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9/11/2008: The 20th anniversary of massacre at St. John Bosco

During the Duvalier regime and the turmoil after, Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a renegade priest, delivering homily after homily calling for the economic and political liberation of the Haitian people. Consequently, on September 11, 1988 his little church in La Saline, Port-au-Prince was burned during a massacre killing thirteen parishioners, injuring at least seventy-seven others.

Amy Wilentz’s book The Rainy Season gives an authoritative and eye-witness account of this attack. Reading the section on St. Jean Bosco requires a strong stomach; she was there during the massacre. First, the thugs shot through the wall protecting the church, while church children hurled rocks back over it, in defense. Aristide continued mass, but told people to leave if they wished. The assailants shot the lock off the gate and stormed the front of the church, shooting people and causing mayhem and screaming. Victims were being held down and stabbed to death. Machetes were used to slash the tops of heads off congregants. A pregnant woman was stabbed in the stomach. Aristide fled through the sacristy, and was soon to face down another assassination attempt. (He has survived many in his life.) As a grand finale, gasoline was poured all over the grounds of the church and it burned.

Haitian army officers stood by and watched all of this. Not one person from the police station across the street stepped in. The fix was in. According to all accounts, each thug was paid seven dollars and a bottle of three-dollar rum by the government for the attacks. Thirteen people were killed, and seventy-seven were injured. The local Catholic Bishops did not even comment on the massacre for two full weeks

For my first pilgrimage to St. Jean Bosco, my tour guide and friend was Bobby Duval, a longtime friend of Aristide’s. Bobby, held for years as a political prisoner and was released upon Jean Claude Duvalier’s departure in 1986, was intimately involved in Aristide’s work at the time of the 1988 massacre. Like many others, Bobby has lost several friends in the name of liberation theology, in the name of fighting systemic poverty and oppression.

After a visit and walk around Cité Soleil, I reminded Bobby of my desire to visit the church in La Saline. He told our driver to take us. The driver turned to him with a viscerally ill look on his face, and asked two questions in Kreyol. Bobby looked out the window with a face of grief, and said, “She wants to see it. Let’s just go.”

Bobby’s celebrity as a leader and hero for the poor allowed an easy entrance through the gate. Upon exiting the vehicle, I thought the grounds looked like an overgrown grave yard, and I was surprised by how small everything was. I suppose that is how it is sometimes, when we visit places where big things have happened. We keep them sort of frozen in our minds in the time and condition they once were at their time of historical importance.

The armed guard had a million questions for me. “You know about this place? Why do you want to come to this place? Do you know about Father Aristide?” It has probably been a while since a white American woman set foot within those walls. Needless to say, as a student researching and passionate about liberation theology and Haiti, this visit was a very powerful experience. Bobby quietly guided me along the grounds of the church. There is no roof, and the walls are covered with bullet holes, and graffiti of phrases such as “Titid Returnay,” and “Pep Ayisyen se Titid." My research of the place allowed me to point to places and ask – “This is the rectory, isn’t it?” Or to suggest, “Let’s around the back to see the courtyard.”

The remains of St. Jean Bosco serve as a monument for justice and peace. Standing on the decrepit altar, I looked around and thought of the martyrs. The parishioners came to church that day acutely aware of the danger. Many wore white to honor the new (and government ignored) Constitution that was being ignored by the violent government, and residual Duvalier thugs. The people in white were the first to be shot. The brave parishioners peacefully prayed and sang hymns, standing in resistance to the violence of political oppression. It is difficult to imagine what they must have felt as they heard the gunshots beginning to sound outside.

