Northern Star via U-Wire
September 26, 2003, Friday
Dekalb, Ill.

By Deanna Cabinian, Northern Star

Activist Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, spoke to a packed house Thursday night at Northern Illinois University. Seats could not accommodate the crowd that came to see Kelly. About 80 people, young and old, attended the event, forcing some to stand against the wall or sit on the floor.

Cele Meyer, a member of the DeKalb (Ill.) Interfaith Network, which co-sponsored the event with the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice, introduced Kelly, calling her the most wonderful person she knew in the world.

Kelly began her speech by saying, “Much of what I say can be condensed into one sentence: Where you stand determines what you see.”

What Kelly meant became apparent as her speech went on. She said the taxi drivers, vendors, students and other people in Iraq have a very different view of their country and what is going on there than outsiders do.

Kelly mentioned many Iraqi people by name, as if they were family or friends. She told many anecdotes about small children and other families she met in Iraq. One story she told was about a group of teenagers playing a game late one night. An older woman told them to leave it for tomorrow. Kelly said one of the girls pointed out they might not be there the next day.

Kelly talked about her time in Baghdad, the build-up to the war and the first 10 days of U.S. occupation. Kelly said in the beginning she was optimistic and hoped the United States was only threatening an attack, but she changed her mind on day three of the U.S. occupation.

“Every aircraft deposited thousands of munitions on key targets, altering the landscape,” she said. Kelly said one of her colleagues described the bombings as 11 San Francisco earthquakes happening over and over again, day after day. Kelly said 70 percent of Iraqi troops were killed that day.

When the U.S. troops arrived, Kelly said they looked disheveled and disoriented. “It’s not normal for young United States boys to be scared in a faraway country,” Kelly said.

Besides the war in Iraq, Kelly spoke of two other wars. She talked about what she believes to be the ongoing war of Western culture against the planet and the ongoing war of the United States against other countries’ resources. “The change has to be in our culture and the way that we live,” Kelly said.

In spite of all that she has witnessed on her numerous trips to Iraq, Kelly said she still draws hope from the Iraqi people’s strength. She said that Iraqi civilians have no police, no governing force, no ministries of education or health, and no rights to property or electricity — but the dignity they show under these conditions greatly impresses her.

Kelly ended her speech by singing in Arabic the second and third verses of “We Shall Overcome,” which she taught to the Iraqi people when she was there. She said it translated to “We are not afraid today.” She said she hopes by this time next year, the situation in Iraq is 20 percent better than it is now.

Karl Schuster, a junior, said he appreciated what Kelly had to say. “It’s really refreshing to hear a different viewpoint like that,” he said. Schuster said he felt privileged to hear about Iraq from somebody who had actually been there.

(C) 2002 Northern Star via U-WIRE