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.' "
Considering that many of the "protesters" with which Israel has had to content show up packing explosives across their midriff, I would say there's ample reason not to individually approach those people.
There needs to be a full and unvarnished investigation into this terrible tragedy. I simply cannot believe the callousness I've read on FR about this.
It is a tragedy as nobody wants to see anyone meet an untimely end. But what you perceive as callousness is more accurately described as flat-out exasperation. Whatever legitimate complaints that Palestinians may have about Israel's handling of terrorism has long since been eclipsed by their steady stream of suicide bombers.
Again, it is unfortunate that this young woman met such an untimely demise. Even so, it cannot be ignored that she met this demise as a direct consequence of siding with people who support terrorism as a means to an end. In short, she lied down with dogs and got bit by a 6-ton flea.
Bottom line: if people really want Israel to stop demolishing homes of Palestinians who support terrorists, then they need to get the Palestinians to STOP SUPPORTING TERRORISTS.
That pretty much sums it up.
-Jay
First off, I doubt many people here would raise their kids to believe that the Pallies are oppressed and that Israel is evil I also doubt many here would teach their kids to burn Amuerican flags (even handdrawn ones).
Secondly, her loved ones think she was totally in the right to be there. Therefore, I doubt they'd agree with much they'd see on any thread on FR. If they want sympathy, they can go check out the DUmpster.
I agree. I doubt your average college student could afford such a trip.
And that compassion was reflected on her face in those pictures < /sarcasm off>
Do you know what time it is, children? It's touchy-feely time!
Please. I feel sorry for the coyote. I keep hoping that he'll get the blasted roadrunner, just once, it would be so nice.
Not if it happened in this exact same way. What difference would it have made if the bulldozer had been driven by a member of the Italian military, a member of the Japanese army, or a member of the Canadian army? It was still the fault of the idiot woman who stepped in front of the bulldozer and ended up getting killed.
bigunreal, I hereby designate you as the official cryer of Free Republic. It is now your responsibility, whenever the situation calls for it, to do the crying for all Freepers. In this way, we Freepers can feel as if we have indeed shown a certain level of sympathy whenever some American, somewhere in the world, dies as a result of their own foolish actions.
Only flaw in your logic is Israel didn't murder her. She murdered herself. Thanks anyway for the rage-o-rama.
She didn't "stand" in front of a bulldozer, she was plowed over by a vicious thug, who was trained to treat non-Israelis like that.
That's a lie child. At any rate she was trying to stop the demolition of houses. Why was Israel demolishing those houses? Why don't you try and find this out. Post #87 will shed some light.
Correct. That we do
are there none among you who will at least acknowledge the tragedy here?
Many have. You must have missed it. I feel sorry for a life wasted. Notice how she and her peacenik friends never rode Israeli busses to "protect" them from bombing. True to her lefty education she was an advocate for a barbaric 3rd world people making war against Jews. Parroting the myth that if only Israel ended occupation peace would follow, instead of a more terrible Jihad.
Will none of you express a word of sympathy to her parents?
We'll leave that for you
But then again, I guess they were to blame for her death, too.
BINGO!!
After all, apparently they sent her to alternative schools
There are alternative schools and there are alternative schools. I'm sure you would love to see your daughter attending Evergreen State </sarcasm> Her folks educated her well in some ways. In other ways they educated her in commie-peacenik pap.
Regards,
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