Marred by the misspelled words "Hippis suck" expressed by an anonmyous person in spray paint on the anti-war and human rights activists' van, the Wheels of Justice tour was an arguable success.
The van parked on Rex Street Thursday, March 16, when the vandalism occurred, then returned to Hamilton Hall at 7 p.m. to discuss eyewitness accounts of war, economic sanctions and the occupation of Iraq and Palestine. A colorful discussion of the United States' role in the occupation of these countries and possible solutions as American citizens followed the accounts.
Ceylon Mooney, wearing a Bury the Living T-shirt, a band he plays for that is tied to human rights, spoke to the audience of various ethnic groups and ages about the humanity and "Honor-based culture" he encountered twice in Iraq. As co-coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a group that has led Americans to Iraq 70 times since 1996, Mooney faces trial in 2004 for participating in nonviolent direct action at Boeing World Headquarters, home of the world's largest exporter of war weapons.
Mooney introduced the reason behind using Bio Diesel fuel in the Wheels of Justice van. "We're talking about wars that pertain to the control of resources, especially petroleum," he said. "One way that we felt we ought to disassociate ourselves from those wars was by sort of pulling the hypodermic needle out of our vein and thinking of something other than petroleum to use," he analogized.
Audrey Stewart, a Catholic worker from Ithaca, N.Y., stood in front of a white banner with the words "Darkness cannot drive out darkness" written in red over images of soldiers and Black Hawk helicopters and circulated pictures of a woman who was killed Stewart's first day in Palestine. "She was just looking out the window, and for that crime she was shot and killed in front of her children," Stewart said.
Stewart and Grace Ridder traveled with a group of four other volunteers to Palestine in April 2002. Stewart, mother of nine-month-old Gabriel Stewart-Guido, who was also at Thursday's meeting, said: "As an American, I was totally unprepared for what a war zone is really like for people having to live through it. We don't see those images on TV or hear those voices of those children and those mothers who are going through it."
In her short visit to Palestine, Stewart said she had heard story after story of innocent people being killed, "and it became clear to us that these people who were dying were civilians," not terrorists.
Stewart mentioned that almost every weapon used to kill innocent people was made in the United States, and the U.S. sends $3 billion a year to aid Israel.
"This is our responsibility here," Stewart demonstrated. "That's what people (Palestinians) would say to us, by and large. It's great that you're here to talk to us, but you really need to get home and work on this at home," she said.
Part of this solution falls in the hands of Wheels of Justice, which has been to 18 states and traveled more than 17,000 miles since its creation in 2003. Ridder explained the connection between the Wheels of Justice tour and the solution for peace in those countries.
"For those of you who haven't been to a country under occupation, we feel it is really our responsibility to give you some explanation of what it's like-there," Ridder said. She described the grief and desperation of not being able to return to your home "when one day, suddenly, an army rolls in." Ridder said she could somehow understand how people, seeing no way out, could get so desperate as to commit suicide bombings.
Jamal Hamdan, who recently returned from a 14-month trip to Palestine, said it is easier to fight terrorism than to find the cause. Both people want peace, he said, but you cannot have peace while there is terrorism in Palestine.
Dindi Moore, a former UL Lafayette student, asked if "America can ever be a country that has justice? It just seems impossible," she said. Ridder answered as long as she works toward justice, anything is possible.
An audience member told of A.J. Muste, a war demonstrator of World War I in New York City who said, "No, I'm not going to stop the war! But if I don't demonstrate, I'm going to think like they do."
The UL Society Promoting Environment, Action and Knowledge (SPEAK) sponsored the tour's trip to Lafayette. The tour is sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness, www.nonviolence.org/vitw/, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, www.AL-Awda.org, and the Middle East Children's Alliance, www.mecaforpeace.org, with support from affiliates of the International Solidarity Movement. For more information on the Wheels of Justice or the occupation of Iraq and Palestine, go to www.justicewheels.org.