Around the time of the St. Bosco massacre, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, in light of the fall of the Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall, liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, and Jon Sobrino were called up on to speak for to the relevance and role of liberation theology. Jon Sobrino chose to focus on the martyrdom that was still occurring, such as the martyrdom of at St. Jean Bosco. He wrote of taking the crucified down from the cross. In a book about the Salvadoran Jesuits he wrote: “The price to be paid for all this has been very high, but inevitable. Today when we hear so much about evangelizing cultures, we should remember a deeper form of evangelization, so that society itself becomes the good news.” In this “changed world” when NAFTA was being celebrated in the United States, masked Zapatistas stormed Chiapas and declared that free trade was a death certificate for the poor in Mexico. Liberation theology still had a call and a role all through Latin America, perhaps the need was the greatest in the poorest country of all countries in the western hemisphere - Haiti.

Aristide was ultimately blamed for causing political trouble like the September 11 massacre, and later expelled from the Salesian Order. He mixed theology with politics. As if there is a difference. Aristide wrote, “The Vatican sides not with an entire people defending these values at risk of life and limb, but with the men of the old regime trained to bury them.”

rip congresswoman tubbs jones

Stephanie Tubbs Jones, before a joint Congress, January 2005:

"I, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a representative from Ohio, and Ms. Boxer, a Senator from California, object to the counting of the electoral votes of the State of Ohio on the ground that they were not, under all of the known circumstances, regularly given. I, thank God, that I have a Senator joining me in this objection. I appreciate Senator Boxer's willingness to listen to the plight of hundreds and even thousands of Ohio voters that for a variety of reasons were denied the right to vote.

Unfortunately objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate avenue to bring these issues to light. While some have called our cause foolish I can assure you that my parents, Mary and Andrew Tubbs did not raise any fools and as a lawyer, former judge and prosecutor, I am duty bound to follow the law and apply the law to the facts as I find them. It is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing stand at the polls for countless hours in the rain as many did in Ohio, then I can surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress.

This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning or challenging the victory of the President; but it is a necessary, timely and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy. I raise this objection neither to put the nation in the turmoil of a proposed overturned election nor to provide cannon fodder or partisan demagoguery for my fellow Republican Members of Congress. I raise this objection because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise this objection to debate the process and protect the integrity of the true will of the people. Again, I thank Senator Boxer for joining me in this objection to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes due to the considerable number of voting irregularities that transpired in my home state. There are serious allegations in two lawsuits pending in Ohio that debate the constitutionality of the denial of provisional ballots to voters (The Sandusky County Democratic Party v. J. Kenneth Blackwell) and Ohio's vote recount (Yost v. David Cobb, et al.). These legitimate questions brought forward by the lawsuits, which go to the core of our voting and Democratic process, should be resolved before Ohio's electoral votes are certified.

Moreover, as you are aware, advancing legislative initiatives is more challenging when you are in the minority party in Congress. However, this challenge is multiplied when you are in the minority in the House of Representatives because of House rules, compared to Senate rules. Voting irregularities were an issue after the 2000 presidential election, when Democratic House initiatives relating to election reform were not considered. Therefore, in order to prevent our voices from being kept silent, it is imperative that we object to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes and debate the issue of Ohio's voting improprieties. There are just over 1 million registered voters in Cuyahoga County - which of course includes the Greater Cleveland area and the 11th Congressional District which I represent. Registration increased approximately 10 percent.

The beauty of the 2004 election was that more people were fully prepared to exercise their right to vote - however on Election Day hundreds and even thousands of individuals went to the voting polls and were denied the opportunity to have their vote count. In my own county where citizen volunteers put forth a Herculean effort to register, educate, mobilize and protect the vote there were people who experienced irregularities. Poor and minority communities had disproportionately long waits - 4 to 5 hours waits were widespread. Election Protection Coalition testified that more than half of the complaints about long lines they received, came from Columbus and Cleveland where a huge proportion of the states Democratic voters live. One entire polling place in Cuyahoga County (Greater Cleveland) had to shut down at 9:25 a.m. on Election Day because there were no working machines. Cuyahoga County had an overall provisional ballot rejection rate of 32 percent. Rejection rates for provisional ballots in African American precincts/wards in Cleveland, Ohio averaged 37 percent and ranged as high as 51 percent.

