WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
People
ask me all the time why I went to occupied Palestine [7
times since 2005] and why do I care so much about such a small plot of
real estate.
I reply, that I went the first time to meet a little
boy of Beit Jala, which is a suburb of Bethlehem for he irrevocably
changed my life.
I also went as the Christian delegate amongst the Palestinian and Jewish co-founders of the Olive Trees Foundation for Peace,an
interfaith non-profit dedicated to raising awareness and funds to
purchase trees to replace those that have been destroyed by The Wall.
But,
all my last trips to occupied Palestine were driven by the fierce
urgency of now and a sense of calling; to go-bear witness-and report
about the lives of regular people living under military occupation and
to learn about and support the grass root efforts of Israeli,
Palestinian and International nonviolent activists against the
occupation of Palestine.
I also left hearth and home for occupied
Palestine because injustice anywhere reverberates all over the world
and American taxpayers are culpable in where their money is laid down.
Annually, over 3.2 billion USA tax dollars are sent to Israel to support
the now 40+ years of military occupation of the indigenous peoples of
the Holy Land.
It was at an Olive Trees Foundation for Peace
meeting, that I met a Catholic woman who showed me a photo first
published by the Florida Catholic in 2000; a photo that irrevocably
changed my life.
Photographer Debbie Hill, captured three year
old George [it is his photo that adorns the banner of my website] of
Beit Jala, a once peaceful Christian village a five minute car ride from
downtown Bethlehem, the morning after the Israeli army destroyed his
sanctuary.
Israeli forces had retaliated against a few hopeless
militants who had infiltrated George's neighborhood to snipe across the
way into the illegal settlement/colony of Gilo, about a mile from the
top of the hill not far from George's home. The
shrapnel that blew apart the wall of George's bedroom read 'Made in
USA' and was delivered via American made Apache helicopters.
The second I saw George's eyes, in that photo, my heart said "DO SOMETHING!"
What
could I possibly do I wondered, but I did make a copy of the photo, put
it in a frame and placed it upon the altar [a bar high table] in the
upper room of my home. Dozens of times a day, I stop and gaze into the
eyes of that little boy of Bethlehem and wonder what it will take to end
the insane cycle of violence in the Holy Land; which is in
pieces-bantustans.
When I met George for the first time in
June 2005, I vowed to him that the rest of my life would be dedicated to
doing all I could to help bring about the end of the occupation of
Palestine.
Of course I had no clue as to what I would or could
possibly do, or how much of an 'impossible mission' I had promised a
little child of Bethlehem. But, every morning I wake up and wonder what I
can do today in the pursuit of peace and justice; equal human rights
for all, for that is the only way Israel will ever be secure.
A
month after my first return home from occupied territory, I put up my
website and became a civilian journalist; which is best understood as
one who goes out of their comfort zone to report for the benefit of we
the people, without orders or censorship from editors or paychecks from
conglomerates.
The first civilian journalist may well have been
Rachel Corrie, the altruistic young American and volunteer with
ISM/International Solidarity movement who was run over and killed by the
weight of a Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, four days before
America bombed Baghdad.
Rachel and other NONVIOLENT activists had
spent hours protesting against the demolition of the home of a
pharmacist with five children in Gaza. The Corrie family has sought but
has yet to receive justice; an open Congressional investigation and
admission of accountability by the Caterpillar Company which continues
to reap profits from manufacturing products that further the military
occupation of Palestine.
On February 7 2003, Rachel wrote:
"No
amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and
word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation
here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it - and even then you
are always well aware that your experience of it is not at all the
reality…Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a
rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my
hometown…When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain
that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting…at a checkpoint
with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether
I can get home again when I'm done…I am in Rafah: a city of about
140,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are refugees - many of whom
are twice or three times refugees. Today, as I walked on top of the
rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the
other side of the border, 'Go! Go!' because a tank was coming. And then
waving and [asking] 'What's your name?'
"Something disturbing
about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some
degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting
at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids
shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's
going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners.
Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously - occasionally shouting and also
occasionally waving - many forced to be here, many just aggressive -
shooting into the houses as we wander away…There is a great deal of
concern here about the "reoccupation of Gaza". Gaza is reoccupied every
day to various extents but I think the fear is that the tanks will enter
all the streets and remain here instead of entering some of the streets
and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and shoot from
the edges of the communities. If people aren't already thinking about
the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I
hope you will start."[1]
It was the events of THAT DAY we call
9/11 topped off by President Bush's advice a few days later to we the
people that we should all go shopping if we wanted to help, that drove
my curiosity to learn "about the consequences" of USA foreign policy in
the Middle East.
Being a Christian, I also was driven by the need
to forgive, love and do good to my 'enemies' that led me to connect
with the interfaith non-profit OTFFP/Olive Trees Foundation for Peace
during the summer of 2003.
