Activist's memory kept alive (Israeli bulldozer squished girl's cousin carries on)

Richmond Times Dispatch ^ | Dec 29, 2003 | MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS

[xyz123]

Elizabeth Corrie would see her younger cousin every summer at the family vacation spot on Minnesota's Cedar Lake.

Elizabeth, a Midlothian High School alumna who teaches at a private school in Atlanta, was born nearly a decade earlier than Rachel. But they shared a similar sense of humor, a yearning for social justice and a desire to make a difference.

[holyscroller]

"did anyone save the Rachel Corrie poetry thread that was eventually deleted?"

I printed it out before it was deleted. That was far and away the funniest stuff ever posted on FR. Absolutely brilliant.

[Dont Mention the War]

I printed it out before it was deleted. That was far and away the funniest stuff ever posted on FR. Absolutely brilliant.

I agree, which is why I mentioned it. It ought to be reposted somewhere, if TPTB won't allow it here.

[Bobby777]

she has the accolades of Yasser Arafat ... something no one could ever desire ... Yasser Arafat loves these little idiots sucked into his "cause" ... he recruits them from all over the Middle East, Europe, Africa and sadly now, even a few from America ...

"useful idiot" is the only appropriate term for her ...

[Squantos]

IHOP Ping !

[Brian Allen]

<< "To be fair," Elizabeth said, "the State Department has been enormously helpful "

I am not surprised. >>

Chilling isn't it?

Our Nation's and our every ally's most awfully insidious and implacable foe!

Headed up by long-time Bush family and Republican Party blind-spot occupying and combined quota-hiring and Peter-Principle poster boy, Powell.

Evil.

Who needs enemies?

[kimmie7]

I can certainly see the validity of both arguments here...as a parent I do have a great deal of sympathy for RC's parents - even poor, misguided souls such as they have feelings. I also look at it with a Christian heart, in that here we have another soul lost for eternity. Perhaps RC could've been reached at some point, perhaps not. Any intentional waste of human life is saddening. HOWEVER,

(DISCLAIMER:) Had my son done what she did, he'd have more to fear from Mama than a bulldozer.

[Piranha]

You are not the first parent to consider this as a "There but for the grace..." sort of situation.

However, you should consider that she wasn't demonstrating at Evergreen State, or in Berkeley or San Francisco, or New York, or even in Tel Aviv. If she were simply demonstrating, she should not have been killed, and I would feel very sorry for her family, despite their political beliefs.

Instead, she was in a warzone. Her presence was illegal. She was crouching in front of a bulldozer and trying to prevent the soldiers, who were engaged in a military action at that very moment, from destroying tunnels that were used to smuggle weapons to kill innocent civilians.

She showed a reckless disregard to her own life as well as those of the murderers' victims.

[kimmie7]

Don't mistake me - I agree with what you're saying. But from a Christian viewpoint, it's always sad to 'lose one'.

[doug from upland]

I guess I stand corrected. Too bad she didn't at least take Construction Equipment 101.

[bray]

I may have to rethink my thoughts on evolution????

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Mr.Atos]

Well said, Salem! You nailed most of my points. I have long since rendered the memory of ms. corrie to the obscurity of an insignificance existence; rendered irrelevant by her own demise. She belongs with the list of unfortunate idiots that get circulated annually bestowed with the emblem of Darwin... the guy who got devoured by his own drive shaft; the the one who got crushed by his own truck; the kid who played with a road flare and a jar of gasoline; and countless other victims of the consequences of THEIR OWN actions. She made a voluntary choice, influenced by tremendously bad ideas and flawed ideology, encouraged by wicked little zealots like mr. williams, but ultimately exercise according to her own volition. She made the choice to pit her relativist, spongey, precepts against the force of a real concept... like 10 tons of steel driven by internal combustion over her fragile organic frame. Her relative morality did not survive reality's objective lesson.

The only thing that I have to add is a question for mr. xyz and mr. williams is, "do you get it?!"

[republicofdavis]

You -- "The only FR parallel I could see to laughing at Ms. Olson's demise would be engaging in delight that a peacenik's son or daughter perished in Iraq. Do you think anyone would dare express such sentiments here?"

Me -- Are you kidding? Of course some would, with great relish.

You -- Temporarily. I don't think joy at the death of an American soldier because of who his/her parents are would survive a moderator's review.

I thought we were talking about a "peacenik's son or daughter." How'd we go to talking about the death of a soldier?

Oh wait, now I get it. Your saying that the peacenik's son or daughter is a soldier. I took it that you were talking about someone like Corrie. So then I change my opinion to there would only be a very small number of people on this forum who would offer the opinion that the parent's "had it coming" because of their views.

[Salem]

"Well said, Salem!..."

Thanks, Mr. Atos. Seeing how these people think and then the logical conclusion of their actions because of how they think, is unsettling indeed. And some of these people are running our government!  

[Mr.Atos]

I have no problem if the consequences of their actions validate the irrationality of their beliefs while invalidating their existance. What I find tremendously unsettling is when the 'rachel corries' here in America scream their heads off, attack the administration, burn the flag, protest, stage violence, on behalf of a political agenda that has little or nothing to do with the moral issue in question. While, in the process, they lend credibility and constitution to the enemies of man inspiring them to fight longer and harder for the ultimate victory of political attrition. This scenario is repeated throughout history time and again, and the miserable little 'cories' are never held to the fires of human justice for the horrible atrocities inflicted by their leave and their inability(intellectual laziness) to differentiate virtue and goodness (moral righteousness) from evil: Poland, Germany, USSR, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Africa, Iraq... And if they actually manage to win a political victory in 2004, the Killing Fields of the Middle East are sure to obscure even those inconceivable atrocities.

And still, writers like mr. williams have the nerve to hold up human refuse like ms. corrie as some sort of humanistic hero like a martered 'sydney schanberg' free of the guilt of their own moral relativism refined into the tool of holocaust.

At least ms. corrie had the misguided fortitude to step in front of reality and save millions of others from the consequences of her poor judgment.

Atos

[ATCNavyRetiree]

Check out the kids around her watching her burn the flag...they don't have the foggiest of what this stupid little bitch is doing!