday protest is typically larger than Saturday's rally.) "It's the only," he told us, "that I have ever heard of the police estimate being larger than the protesters'."

Tomorrow there will be another performance by the Puppetistas, after which will come the solemn part of the weekend, when we walk slowly in procession, remembering those killed by graduates of the School of the Americas.