Posted on 03/19/2003 5:48:54 PM PST by MarMema
Craig and Cindy Corrie spent yesterday in Washington, D.C., demanding lawmakers begin a U.S.-led investigation into the death of their youngest daughter, Rachel.
It's a shift for them to take up a cause, Craig Corrie said. It was Rachel who was always so socially and politically conscious. She was the family's activist.
"We learned from her," said Corrie, an insurance actuary who with his wife raised three children in Olympia.
On Sunday, the world first learned of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip as she sought to stop the demolition of a Palestinian house. Her death was called an accident by Israeli officials, who said they would investigate.
But that isn't enough for her family, said her father, who told lawmakers the investigation should be handled by the FBI or State Department, and not left to the Israeli government.
"We want them to be our eyes and ears since Rachel can't," said Craig Corrie, now forced to think about how his daughter lived and died.
As the youngest, she was precocious, inquisitive and articulate. She was raised in a rural neighborhood outside Olympia called Mud Bay, in a house with chickens, rabbits, a cat and a dog.
She was concerned and compassionate about the world around her, her family said. Some of that came from attending an alternative elementary school the Corries helped found in the 1980s. The school's core curriculum focuses on the environment, social justice and peace.
As a fifth-grader at Options School, she and her classmates held a news conference on the state Capitol steps to call attention to world hunger. As a high-school student, she helped foreign-exchange students learn about America, and even spent six weeks in Russia.
In college, she was working with the homeless, staffing a suicide hotline and, given her affinity for art, she once helped outfit children and adults as doves to march in an annual "Procession of the Species" parade.
"My family always encouraged her to support her own beliefs and to think about her place in the community," said her brother, Chris Corrie, of Falls Church, Va. "Rachel was never into herself. It was just the opposite. In some ways, I think she was almost embarrassed about the things she had. She always felt she could find a better use for money."
Slim and blond, Corrie had a gentle, soft presence, her first-grade teacher, as well as faculty at The Evergreen State College, recalled. She was an avid writer, keeping journals from a young age. "She came with a deep set of convictions about the world and what needed to be changed," said Lin Nelson of the Evergreen faculty.
Spoke to schoolchildren
Before she left for Israel in January, Corrie spoke about her trip at her elementary school and collected the children's letters that she planned to deliver to Palestinian youngsters. She had wanted to start up a pen-pal project, as well a sister-city program.
Options School held an assembly yesterday in her memory.
Corrie also worked at Olympia's Behavioral Health Resources, a counseling center. As a young woman who had grown up in Olympia, friends say she was widely known in town because she had her hand in so many political groups, including one that opposed an Iraq war and another seeking a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"If you were paying attention, you knew who she was," said Peter Dorman, an Evergreen economics teacher.
She was especially drawn toward peace activism, friends added, after Sept. 11, 2001. Then, as the war with Iraq loomed, college faculty members and friends said, Corrie decided to go to Israel.
She felt a war in the Persian Gulf would only escalate the violence directed at the Palestinians. Friends introduced her to the International Solidarity Movement, said Phan Nguyen, a two-time volunteer.
The movement calls itself a Palestinian-led group that uses nonviolent acts to challenge the Israeli government.
In the absence of any international peacekeeping force in Israel and the disputed territories, according to Amnesty International, the movement is "on the ground and reporting back."
"The work that they do, really, no one else is doing," said Amnesty's Marty Rosenbluth. "They will ride in ambulances with Palestinian patients that need to get to the hospital. They'll travel with people who need routine medical care."
A friend of Corrie's from Olympia was headed to Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, Nguyen said. Corrie wanted to follow him there, instead of going to the West Bank, because violence in Gaza is often overlooked in media reports, he added.
For nearly two months, Corrie was stunned by the level of everyday violence and in awe of Palestinians trying to live ordinary lives, which she chronicled in
e-mail to friends and family.
Pictures show her with a bullhorn, standing in front of an Israeli bulldozer intent on razing a Palestinian house. In another, more incendiary photo, she looks angry, wearing a head scarf, holding up a burning paper U.S. flag.
That photo, said her brother Chris, does not adequately explain who his sister really was.
"I think she was so emotionally charged because she was seeing weapons used on children. I think there's a value in not judging someone on one moment but rather on the thoughts they can articulate when they really think about things."
Due to graduate this year
Corrie, who would have graduated this year, hinted about living abroad after graduation, perhaps teaching English.
"People have speculated that if she knew the outcome, would she have gone?" her brother said. "I think she probably would have."
"Before she left," said her dad, "she said she was frightened. I told her, 'You don't have to go. You could change your mind.' She said, 'No, I have to do this. I'm very frightened but I'll be able to do it.' "
No investigation is needed.
If you stand in front of a moving bulldozer you'll likely get squashed.
In Gaza, Rachel Corrie, 23, was used by the Palestinian terrorists.
who, as they do, always hide behind children and women
Corriie appears to have fallen, rather than having been crushed
as she protected Palestinian murderers' homes from the IDF.
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Craig and Cynthia Corrie pause during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC as they talk about their daughter Rachel, age 23, who was killed in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites)(AFP/Stephen Jaffe) - Mar 19 3:43 PM ET |
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Craig and Cynthia Corrie display photo of their daughter at a news conference outside the Capitol, Wednesday, March 19, 2003, in Washington. The Corries lost their daughter, Rachel, shown also in a photo in the background, who was an activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to block demolition of a Palestinian residence in Gaza. They called on Congress to investigate Rachel's death. The photo shows Rachel facing up to an Israeli bulldozer.(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson) - Mar 19 11:19 AM ET |
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Rachel Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Wash., a member of the 'International Solidarity Movement,' burns a mock U.S. flag during a rally in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) town of Rafah in this Feb. 15, 2003 file photo. Corrie was run over and crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer Sunday, March 16, 2003, while she was trying to stop it from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) - Mar 16 8:56 PM ET |
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Rachel Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Washington, a member of the 'International Solidarity Movement' stands in front of an Israeli army buldozer in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) town of Rafah Sunday, March 16, 2003. Rachel was run over Sunday by the bulldozer that she was trying to stop from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said.(AP Photo/International Solidarity Movement) - Mar 16 6:33 PM ET |
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CAPTION CORRECTION - CORRECTING SURNAME OF RACHEL CORRIE U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie (C), 23, bleeding from her nose and her mouth, is helped by colleagues in Rafah, Southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites), March 16, 2003. An Israeli military bulldozer killed Corrie on Sunday as she was protesting the demolition of a house in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian medical officials and witnesses said. 'The bulldozer put sand on her and kept crushing her,' said Nicholas Dure, a fellow member of the International Solidarity Campaign to Protect the Palestinian People protest group. REUTERS/Handout - Mar 16 1:34 AM ET |
Seems to me that's just another member of the family focusing on the Palestinians and ignoring everybody else. What was it the young man said? Oh, yes, "weapons used on children", and you just know he doesn't mean Palistinian suicide bombers blowing up babies!
These people ought to go visit Representative James Moran. He's got friends there in some of the best known terrorist groups and maybe they can investigate this for them.
Least they'll be dealing with likeminded individuals.
"Some of that came from attending an alternative elementary school the Corries helped found in the 1980s. The school's core curriculum focuses on the environment, social justice and peace."
Nope, see, what Miz Corrie's mummy and daddy want is to use my tax dollars to investigate Israel, hope that there are intermitable hearings with taxpayer-paid investigators to tell us how horrible those JOOOS are, then turn around and use even the flimsiest shred of information to sue Israel.
I'll save Miz Corrie's parents some money: have them call Ramsey Clark collect and he can sue without using my tax dollars.
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