Rachel Corrie
"This has to stop."
Biography [1] [2]
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Rachel Corrie was killed on Sunday, March 16, 2003 while trying to stop a bulldozer from tearing down a building in a refugee camp in Gaza. Her body was crushed by the bulldozer passing over her several times. She had been acting as a Human Shield, trying to stop the demolition of a family home.Rachel wrote to her mother shortly before she died, "I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances - which I also haven't seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people."
"... This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop." (more)
Rachel was a senior at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Rachel grew up in Olympia and graduated from its Capital High School. Her teachers have remarked that she was "a shining star, a wonderful student and a brave person of deep convictions."
To quote Naomi Klein, "These do-it-yourself social movements have emerged as a kind of activist "third way," an alternative both to the purely symbolic dissent of demonstrations and the suicidal impulse of armed aggression, and their members are exercising their rights throughout the world. The true faces of modern activism belong to people like the late Rachel Corrie ... Corrie wasn't in the occupied territories to give comfort to suicide bombers; she was standing with the with the nonviolent group, International Solidarity Movement trying to keep a Palestinian family home from being demolished."