Thousands of partisan challengers - concentrated in Cuyahoga County's minority and Democratic communities - effectively served to intimidate voters and confuse poll workers. There were both inconsistent and illegal requests for photo identification. There were problems with absentee ballots including incorrect information provided to voters by the Secretary of State and, consequently, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections telling voters they could not vote in their precinct effectively disenfranchising hundreds and more likely thousands of voters. This objection points out the inadequacy of a great election system which permits 50 Secretary's of State to administer a federal election and impose so many different state laws regulating the election.

In Ohio, the Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell who served as Co-Chair of the Bush re-election campaign, issued a bizarre series of directives in the days preceding the 2004 Presidential election that created tremendous confusion among voters in Cuyahoga County and across the state of Ohio. For example; on September 7, 2004, Secretary Blackwell issued a directive to local boards of elections mandating rejection of voter registration forms based on their paperweight 80lb text weight. Mr. Blackwell's issuance of this directive which he ultimately reversed by September 28, 2004 - resulted in serious confusion and chaos among the counties and voters. My objection points to the need to implement across this nation standards that apply to all states. We need to enact legislation that will: Allow all voters to vote early - so that obligations of employment and family will not interfere with the ability to cast a vote. Establish a national holiday - Election Day to bring attention to the importance of the vote. Require those who work in the voting booth to be fairly compensated, adequately educated and sufficiently supported such that the job importance will be elevated. That will provide equipment - whether it is the traditional punch card or the more modern electronic machines that are properly calibrated, fully tested for accuracy and provide a paper trial to ensure a verifiable audit of every vote.

What happened in Ohio may well have been repeated in counties across this country. Yet that is no excuse for us to push the irregularities behind us and go on with the business of the day. These incidents are a call for us to clean up, clear up and implement policies and procedures that will protect each citizen's precious right to vote. If in fact we see it is our obligation to secure democracy around the world to monitor and oversee free and fair elections in other countries surely we must ensure, protect and guarantee the right to vote right here at home."

a great multitude as one

Before watching Obama’s speech on TV this afternoon, I was breezing through a book called The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, by Philip Jenkins. In addition to a thorough account of ideas on Christian universality in the African church and global south, Jenkins exposes the notion of Christianity as westerndom for the myth that it is, - at first, by discussing how a Palestinian centered world was recartographied - if you will – into a Roman centered world. Then, Jenkins reminds readers that the holiest of practices of Christianity were established in modern-day Tunsia and practiced three hundred years before Christianity was legalized in Europe; and of course, according to Acts, it was an Ethiopian who first converted to Christianity. Still today in Ethiopia where a Solomonic tradition of thousands of years stands against the oppression of forms of imperialism, a tradition of mysticism and hope prevails in the face of the crushing forces of death.

We are all Palestinian. We are all African.

So today, an American with an African father went to Europe and asked for a help in healing the strife of both the highlighted and forgotten parts of the world. He said, “Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time? Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur? Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people? People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.”

We are all Berliners.

Obama called for conversation and trust, peace and cooperation. “The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow,” he said, after highlighting the World War II airlifts of food to Germany. I couldn’t help but think of what a miraculous thing it has been for me to watch and listen to upper-middle class Americans on mission trips in Haiti. Something forever changes when they briefly suffer with their Haitian brothers and sisters, witnessing their crushing hunger and sadness. It feels like watching a miracle also, to see a slender, brown-skinned, man represent America, me, and my family extending an open hand across Atlantic ocean after eight years of cowboys offering only the absolutes of silence, torture, and death. I will pray for sustainable miracles, and hope that President Obama remembers he is a Palestinian-African-Berliner.

and on the third day

Tomorrow will be my third full day on the job.

