Activist photographer Linda Panetta gave a talk in Lebow 133 this week on issues of social injustice, ranging from the government’s unsatisfactory response to hurricane Katrina to the war in Iraq. About thirty students and faculty members gathered to listen to Panetta and to watch a slideshow of Panetta’s photographs of devastated areas of the Middle East and Central America.

The slideshow also featured photographs of protests outside the School of the Americas, a base in Fort Benning, Georgia, that trains Latin American soldiers in psychological warfare and sniper operations. Panetta warned that various graduates from this school have gone on to assassinate democratically elected leaders, leading to some of the most brutal dictatorships in recent history.

Although Panetta’s work is decidedly depressing, portraying the abysmal suffering taking place in areas such as Iraq and El Salvador, it also manages to convey her belief that we can make a change and that "a different world is possible!”  Having dedicated the last twenty years of her life to helping the oppressed, Panetta urged the audience members to educate themselves and to raise their voices.

Panetta’s photographs can be viewed at www.OpticalRealities.org.