I connected with the OTFFP after
reading two oped's published in the Orlando Sentinel written by the
Palestinian Muslim and American Jewish Co-Founders of the OTFFP
regarding the need for open dialogue that recognizes, respects and
empathizes with the pain of the other; for when that happens, anyone of
good will, will be moved by compassion to do something to alleviate the
pain of the other.
The OTFFP organization united American and
Israeli Jews, Christians and Muslims after THAT DAY we call 9/11 to
literally extend the olive branch of peace to all the cousins in Father
Abraham's family in Israel Palestine by providing the funds to purchase
fruit bearing trees on both sides of The Wall. So far, 30,000 have been
rooted.
After a few phone calls and emails to the OTFFP
organization, I committed to attend a Sunday afternoon OTFFP meeting in
south Orlando following the final third of my first year of weekend
retreats for students in a two year formation program for Spiritual
Director's.
During 2002-2003, I participated in a central
Florida, Episcopal-Methodist Formation Program for SD/Spiritual
Director's/SD's. SD's are not counselors or therapists, but are centered
and prayerful people who have learned to listen with their hearts to
any other speaking of their struggles with God.
I knew going into
the program that I would NOT be hanging out a shingle as an SD, I was
drawn to be there for the curriculum; studying the saints and various
ways of prayer. That is also when I began to write creative spiritual
literature.
But on a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2003,
after concluding my final weekend retreat I attended my first OTFFP
meeting and my life was irrevocably changed; and it began that morning
during a guided meditation.
The workshop leader instructed my
class to close our eyes and breathe deep and slow as she invited us to
enter into a long corridor with many closed doors; and then, she went
silent. Immediately, I imagined myself skipping, jumping, dancing and
running past miles of closed doors as I headed to the end of that long
corridor. I was aware of, but not interested in any of the closed doors
on my right and left. I headed straight ahead although it was a while
before I saw the enormous cathedral sized double doors at the very end
of the hallway. As I approached the wooden doors they slowly opened into
the inner space and I could see trees and mountains. After crossing the
threshold, I realized I stood upon a mountain top and I could see for
miles. There were people of every color and creed, in diverse dress and
all were at rest and in peaceful harmony under those trees.
When
the workshop leader interrupted my reverie, I did not want to leave that
mountain top. I also had no clue if I had a glimpse of heaven or a
possibility for this world, but as I was on my way to meet some of the
Olive Trees for Peace people I thought that had something to do with my
imaginative meditation.
I was the first to arrive at Dr. Diab's
home for the meeting, and on that Sunday I was the only Christian in a
room filled with American Jews and Palestinian Muslims.
I was in
awe of all of them as I prayed, "Jesus Christ! Will you look at all
these Muslims and Jews doing exactly what you commanded your followers
must do; forgive, love and bless ones enemies. Imagine when all we
Christians do it too!"
It was that fateful day that led me to
travel two hours every Tuesday afternoon for many months in order to
listen and write down Dr. Diab's memoirs, with the intention that it
would be for his grandchildren.
But being an Irish story teller,
American dissident and spiritual creative, I had no control over the six
fictional characters that welled up within me and who began to converse
with Dr. Diab during the days that followed our Tuesday meetings. Not
until I completed, KEEP HOPE ALIVE did I even realize that my 'imaginary friends' also represented six different ways to intuit, love and serve God.
KEEP HOPE ALIVE
is also an historical fiction based on the memoirs of a 1948
Palestinian Muslim refugee who became an American citizen with Top
Secret Clearance during the Cold War and founded the non-profit
interfaith Olive Trees Foundation for Peace as a positive response to
THAT DAY we call 9/11.
Because of my connection to the OTFFP, I
journeyed the first time to occupied territory in June 2005. I wrote
down everything I experienced, felt in my gut and wondered about. I went
places I had never imagined existed and I did things I never thought I
would or could; such as leaving Ramallah for Jerusalem late at night
with a driver I did not know and who only spoke Arabic.
On that
morning, I rode along with Dr. Diab and his driver to Ramallah from
Jerusalem, and witnessed the Wall in full frontal, brutal view. On my
left was a thirty foot high wall of concrete; on my right, only rows of
bankrupt businesses.
"Financed
with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the Israeli wall
prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency medical
services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive
groves which have been their families' sole livelihood for
generations." [Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Page 43, Jan/Feb. 2007]
Dr. Diab and I had an appointment at the Palestinian Authority’s compound, where Arafat is now buried.