Paulo Freire’s Method of Conscientization is about developing critical awareness of groups of people in poor communities, and it has been used by community literacy programs, health workers, and educators through out Latin America, India, and Africa. One principle in the Method of Conscientization is that group leaders must not ask questions with built-in answers, and must be prepared for totally unexpected answers and ideas to questions.

If my question as a group leader is “how to we provide care and compassion (a suffering with) with cleanliness, the answers I witness and receive minute by minute from the nurses, doctors, and staff at Vizitasyon continue to surprise me. Somethings are a bit confusing, I will admit, - - like when the grounds keeper seems to have many complaints about the parts of his job which involve, well, grounds keeping. He would prefer to fill protein bags, and hand off his broom. But then there are the nurses who bathed and shaved an incredibly destitute man - - gravely destitute - - who some of us picked up on the way back from the village. His testicles were literally the size of watermelons, and he has probably not washed in many, many months. The doctors determined that his heart is good for surgery. Treating Camile with dignity was an unexpected answer in this place, in this mountainous island in the sea, full of beauty, and death. And then there was Joselle. She is my age. She was our last patient to leave last night. I had a moment to ask about her. She had a spontaneous miscarriage at home. The nurses told me of her sadness. I saw her father walk her out, through the front door, holding her IV. I knew that my father would do the same exact thing for me.

If you were to ask me what the average day as administrator is like, thus far, I suppose I would hand you a list including: awake at 4 am to those who have traveled through the night for the 8 am opening of the klinik; plan community child deworming mobile unit in order to spend allocated money; run the generator so to fill the cistern with water; do the pay roll; hold sick babies in front of proud mothers; struggle with kreyol; tell local priest that he does not in fact run Vizitasyon- with delicacy; hunt down some Baygone for ants in office; discuss the Gift of Water project with Karen; drink finely prepared granadia juice; ask, ‘well what are they doing in Cange about X, Y, or Z?' Watch the sunset; take a bucket shower; think about the people who were sent home with medicines that require taking with food, knowing they have no food, - and day dream about our nutrition and food program available through our (God-willing) imminent PEPFAR grant and subsequent grants. - And last but not least - - let “the grounds keeper” know that he may not in fact hand his broom to children because “timoune pa travey ici! Ou comprand!?”

Below are a few photos. A photo from the back of where I live and work. A photo of the first building. The medical director Dr. JF (as I call him), and my boss Theresa, from the States who introduced me here, and held meetings, etc. And a photo of the quiet once the day is through.

“We already experience resurrection here and now, in the midst of life, when we rise up against death in life, now, against the oppressions and the hurts to which life here is subjected. In love, resurrection is not merely expected; it is already experienced. For love makes us come alive. And love never gives anyone or anything up for lost. It sees a future in which God will restore everything, and put everything to rights, and gather everything into [God’s] kingdom.” – Jurgen Moltman

a list-making, chain-smoker

and at the National Zoo the sign says "no feeding the animals"

Comment Card
Harris Teeter, 16th and Kalorama
Dear General Manager:

When I moved to DC in 1997 I did not even know where 16^th and Kalorama was. Today while in town to visit a friend in the apartment building next door to your new store, I was excited to go in and spend around $7.50 on a package of strawberries, $8.00 on a wedge of brie, and $3.00 for a bottle of sparkling water to wash everything down. However my sentiments quickly changed upon walking up to the door of your store. On it is a sign: “No panhandlers or Loiters. Customers, please do not contribute to panhandlers on premises.”

I was so offended by this sign that I almost turned around and walked away. But then I quickly remembered that the only other full, non-specialty grocery store in the area is what is known as- - or at least used to be known as - - “the Socialist Safeway” over on Columbia Road. The nickname comes from the long lines and lack of food inside.

Your sign is obnoxious first and foremost because it presumes a harm done by, or reason for suspicion caused by, the poor in this neighborhood in Washington, DC. How DARE a corporation that OPENLY charges over 500% for a loaf of bread claim that the poor man, woman, or child standing out front of the store is a danger or problem! Corporations like Harris Teeter are the problem. You came into this neighborhood to cash in on and perpetuate what is clearly irresponsible gentrification. I should be suspicious of you, not those in the neighborhood harmed by you.

