Posted on 01/08/2003 8:17:58 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Texas peace activist hurt in car accident in Iraq
01/08/2003
A longtime Texas peace activist remained hospitalized in Baghdad after a one-car accident in southern Iraq that killed another member of a Christian ecumenical peace delegation.
San Antonio businessman Charlie Jackson, founder of Austin-based Texans for Peace, was traveling with a 17-member Christian Peacekeeper Teams delegation to Iraq when the car in which he was riding crashed Monday after a tire blew out near Basra.
Fellow delegate George Weber, 73, of Chesley, Ontario, Canada, died in the one-car accident. Another member, Michele Naar-Obed of Duluth, Minn., was treated for a broken nose, while Mr. Jackson suffered a broken rib.
The group had planned to leave Iraq on Thursday after a fact-finding mission that began in October, said Claire Evans, delegate coordinator with the Chicago-based Christian Peacekeeper Teams.
"Charlie is still in quite a bit of pain. After getting out of the hospital in Basra for travel to Baghdad, he required further hospitalization," Ms. Evans said.
"He should be returning to North America within the next week, depending on his recovery," Ms. Evans said.
According to the organization's mission statement, Christian Peacemaker Teams provide support to people committed to faith-based, nonviolent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality.
Mr. Jackson, 43, who had moved his technology services consulting firm, Acceleros, from Austin to San Antonio in July, had joined the delegation Dec. 26.
The Iraq trip is consistent with Mr. Jackson's commitment to pacifist goals, associates said.
Mr. Jackson founded Texans for Peace in 1993 and conducted peace vigils in Guatemala and the former Yugoslavia. This was his first trip to Iraq.
"Working for peace in the world is as patriotic a thing as any American can do," Mr. Jackson said in a Dec. 31 story in the Austin American-Statesman. "I honestly believe in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, where we declare that all people are created equal - not just Americans."
E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com
I guess they'd screw up a one car funeral (funerally?).
Well you know what they say about relatives.
Actually, they are good-hearted people who are very deluded. We just don't talk politics AT ALL.
But it does give me an insight into the leftist mind. They suffer from cognitive dissonance and inappropriate guilt leading them to loathe the hand that feeds them. Most hate capitalism, but love all the capitalist fruits, i.e. computers, DVDs, restaurants, warm beds and abundant food made possible by capitalist systems of finance, transportation, and business risk. Go figure!!
Oh my gosh, can you imagine what that place is like? I hope we never see them on Trading Spaces! (trading space cadets?)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.