March 17, 2003

You might read this week about the Washington state college student activist who died in Gaza in the same week. No one will deny that this was a terrible tragedy. Rachel Corrie, was a 23-year-old senior at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and she died while trying to stop a bulldozer from flattening a house that was determined by the Israeli army to be a building being used by terrorists. I think too many people will see her death as a murder by the Israeli army, perhaps even the Israeli government. When someone uses the term "killed", you will automatically assume that it was a murder. Had this woman died on a bus exploded by a Palestinian suicide bomber, would we feel the same way? Well, U.S. teenager Abigail Leitel, 14, was also killed last week. She was a victim of a Palestinian. She was not trying to stop anyone from doing anything. She was just riding the bus. In fact, Abigail was on her way to a friend's house from her school when a person stepped on the same bus, looked at her, and decided that it was at that moment that they wanted to murder and maim the people around them. It is in fact the ongoing Palestinian and Muslim extremist violence against civilians that has driven the cycle of violence for the last 50 years. Rachel Corrie wanted to help stop that violence, and standing in front of a bulldozer seemed, in her mind, to be the best way.  I am sorry that she didn't feel she could teach the values and methods that work so very well in her american culture to the people in Gaza.  I am sure she would not recommend that anyone stand in the way of a Swat Team bulldozer as it demolished a crack house in Olympia Washington.  I am sure she would not suggest that the best way to stop a drive by shooting in East LA is to kneel in front of a police car. I do not suggest we forget about Rachel Corrie, but I do feel we need to talk about Abigail Leitel as well.  Maybe the best thing we can do is link the two in some way.  12:07:55 PM