"Rachel Corrie, In Memoriam"

Peter Bohmer

Rachel Corrie was an incredibly good person. I mourn and am very saddened

by her murder yesterday, March 16th, 2003. She was killed by a bulldozer as

the Israeli military ran over her as she was protesting the destruction of

Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.Rachel grew up in Olympia,

Washington. I originally met her when she was a student in the Options

program at Lincoln Elementary school around 1989. She was a friend of my

son and played on the same YMCA basketball team as my daughter. Rachel and

I talked a lot the last two years and marched together at various

demonstrations, for example, May Day 2002. Rachel was a totally caring and

gentle person who was outraged by oppression wherever it took place and had

become very active working for social justice and peace. Rachel was a very

modest, courageous and responsible person who was the heart and soul of the

Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, a group she had originally begun

working with as part of her study in the Local Knowledge program taught by

Anne Fischel and Lin Nelson at the Evergreen State College. Rachel was

very active in opposing the U.S. "war against terror" and U.S. militarism.

One project she threw her mind and body into was a September 11th, 2002 day

against the U.S. war in Afghanistan and against repression in the United

States at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia. She got a lot of

elementary school kids and classes to participate. So it is very fitting

that the vigil last night, Sunday, March 16th, against the war in Iraq and

to honor and mourn Rachel, was at Percival Landing. Close to 1000 people

attended.



Rachel was a very reflective person who constantly thought about how to

link together various groups working for justice, e.g., the labor movement

and the peace movement. She volunteered at the Evergreen State College

Labor Education and Research Center and played a major role in organizing a

conference dealing with networking and strategies for justice and peace

last spring, 2002. Another major concern of hers was to involve the local

Olympia community that was not connected to Evergreen to the anti-war and

economic and social justice issues and groups. Besides going to the

Evergreen State College, Rachel also worked at BHR, a local mental health

clinic and was active in her union, 1199, a part of SEIU.



Justice for the Palestinian people was one of many issues Rachel felt

deeply about. She strongly opposed the Israeli occupation and supported a

Palestinian state. For Rachel, feeling deeply always meant also doing

something about her concerns. She had studied Arabic at Evergreen and

decided to go to the Gaza strip in occupied Palestine for winter quarter.

Part of her reasoning was that it was important to have international

observers there as Israeli aggression was likely to increase when the U.S.

attacked, bombed and invaded Iraq. She strongly opposed the U.S. war

against Iraq. Rachel was aware of the dangers and risks of going to Gaza.

She left Olympia on January 18th of this year, went to the West Bank and

then Gaza, threw herself fully into human rights activism and solidarity

with the Palestinian people. She volunteered with the International

Solidarity Movement, people from around the world who have been witnesses

to Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and involve

themselves in non-violent protest against the Israeli occupation. Rachel

had planned to return to Evergreen State College for spring quarter to

finish her studies.



Rachel Corrie will not be coming back to Olympia but let us all take a

moment to reflect on what each of us can do to carry on her legacy by

doing a little more to oppose war and further justice, equality and peace

in the Middle East, around the world and in the U.S. Rachel Corrie was an

ordinary and an extraordinary person.



Peter Bohmer

Olympia, WA