Rachel Corrie, a young American woman from Olympia, Washington, made world news headlines on March 16, 2003.
She was crushed to death under an armored Caterpillar bulldozer, driven by members of the Israeli Army while opposing, in a nonviolent way, the illegal destruction of a Palestinian home. She was 23 years old and her horrible death sparked a worldwide interest in her life which to this day has not abated.
After graduating from college, Rachel joined the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led human rights and nonviolent resistance group. This nongovernmental organization was set up after the US and the Israeli governments rejected a proposal by Mary Robinson, the United Nations High commissioner for Human Rights, to send international human rights monitors to the region.
In January 2003, Rachel traveled to Gaza for training as a nonviolent peace activist and human rights observer. She was hoping that her writing would be published, at least by her local newspaper, The Olympian. She never lived to see that but her family made her e-mails available from Gaza within hours of her death. Three days later, the well-known British newspaper, The Guardian, published them in a special column entitled "Rachel's War."
The actor, Alan Rickman, inspired by the article, showed it to friends at London's Royal Court Theater and with the help of the Corrie family, Rickman co-wrote with Katharine Viner, a play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" which was performed in London, New York and other cities in America. Both Viner and Rickman were also the first to suggest that Rachel's writings be used for a book.
"Let Me Stand Alone" is the moving story of Rachel's life told through her letters, e-mails, journal entries, school papers, and even paper napkins. It highlights the development of her personality, her unflinching commitment to her ideals, and her belief that privileged people are responsible for the way they affect other people's lives. At a very early age, Rachel understood the power and beauty of words and took up writing very seriously. She even declared, at the age of 10 (to someone asking her what she wanted to be when she grew up) that she wanted to be a poet. Other writings collected from that same age period also reveal an astonishingly precocious child.
With the tone and the assurance of an adult, she declares that: "We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them ... My dream is to give the poor a chance ... and save the 40,000 people who die each day." A year later, in a letter addressed to a soldier, she concludes that peace and cooperation are at the front of her mind. From that time on, Rachel Corrie never ceased to question the world she was living in and she became an ardent activist. She never felt at ease concentrating solely on her studies; she needed to connect with people in need and work for causes she deemed worthy. During high school and college, she was involved in a number of activities. One of them was answering calls for the Crisis Clinic's teen and adult crisis lines.
She became increasingly more critical of the society she was living in and questioned the culture based on ever-increasing consumption. "How can a culture like this alter itself before it destroys itself and its environment?" she wondered.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Rachel worried about the negative effects of the US war on terrorism, the war in Afghanistan and the repression happening at home justified by the US Patriot Act. She joined several local peace organizations, including the local International Solidarity Movement, with international participants of all ages. But she soon experienced the need "to go to a place and meet people who are on the other end of the portion of my tax money that goes to fund the US and other militaries."
Her trip to Gaza woke her to a harsh reality. She admitted that she had never believed such a place existed and until her untimely death, she begged the people who knew her to search for information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the US role in perpetuating it: "I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible."
Rachel Corrie was a keen observer and during the few months she spent in Gaza, she witnessed the amazing strength of people "being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity, laughter, generosity, family time, against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and against the constant present of death."
Dismayed by the widening gap between rich and poor, by the increasing private control over matters of public interest, she looked forward to witnessing a growing number of people willing to risk life and limb in order to resist the direction we are moving in.
"Let Me Stand Alone" brings to life the beautiful personality of Rachel Corrie. Generous, charming, full of energy and always ready to help people in need, Rachel's thoughts and beliefs were always followed by a course of action. Her life, shaped by her ideals and her humanity, is inspiring and uplifting: It is the moving and dignified testimony of a hero.
In a world, where we are increasingly respected and admired for what we possess, and not for our moral principles, we desperately need selfless and noble-minded people such as Rachel Corrie.
