Posted on 08/16/2003 12:28:29 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The unique pain that comes from losing a child is still fresh on the faces of Cindy and Craig Corrie.
And although it's been five years since environmental activist David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain was killed, his mother, Cindy Allsbrooks, still lives daily with her pain.
She lost her son, and the Corries lost their daughter, in separate incidents of what is called confrontational, nonviolent activism -- placing oneself in harm's way in fervent defense of a cause.
That level of commitment led to the death of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist killed in March after she stood in front of an Israeli army bulldozer in an effort to protect a Palestinian home.
And it spurred Chain, a 24-year-old Pasadena resident, to confront loggers in California, where he was crushed by a tree felled by a logger working for a Maxxam Corp. subsidiary.
The Corries are in Houston for a series of events that local activists are holding to honor their daughter, who was a member of a nonviolent, pro-Palestinian peace group called the International Solidarity Movement.
At some point during the visit, they will sit down with Allsbrooks to talk about the most devastating event that can happen to a parent.
"These young people do go out and put themselves on the front lines," Allsbrooks said this week from her home in Coldspring, in San Jacinto County north of Houston. "But because they are nonviolent activists, they don't look for violence to happen to them."
But it does.
The Corries are traveling the nation, telling their daughter's story, in hopes of gathering enough grass-roots and political support to pressure the Bush administration into conducting an independent investigation into her death.
They are as dissatisfied with the Israeli army review as Allsbrooks was with the police investigation into her son's 1998 death. The accused in both incidents were absolved, although eyewitnesses said they had purposefully killed the young activists.
"Rachel admitted to me that she was frightened, but she wanted to do it," said Craig Corrie, 56, as he and his wife toured an art exhibit. "She needed to do it."
Walking around the Station, at 1502 Alabama, the Corries listened as a curator explained why a refugee tent was pitched in the front room of the cavernous art space.
The names embroidered on the tent -- in heavy, black thread that forms stark block letters -- are those of the 418 Palestinian villages destroyed, depopulated or occupied by Israel since 1948, the curator said.
"It's so dramatic to see, to have a visual like that," said Cindy Corrie, 55.
The oatmeal-colored tent would have been familiar to Rachel Corrie, who put her life at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., on hold to be a peace volunteer in the West Bank and Gaza.
Many Americans don't even know about her death, local activists said, because it was overshadowed by the start of the Iraqi war three days later.
"I want people to know that Rachel was making the world safer for Israelis, Palestinians and Americans," Cindy Corrie said.
Her husband recalled that, when Rachel told them of her plans, he wished she would work at a soup kitchen instead.
"You really can't ask your child to be less than they are capable of being," Craig Corrie said.
Witnesses said Rachel Corrie was wearing a neon orange jacket as she stood on a mound of dirt in front of a Palestinian house that was marked for destruction in an Israeli effort to block arms smuggling. They said she was clearly visible to the soldier in the Israeli army bulldozer when it rolled over her and backed up.
The Israeli army cleared the soldier of wrongdoing, concluding that he had not seen Corrie.
Nathan Chain was the peacemaker in his family, so much so that his aunts loved to take him on road trips because he kept his cousins from fighting. Allsbrooks said she wasn't surprised when her son joined Earth First to protest the destruction of old-growth redwood forests.
Chain was killed while he and other Earth First protesters were trespassing on Pacific Lumber Co. property near Eureka, Calif. Their tactics included blocking trucks, camping in trees to prevent them from being cut down and putting themselves in front of trees chosen to be logged.
California authorities concluded there wasn't enough evidence to file charges against the logger. They found that while he had threatened the protesters, he wasn't aware that Chain was in the path of his falling tree.
The company settled with Allsbrooks out of court. She said she had no idea how much danger her son was in because he was participating in nonviolent protests.
"I would never try to stop Nathan from following his heart," Allsbrooks said. "But if I had known that I was going to lose my son to that, I would have intervened in any way possible."
Right, they cannot even accept their own self loathing and self hate, so they project it on to some "cause" that allows them to extinguish themselves.
... Rachel Corrie [was] killed in March after she stood in front of an Israeli army bulldozer ...
Rachel Corrie died because she laid under a bulldozer. While that is a good way to kill oneself, it's not a particularly good way to stop a bulldozer. And unless there's the threat of harm, her action would hardly be considered "placing oneself in harm's way," would it?
Like so much of the Left's philosophy, this one places all the burden for right behavior on the object, not on the objector. The bulldozer driver was supposedly under some obligation to do what Rachel Corrie wanted, rather than vice versa. Physics -- in the form of a 5-ton bulldozer -- won.
The Perils of Designer Tribalism***Part of what makes The Tears of the White Man such an important book is Bruckner's sensitivity to the aerodynamics of liberal guilt. He understands what launches it, what keeps it aloft, and how we might lure it safely back to earth. He understands that the entire phenomenon of Third Worldism is fueled by the moral ecstasy of overbred guilt. Bruckner is an articulate anatomist of such guilt and its attendant deceptions and mystifications. "An overblown conscience," he points out, "is an empty conscience."
Compassion ceases if there is nothing but compassion, and revulsion turns to insensitivity. Our "soft pity," as Stefan Zweig calls it, is stimulated, because guilt is a convenient substitute for action where action is impossible. Without the power to do anything, sensitivity becomes our main aim, the aim is not so much to do anything, as to be judged. Salvation lies in the verdict that declares us to be wrong.***
I have a life long friend that has evolved into a raging liberal/socialist and I can tell you first hand that guilt is the #1 factor (with jealousy running a close second). If it could be put into a few simple statements, it would sound something like this:
"I "feel" guilty that there are "Have-Nots" (worse off than ME)"
"I am jealous of "the Haves" (who have it better than ME)"
"I hate the American way because it has failed ME."
It never occurs to this person that there is a direct link between her liberal socialist ideals and her daily struggles. (Side note: Too much "ME" can put people on anti-depressants.)
Exactly. Most play it like the operator of the dozer just plain ran her over. Heck, he probably never saw her....Hmmm, will she make the "Darwin Awards"?
It is amazing the seething hatred these people have for the USA when you talk to them, yet they never leave for good...
I did notice in college certain individuals who always protested and organised everything. Years later, they were still there and doing the same thing, just taking some part time courses and organising protests. Nice off campus apartments and no visible means of jobs,etc. Several friends and I , all conservative, figured them to be plants and recruiters for someone higher, who was channeling monies to support them. Scary, when you really think about it, as it was a two bit college compared to others...imagine the web out there of recruiters planted in high schools and colleges....
Placing one's self in harm's way is not a nonviolent act. It is a willful act, particularly when the political movement you represent is based on extreme violence.
The oatmeal-colored tent would have been familiar to Rachel Corrie, who put her life at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., on hold to be a peace volunteer in the West Bank and Gaza.
Another absurdity of leftist thinking. It is not possible to put your life on hold. As long as you draw breath you are living life. Life is not a telephone conversation that you can put on hold by pushing a button, and then resume after an interval of self-righteous protest.
Me-me-itis - a disease my mother told me to lose real quick.
It's on hold now.
<grin>Yes, you are right. Committing suicide does put your life on hold.
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