The Wheels Of Justice Rolled Through Corvallis

Long, long ago--maybe in 2003 or 2004--the Wheels Of Justice bus tour came through Monterey, and Courtney and I were part of the organizing effort to get them there. It was lots of work, arranging their public appearances and all the details of food, housing, etc, for the people on tour. But well worth the time and effort. It was a great experience, and so I have this fondness for the Wheels Of Justice. That's the only way I can explain my temporary loss of good judgment and volunteering to arrange their time in Corvallis, with only two weeks notice.



But at least it all worked. They arrived in Corvallis on Wednesday morning, having spent a couple of days in Eugene, and before that four days in Portland. The tour has been on the road-- visiting US towns and cities, campuses and faith communities--for eight years now, with different speakers coming and going. But they always have on board a speaker who has recently been to Iraq and one recently back from Palestine.




Here we are at their first stop, the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center. (I'd love to do an entire blog entry on the CMLC. It's a beautiful and amazing place and, at no charge, we can use their living room and kitchen for events like we did Wednesday noon.) Closest to me is Mike Miles, from Luck, Wisconsin, a Catholic Worker and long-time peace activist. He ran for Congress on the Green Party ticket in 2004 and 2006, and fared the best of any third party candidate in the country. He founded the Anathoth Community Farm, a center for the study of nonviolence, community and sustainable living. He's been to Iraq three times in the last decade and to Israel/Palestine recently. He's been doing anti-war and anti-occupation work for a long time, got his facts together, immediately connects with people, listens well and enjoys conversation.

In the red sweater is Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian-American, born in the Shepherd's Field, near Bethlehem, to Christian parents. He splits his time between the US and Palestine. He's been on the faculty of Duke and Yale. And served on the Executive Committees of almost every organization dealing with Palestinian human rights. His third book, which we bought a copy of and I highly recommend, is titled "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle."

The human rights work is Mazin's passion, but his other work is as a medical geneticist. Before their presentation at CMLC, Mazin was anxious to get online and check his emails. He was waiting for a man's test results and needed to respond asap. The man did indeed have terminal cancer and a very poor prognosis, and that was weighing on Mazin as he prepared to talk about the realities of living under occupation in Palestine--what that has meant for his family, his village, his people. But to meet him and talk with him you would never suspect what hangs on his shoulders--he's completely warm, open and kind, and extremely focused and intelligent.





After their noon presentation, which was more of an informal conversation with the fifteen of us there, we moved the bus onto the Brick Mall next to the Memorial Union Quad. For the next couple hours Mike and Mazin, along with the bus driver Bill, talked with OSU student and faculty and staff. Mazin was especially skilled at flagging down the students, starting up a conversation, and then giving them a flier to their evening event. I think the students were drawn to his smile and his open attitude--very few ignored his invitation to talk.




From campus, the bus moved to downtown Corvallis and in front of the Benton County Courthouse. This, of course, is the site of the daily vigil that has taken place EVERY day since the war in Afghanistan started in October 2001. Never has a day been missed in 7&1/2 years. Mike and Mazin were quite impressed with that and agreed that it's probably the only daily vigil in the US. At least of that longevity.

That night they spoke at the Odd Fellows Hall, another great place we have free access to for peace-related events. Mike reminded us that, though we, like many other communities across the country, are preparing for the 5 Years Too Many marches and protests coming up soon, the war in Iraq actually started 17 years ago. In 1991, after 42 days of assault, the US military had effectively rendered Iraq to a pre-industrial state. Then with 12 years of sanctions (seige- warfare, he called it, nothing goes in and nothing goes out, and eventually the people succumb), over a million Iraqis were killed in the eight years that Clinton was in office.

Mazin gave an impressive slide show, starting with a slide of a young Iraqi girl crouched down and crying, covered in blood. He asked how many people had seen this photo and knew her story. No one in the room raised their hand, and this was a well-read crowd. This, Mazin said, is the power of media, to give the news or withhold the news. The story of that little girl is well-known all over the world, and especially in the Arab world, as is her picture. Her parents were on either side of her, in their car, when American soldiers opened fire and killed them both. After discovering their mistake, the soldiers apologized to her uncle.

Mazin went on to show covers of Newsweek magazine and other publications, on one side the US version and on the other side the international version. Over and over, the news of Iraq disasters or the tragedies of Palestinians living under occupation were omitted from the US version. What the rest of the world sees and what Americans see is quite different. And it seems quite well orchestrated.

But Mazin said what he sees, as they travel around the country, is people everywhere building community--in the midst of economic decline, climate change, prices and military spending up, employment and social structure funds down, home mortgage and healthcare crises growing --and people are organizing in their communities.

At the end of his presentation, which mainly focused on human rights abuses against the civilian population of the Palestinian Territories, Mazin asked why is the US sending $11 million per day to Israel, an affluent country? Is this the best use of our tax dollars and resources? He has an excellent website, www.qumsiyeh.org, which includes an activist training manual. Check it out.




And yes, that's the bus parked at our little casa. Bill the bus driver, a Vietnam Veteran and full-time, long-time peace activist (getting arrested the first day of the Gulf War, driving a bus regularly for the Pastors For Peace convoys to Cuba, etc) stayed the night with us. Brightened up the neighborhood a bit.

But they are truly rolling stones, gathering no moss, and were up and off early early Thursday morning to give presentations at the high school continuously from 7:40am to 3:40pm. These guys are danged saints (or maniacs, or both). They wanted to talk with students, and they got a chance to do that in Corvallis, so that feels like a little success in the big sea of work to be done.

In the morning, after they had left, I heard the geese and got to our bedroom window just in time to see a sky full of flocks heading west. I hurried to the other side of the house (luckily a short distance) and, through the bathroom window, watched as they continued their flight westward. It gave me great pleasure to see the natural world still operating by wisdom, in spite of us humans.

Good luck to us all, large and small creatures,

Valori