Secondly, it offends me that you would tell ME what to do with MY OWN money. If I wish to contribute to a beggar, that is my business, not yours.

Finally, I suggest that you remove the current sign and replace it with one inviting beggars inside for a discussion about how Harris Teeter can assist members of this community who continue to struggle. I also suggest that you provide free meals to the poor three times a day. If you would like to speak with me further about these ideas, I am available until June 5^th and have included my phone number at the top of this card.

With serious concern,

Kate Burke

medical records for haiti

Partners in Health worked to create Open MRS, an open-source, medical record database designed specifically for the two-thirds world. This program was developed keeping in mind a preferential option for the poor for medical record keeping and medical care, but furthermore, in order to assist in providing accountability for the sake of receiving PEPFAR grants and so on; most clinics and hospitals in Africa are using Open MRS, keeping several million people in the system. So far in Haiti, Partners in Health uses it, and so does Hospital Albert Schweitzer. Being that the Gates Foundation expects its grant recipients to be run like little businesses: data matters, and Open MRS has helped to provide this sort of accountability.

In Haiti, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS demands efficient information management, so at my hospital near Miragoane, we are using Open MRS. Today I worked with the President of our Board, Dr. Tom, to discuss ways of making it most efficacious, based upon what we need to track. I suggested that we add a field for how people arrive to the hospital. Basically, - fast donkey or slow donkey? Knowing that paper is a problem in Haiti, I told Dr. Tom that Open MRS is a necessity because we are going to be treating and saving more lives than exist in Haiti pieces of paper. He reminded me that this record keeping is something we must keep in the back of our minds, not in the forefront. When a child is dying of beri-beri in front of me because of a vitamin B deficiency, I need not be yelling at the doctors about getting on their lap tops to log this in. Charting the CD4 counts on women in our HIV / AIDS program will always be secondary to providing care.

Theresa Patterson, my boss, has been very excited about tonight because on "60 Minutes" her friend- - and the founder of Partners in Health, Paul Farmer, was featured for his work in Haiti.

my trip to bangladesh with project pyramid

14th and You

Forty years ago today, the prophet Martin Luther King, Jr. was martyred.

Like other cities, Washington, DC broke out in riots. In my opinion, DC has never recovered from these riots. I am not only speaking of the store fronts, and the buildings in-and-of-themselves, I mean that in many places the physical ruins of the riots continue to symbolize the brokenness of race relations and the punishment of poverty prevailing in our country.

Today, white residents in Washington, DC continue to fail our black brothers and sisters with irresponsible gentrification- having left the post-riot neighborhoods in decay for thirty years- and then buying cheap, moving in, driving up property costs, pushing folks out, and taking over the neighborhoods with places like Whole Foods where an apple costs two dollars.

Don't get me wrong, I think the intentionality of living in diverse and walkable communities is fantastic. And of course I want my city to flourish, and to be safe. I love having food and cocktails at some cornerstone places like Busboys and Poets, and Saint-Ex, - I just think we must exercise caution and awareness when throwing our hats into the inequity game of home-ownership. This of course means different things in each situation, but participating in gentrification comes with responsibility. Being white, we are the minority in DC, - -and as George Clinton said, "We didn't get our forty acres and a mule but we did get you, Chocolate City."

the mortgage crisis

The Our Father prayer has been spiritualized and privatized in modernity. The truth of the matter is that Jesus was speaking directly to the very immediate concerns of the poor and oppressed. The debts are financial. The bread is the tangible food necessary for life. Take a look at the Gospel of Luke - it is an economic project asserting an abyss between poor and rich; proclaiming Jesus' solidarity with the poor (and the judgment of the rich); and the importance of sharing. Jesus makes programmatic announcements and healings in an attempt to reverse the process of dehumanization caused by poverty and power structures. Jesus as the fulfillment of the Judaic law repeats Torah law with the following commands: Reduce debts. Lend without expecting reciprocation. Invite the poor into your hospitality. Provide services and goods to the poor.

