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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edscharp who wrote (12615)	4/14/2003 5:16:13 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

America's True Heroes: Posted on Fri, Apr. 11, 2003 Workers for peace collide with violence By LEWIS W. DIUGUID The Kansas City Star Jackie Carr shared a mother's pride and fear for her son Joe. The kitchen table in her Kansas City home is filled with her son's resume, a stack of e-mail from the 2000 Center High School graduate and a large world atlas. The material helps her keep track of the older of her two children and imagine what he's enduring. Joe Carr, 21, is a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. On Jan. 9, he landed in the Gaza Strip to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has been in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where he has worked with the International Solidarity Movement as a human shield, protecting Palestinians and their homes from Israeli soldiers' guns, tanks and bulldozers. "Yes, I am very nervous," Jackie Carr said. "But I'm very proud that he cares so much." Joe Carr is committed. "I am here in solidarity with these people," he said in a telephone interview. "I am here to live with them in their community and take some risks they're forced to live with. "I think the media need to view (Palestinians) as people experiencing oppression -- serious, violent oppression." He and other peace activists had enjoyed a lot of success until recently. On Saturday, peace activist Brian Avery, 24, of Albuquerque, N.M., suffered a gunshot wound to the face when Israeli troops opened fire. It was the second serious attack in months of peace work. The other involved Rachel Corrie, who also was an Evergreen student. Jackie Carr said her son shot the photograph that ran in newspapers of Corrie, 23, standing in front of a bulldozer March 16 to protect the home of a physician. Like other peace workers, she wore a fluorescent jacket and used a bullhorn in her nonviolent resistance effort. Joe Carr was among the eight U.S. and British human shields sitting atop homes and standing in front of the Israeli tank and bulldozer. Corrie, who wanted to establish a sister-city link between Rafah and Olympia, sat in front of the bulldozer. The driver scooped up the earth under her, Joe Carr said. Corrie climbed to the top of the heap. "Her head and upper torso were above the bulldozer's blade, and the bulldozer driver and co-operator could clearly see her," Joe Carr wrote in an e-mail. "Despite this, he continued forward, which pulled her legs into the pile of rubble, and pulled her down out of view of the driver. "If he'd stopped at this point, he may have only broken her legs, but he continued forward, which pulled her underneath the bulldozer." Joe Carr and other peace workers tried to stop the bulldozer, but the driver backed up, failing to lift the blade, which dragged over Corrie's body again. He said Corrie was conscious but suffered broken bones and internal injuries. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. "It was horrifying," Joe Carr said. Corrie's death didn't end the peace efforts. Joe Carr was to go to Israeli territory on Tuesday to stay for a month. Instead he'll remain in the Gaza Strip to continue Corrie's sister city dream. "I am incredibly inspired by her dedication and her commitment to this cause of the people of Rafah," he said. "Peace work and anti-racist work are what I plan to dedicate my life to," said Joe Carr, whose activism took root at Center High when he was in Amnesty International and worked with Bridging the Gap on environmental issues and the American Friends Service Committee against militarism. Jackie Carr and her husband, Pat, find comfort in the words of the families of U.S. soldiers killed in the war in Iraq and astronauts in the space shuttle Columbia. "Their families said they were doing what they loved," she said. "They were doing what they thought was important. "If something happens to Joe, he was doing something he thought was really important." I pray that neither Joe Carr nor other peace workers are harmed. Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star's Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com. kansascity.com