An Unfitting 'Tribute' A cousin of Rachel Corrie responds to her critics

OpinionJournal.com ^ | 4/13/05 | BRIJ PATNAIK

[Huber]

On March 16, 2004, one year after the death of my cousin Rachel Corrie, James Taranto, in his Best of the Web Today column, called Rachel's nonviolent efforts to protest the Israeli military's actions in the occupied Palestinian territories an encouragement of a "culture of hate." Mr. Taranto referred to an op- ed piece by Ruhama Shattan, originally published in the Jerusalem Post and reprinted on this Web site, as a "clearheaded tribute" to Rachel.

[Huber]

Corrie is, of course, the young American supporter of the Palestinian anti-US/anti-Israel movement who was allegedly run over by a bulldozer last year. I can admire Patnaik's desire to defend his cousin, and both Shattan's and Taranto's articles might reasonably be deemed "insensitive" to Corrie's friends and loved ones, but it is disappointing that he makes no acknowledgement that aiding and comforting the enemy or generally hanging out with terrorists might be morally wrong, harmful to society and downright dumb from a personal risk standpoint. Until these people begin to realize their mistakes, they will never move forward, "Up from Liberalism"!

[swilhelm73]

Where is the barf alert?

As for Corrie - run in front of a moving, armored, bulldozer and just expect the driver can see you and will stop in time and you deserve no sympathy if he does not.

Ideology doesn't trump physics, no matter how much liberals wish it did.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Rachel Corrie was angry, frustrated and saddened by the conditions of the Middle East, but she refused to blind herself to them.

Uh, hello? She was obviously blind to the hazards of slipping in the mud while screeching at a bulldozer driver who can't even see her. Mr. Pancake er Mr. Patnaik, is there never any end to the Corrie family of 15-minute famers? No wonder the girl was so screwed up. Bet she's cursing the whole clan from her new digs. She surely wouldn't be blaming herself for her terminal stupidity.

[prion]

Rachel repeatedly and unequivocally condemned the violent acts of both Palestinians and Israelis

That would be this Rachel Corrie?

[10mm]

You can order the Rachel Corrie Memorial Concert CD with her picture on the spine.

[rdb3]

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

BRIJ PATNAIK,

Better move along, before someone drops a bulldozer on you.

[Caipirabob]

Oh jeez. I made it through the morning without having to clean the monitor. Until now...

[First_Salute]

Rachel was not killed by an Israeli bulldozer.

She committed suicide by bulldozer, by ignoring her responsiblities to her self, such that she educated herself on "soil mechanics."

Soil mechanics --- she failed to study that at university, where she would have learned how the earth moves.

She placed herself too close to the bulldozer, and when it moved, the earth around it was displaced, as earth around bulldozers usually is.

When the ground sank around Rachel's footing, she lost her footing --- she had placed herself in a position where she would lose her footing.

She placed herself in harm's way.

When the bulldozer backed up, Rachel, without sufficient footing, slipped rapidly down under the front of the bulldozer. As she passed under the blade are and its supporting mechanisms, she banged her head against the bulldozer.

It was a mortal blow.

The bulldozer did not kill her.

The bulldozer did not run over her.

The bulldozer did not "crush" her.

The bulldozer did not attack her.

She, knocked her noggin' against it, but she did not survive her impact.

Her body had no signs of high-pressure displacement of human fluids that always result from severe mechanical displacement.

She was not in the tread path of the bulldozer.

Even given the soil mechanics that provide some elasticity, in contrast to a bulldozer clanking down a paved road, the pressures are so great, in the region of the tread path, that living, and even dead, tissues "give up" their fluids.

That did not happen to Rachel Corrie.

She had a head injury and bleeding from the nose; all signs indicating an unhappy shock to the brain.

[Huber]

Thanks for clarifying. I should have spelled out the meaning of "allegedly" in this instance!

[Thinkin' Gal]

Soil mechanics --- she failed to study that at university, where she would have learned how the earth moves.

She placed herself too close to the bulldozer, and when it moved, the earth around it was displaced, as earth around bulldozers usually is.

When the ground sank around Rachel's footing, she lost her footing --- she had placed herself in a position where she would lose her footing.

Good post. Of course, normal people tend to have the basic intuition to stay far far away from the path of a bulldozer, and therefore would not need to study soil mechanics. I've wondered if her injury was not necessarily fatal, but rather her fate was sealed by those who found her to be more useful... dead. Maybe is was an instantaneous fatal head wound, but if not, it possibly became one through lack of proper medical attention.

[cardinal4]

She surely wouldn't be blaming herself for her terminal stupidity.

She should be blaming her parents. Someone fostered the liberal environment she grew up in. Her teachers at Evergreen bear a lot of responsibility as well. I have often compared Corries parents to the parents of John Walker Lindh..

[angkor]

The photo sequence is out on the Web, and it's an absolute lie that she was "crushed" by the bulldozer. Close up photos show her body being embraced by her cohorts, there is no visual evidence of broken bones or blood or dirt on her clothes or anything else.

What seems clear from the sequence is that she was struck in the head by a piece of concrete rebar, as in the beginning photos she's shown standing on a pile of broken concrete with many long exposed rebar pieces sticking up from the rubble, several at the height of her head. Presumably one of these snapped under pressure (yes, from the bulldozer she was confronting) and unfortunately hit her fatally in the head.

Next her body is shown lying in the dirt path of the dozer, but clearly not in the track left by the bulldozer. She was not "crushed".

And again, the only visible wound throughout all of the photos is a large gash across her head, presumably the one and only fatal wound she suffered. Certainly the graphic photos in the hospital do not show the doctors working on anything more than this facial/head wound.

Corrie's was the kind of construction accident that happens in America on a regular basis, when people act without care around heavy machinery (indeed I witnessed a similar accident while working construction in my college years).

That her supporters can take obvious photographic evidence and convince themselves she was "deliberately crushed" speaks only of their ability to indulge in massive self-delusion fueled by hate.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Every picture of the parents is downright nauseating. They have that, "Woe is me I'm a poor hapless liberal victim of everything" contorted brain dead expression on their faces. It's the kind of expression that makes a normal civilized person want to slap the offal out of them.

The blood of their daughter is on their hands, as well as the ISM and every other person or organization who promotes this vapid ignorant ideology of death. That said, Miss Corrie still should have had the sense to stay away from this sort of preventable head wound. Notice that no Palis were harmed in this incident. Rachel Corrie, dumber than a Pali. That's dumber than dumb alright.

[Condor51]

Oh My God!
You Killed Kenny Corrie,
You bast THANK YOU!

:-)

[LibKill]

Corrie celebrated her ethnicity by burning a (poorly drawn) U.S. flag in the filthy streets of some palestinian slum.

I won't miss her.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

You are, of course, correct.

(But it sure puts a damper on the pancake jokes.)

[cardinal4]

Rachel Corrie, dumber than a Pali. That's dumber than dumb alright.

Correct, no one has made mention why an American died, while the palis stood around and watched. Maybe they are not so dumb after all..

Naw....

[guitfiddlist]

F=MA. But what are laws to liberals?

[Petronski]