There is so much to celebrate about Christianity! It embraces the best of the classical ethicists, the richness of the Hebraic tradition, and a fine balance between the contemplative and the active. And one thing is undeniable - Christianity is first and foremost about a concern for poverty. The poor challenge us at all times, and when we wake up in a world where poverty exists, we fail God and we fail one another.

In my opinion, poverty is the result of a systematic behavior of allegiances toward and participation in certain economic and political ideologies that ultimately provide material wealth to those able to operate with structurally supported self-interest, while oppressing the world's masses who live on less than two dollars a day; poverty comes from putting our will before the will of God. Private property is part of this problem. What would the world look like if property were a public good? After all property has many life-giving functions. Economist Karl Polanyi has noted that land is used for lots of things – like stability, habitation, physical safety, and he said that living without land is like "being born without hands and feet." Private property prohibits inclusive human survivability, and this is directly against God's will for life. According to the market, the private nature of property is seen as "natural," but the harms done by private property are anything but natural according to Christianity.

my favorite type of conversation

This is great. Important. Right on. This proves that church life and theology are fantastic ways to confront societal issues such as poverty and race. Linda Thomas teaches at Vandy.

Click here and then click on "Listen Now"

Then read Cone's book, God of the Oppressed.

5th Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's Death

Over the past 40 years, Caterpillar bulldozers (due to a lucrative contract with Israel) have been used to demolish 18,000 Palestinian homes in Gaza and the West Bank. 5,000 of these homes have been demolished since 2000. Caterpillar continues to sell armor plated D9 bulldozers directly to the Israeli Defense Force, despite awareness that they are used to commit war crimes, and human rights abuses, - - killing and maiming innocent civilians in their homes. For twenty years, human rights groups have condemned Caterpillar. The wall between Palestine and Israel which prevents Palestinians from access to water, other resources, and jobs is also being built by Caterpillar machinery. On March 16, 2003, American activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by a D9 bulldozer while she stood as a human shield protecting children. Caterpillar has accused her middle class parents in Washington State, of being "terrorists." Recently the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian (USA) Church have both called for divestment from Caterpillar. Yesterday, Caterpillar announced an expected expansion of profits up to 30% in the next two years. Business is good for Caterpillar, Inc.

~
After a lovely visit with my friend Brian in Portland, I drove north, back to Seattle, and I saw the sign for Olympia. Impulsively, I decided to trust that perhaps it was time to make my pilgrimage of healing. I did not know what would come of it, but I trusted, and decided to follow the sign. It had been six years since I set foot in Palestine, and that day in April 2006 in Olympia, Washington, - - I sensed that I was crossing another check-point.

Pulling off the road into quaint Olympia, I drove downtown, parked, and went into a coffee shop. On the walls were photos of Palestinians screaming and crying. I thought, “maybe this is where Rachel Corrie worked as a barista.” I asked the manager. He said, that she worked down the street at a different coffee shop. I purchased the first of many lattes for the day, and made my way on foot. This was one of those days where with every step, the powers of God are not hidden. It was a rare day when I felt the complete presence of a guiding force, when I knew that I was simply along for the ride.

I went into another coffee shop, and another coffee shop, and another coffee shop. In a journalistic manner, I talked with a florist who had just made deliveries to the Corries on the anniversary of Rachel’s death. She cried, and told me that the community still suffers tremendous pain in light of Rachel’s murder. The man at the used book store told me about her (lack of) study habits. The overcast sky ceased from resembling the typical spring cover of the northwest, and began to serve as a veil of mourning. The lump in my throat repeated- “it could have been you” - as I know that I too have made creative use of my little blue passport to speak for visceral compassion, to stand in solidarity. She and I were the same age; we both worked in the West Bank with Palestinian children; we both watched home demolitions, and saw the outrageous insanity of children running away from bulldozers. But so what? Did I “over identify” with Rachel’s martyrdom? Why would I pray and write about Rachel Corrie when thousands and thousands of Palestinian civilians have been wiped out by Israel’s genocide? Did I see myself in them, as much as I saw myself in Rachel? If we are all God’s children, why was I hung up on the white girl from the US?

