(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 20 years ago today; Rachel Corrie was murdered [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-16 Rachel was a beautiful young woman.... taken far too soon 20 years and about 10 hours ago (now 5:10 PST), Rachel Corrie was murdered by the Israel military. A bulldozer operated by the military drover over her and crushed her as she stood in front of a home owned by a Palestinian family. After he drove over her and crushed her body, the dozer operator backed up over Rachel and then drover forward over her a second time….. crushing and grinding her into the dirt. a remembrance posted by Palestinians. I never met Rachel. Yet she inspires me to keep up the good fight. I am in awe of the care and kindness she showed the world. When I think of her now all these years later… I still feel the same way I did 20 years ago. I love her and wish I could have protected her. I know…… I never knew her in person. But somehow she is able to reach out from beyond the grave and inspire me. She touches me deep in my soul. This afternoon, I will attend (in Olympia, on the Evergreen College campus) a showing of the film about Rachel and a discussion session to follow. rachelcorriefoundation.org myemail.constantcontact.com/… I will listen. I will try to meet Rachel’s parents and sister and say to them…. well I don’t really know what to say to them…. I will be there to bear witness. I will be there to show my support. Now I know that bringing up the Palestine / Israel issue on DK can cause a storm of fighting, angry posts…. upset folks on both sides. However, the facts about Rachel’s murder are irrefutable. Period. And I know that usually Tevye posts a really powerful write up about Rachel and her death and about Tevye having actually had a real life friendship with Rachel and about how he was in Palestine at the time. I hope he posts that blog again this year. It is quite moving. It truly disturbs me how little progress has been made in Palestine in the last 20 years. Arguably things are actually worse over there now…. see recent news about the protests in Palestine. I used to go to Israel regularly on business. I am in the communications business and had companies in Israel wanting to buy lasers from me. After Rachel’s murder (yes, I deliberately use that term.. she was MURDERED) I stopped all travel to Israel and cut off the supply of lasers to any and all Israeli companies. I no longer support Israel. Not until significant change happens. I could write more.. but time to go to the symposium on this, the 20th anniversary of her death. Tears are flowing down my face. I have tried to write this blog several times this week but could not… my emotions overwhelmed me every time I tried. Finally I forced this short blog and got it posted. here is a song by Iris Dement: “Warriors of Love”. Rachel is in the second verse. Rachel was truly a WARRIOR OF LOVE. Such a sweet wonderful kind beautiful person…. such cruelty expressed by the Israeli Army. a song about love from Esther Satterfield And from Sarah Elizabeth Campbell: “Love Hurts” I miss her. Imagine what she could have done if she were still alive. so today I light a candle. Again. Today I meditate and think. Today I chant: Wahe Guru Sat Nam Sat Nam Sat Nam UPDATES: 1) removed the graphic images. I thought they were appropriate. For the same reasons Emmitt Till’s mother had an open casket funeral and made sure the images of Emmitt’s body were published. Sometimes a visual image is the only way to convey the true depth of a story about bigotry and cruelty. But, they ran afoul of Daily Kos rules and I received some stern messages from management regarding them. This is a privately owned website and management can have what ever rules they see fit. Again,… I personally thought the images, while difficult to view, were appropriate and more importantly RELEVANT. Never the less, as per the requirements of management I have removed the images. 2) I attended the 20th year memorial of her death this afternoon. I am humbled by her parents who are gracious, kind, warm hearted and eloquent when speaking about the event. I don’t think I could or would have responded with wisdom as they have… I would be so completely angry and upset and god lost if this were to happen to my daughter…. At one point, Rachel’s father nearly broke when he was speaking. 3) there is to be a gathering in celebration of Rachel’s life on April 10th in downtown Olympia. The intent is to have music, and dance and sharing of stories about Rachel by folks who knew her. bubbasan [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/16/2158611/-20-years-ago-today-Rachel-Corrie-was-murdered-FAIR-WARNING-Graphic-Images-inside Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/