Continuing on the pilgrimage, it was suggested that I visit Evergreen College, her alma mater. I spoke with her favorite professor. I bought a sweatshirt in the book store. I stumbled upon a little memorial in the corner of a conference room on the 6^th floor of a small building. The room was full of Japanese students, studying English. I made my way past them and to the couch adjacent to a table full of Rachel’s things. I sat near this silent spring. I knew that my hours and hours in Olympia were only to reach the silence of this place, and to sit in my loneliness. Picking up her journal, I read some of her last entries. In memorial, others had written letters to her in the back of the diary, so I proceeded to as well.

I thanked her for attaching meaning to her death. The ultimate success, I think, is to conquer the living of life so well that even in one’s death there retains meaning, hope, and political agitation.

Driving back up the highway to Seattle, I felt a freedom on behalf of Rachel, - - as one of her surrogates in the world of those living toward a future of justice.

~

I sent this email a year ago; today the story remains the same except now Rachel would be 29. No justice, no peace.

March 16, 2007

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Classmates:

This morning, as I drove by the Caterpillar Financial headquarters on West End Avenue, I couldn't help but think of the Caterpillar bulldozer used by the Israeli government exactly four years ago today to kill Rachel Corrie. Rachel, a native of Olympia, Washington attended Evergreen College and worked at a coffee shop. She died while attempting to protect three children of a doctor during a routine Israeli home demolition in Palestine, on March 16, 2003.

With his group Rebuilding Alliance, my friend from Palestine, Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom has rebuilt the home Rachel sacrificed her life in order to protect. On the anniversary of Rachel's death, I encourage you to support the work of Rabbi Jeremy and Rebuilding Alliance:

http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/

Rachel Corrie would be 28 years old next month.

With hope, Kate Burke, MTS '08

sacred canopy

There's been something very clean for me to speak about how things are in Haiti or Palestine. In this place, things are this way. There, things are like this or that. In Haiti, children eat dirt cookies. In Palestine children have no plumbing.

In Bangladesh, it is bamboo being labored over and hauled around - - not sugar cane. In Bangladesh, children are not running from bulldozers, rather, they suffer a no-win battle with the rainy season. In Bangladesh I now know that poverty is not specified and particular. Extreme poverty looks almost the same everywhere. And it is heartbreaking. That sweet smell of pollution and human waste crosses political boundaries. The rickshaw, however, is special. Today, while traveling two hours away to interview micro-loan borrowers in villages, I watched hundreds of them on the streets. I likened them to sacred canopies, life-giving and vibrant with color, perhaps serving as shields.

dr. yunus says poverty belongs in a museum

It was my first week of Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, and the professor responded to my comment in a facetious manner - - "Wait, do you actually want to use this stuff?" As an academic with one foot in the ivory tower and another on the ground, I have struggled to make use of what I learn and order out of what I have experienced. Yesterday, with two months remaining in my Masters program, Dr. Muhammad Yunus sat next to me and spoke of the dangers of the university ranging from the hegemonic relationship between student and teacher to the unending elitism associated with higher education. He said, "Universities don't know much about people." Continuing, Dr. Yunus said what I have waited to hear all along, "the answers are known by those on the ground." I live in Nashville, Tennessee and attend Vanderbilt for graduate school, - just like Dr. Yunus once did.
I can only hope to find my own way to utilize what I have learned in order to empower those on the ground who have the answers but lack an access to the opportunity to change circumstances.