We
met with Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to President Abbas who informed
us, “We have lost more than 1.1 million fruit-bearing trees in
Palestinian territories. Trees are about food, the environment, and
life. Ancient trees have been demolished by tanks, and we thank the
Olive Trees Foundation for Peace for addressing the need to replace them
and rebuild the faith of our people. Palestine has always been tolerant
to people of all religions. The Jews came here out of Spain along with
many Arabs — and then came Zionism. When one wants to take over another,
war happens. President Abbas is a very bad politician; he does not lie!
He is ready to move on from the past. We have quit crying over our
losses; we must move on. Live and let live is the motto of this
administration. We can not carry on a battle; it must stop. Peace can
only happen with peace, not force. President Abbas has promised, ‘We
will do whatever it takes to show the world we want peace.’ We need
America to help us. The best thing would be for Americans to come and
see the truth of the situation for themselves. I encourage Americans to
come and see the Wall; it has nothing to do with security, but
everything to do with grabbing water and more land. When Americans
understand the real situation, things will change for the better. The
humiliation at the checkpoints is beyond belief. It can drive anyone to
desperation. We condemn all terrorism, but resisting occupation is
necessary.”
After that meeting, Dr. Diab set off for his home
village in the Galilee and I explored Ramallah with a friend who was
born and lives there. Just before midnight, my friend walked me through
the checkpoint to where the cabs waited. I cringed when I saw the
watchtower’s small window lit up, and I considered how easy it would be
to be shot at and never see it coming. The ground was rocky, uneven, and
littered with debris and the only light was from the moon.
My
friend bargained with a cabbie in Arabic and I marveled that I, who even
hated to fly before 9/11, with absolutely no sense of direction at all,
who only speaks and understands English, was traveling alone through
occupied territory without any fear at all.
After two weeks of
traveling through Israel Palestine with ten other Americans connected
with the OTFFP, I remained alone in Jerusalem for the following three
days and once again, my life was irrevocably changed.
On the
third Tuesday in June of 2005-the first day of summer and six days
before I returned to the USA- and after an excruciatingly painful day in
Hebron, I crossed paths with Vanunu for the first time.
A Little History:
In
April 2005, two months before my first trip to Jerusalem, I turned the
TV on that had last been tuned onto the History channel. They were
broadcasting a show called, "Sexpionage" all about Russian female spies
and one from the Mossad.
The very first clip that ran before my
eyes was of Vanunu being transported to his closed door trial depicting
his inspired move to write upon his palm: "HIJACKED" and the Rome flight
number he had been on. That was followed by a clip of Shimon Perez in
1986 stating that Israel would never be the first in the Mid East to
possess nuclear weapons.
Then, a black and white photo of a
bearded, unkempt and disheveled Vanunu filled the TV screen and I
thought his eyes looked just like George's of Beit Jala's, and again, I
heard in my heart:
"Do Something!"
I
did email Vanunu after that show to thank him for what he had done in
1986 and to let him know that I and nine other Americans would be in his
territory in two months and we would like to take him to dinner or
lunch.
But, just days before that trip, a Palestinian American
warned me not to contact Vanunu as Israel had denied him the right to
speak to not just foreign media but also ordered him to not speak to any
foreigners at all.
I said, "What kind of democracy is that-that tells people who they can and cannot talk with?"
I
didn't contact Vanunu again and only because a friend from Ramallah
happened to be in Jerusalem on that third Tuesday in June 2005 which was
the first day of summer, and phoned to invite me out to dinner the
moment I stepped out of the shower after Hebron, did I venture out
again.
I had no hunger for food after my day in Hebron but as we
walked towards the Old City and neared St. Georges Cathedral where
Vanunu had been living, I asked my friend if he knew about Vanunu. He
recalled hearing about Vanunu's release from prison in 2004, but he did
not know Vanunu was a Christian who had grown up in an Orthodox Jewish
home but rejected the faith at 14 years old.
As we entered the
courtyard, Vanunu was on his way out to a meeting and with a few minutes
difference, we would have missed him completely.
Instead, I
was startled by his physical presence, for I had imagined Vanunu to be
dark eyed and much taller than I at 5'4". Vanunu is not much taller or
heavier than I, but what knocked me for a loop was how the sun on the
first day of summer illuminated his eyes to a light green-blue that
immediately reminded me of the eyes of an old woman I met in 1998, who
irrevocably changed my life.
Her name was Bernice and I crossed
paths with her for the first time just a few weeks after I began
visiting someone at a local nursing home. As I walked down the hallway,
Bernice called out, "Help me. Help me."
I had been a registered
nurse for twenty-five years and when ever I hear someone ask for help, I
am compelled to do something, or at least try. All Bernice wanted was
for me to change her position, for she was completely paralyzed. From a
distance I thought her eyes were dark, but as I approached her, I was
startled at how light green-blue they were. That day was the beginning
of my now ten year nursing home ministry, and although I have no clue
what color Jesus' eyes may have been, in that moment, I
sensed/experienced the presence of The Other; that mystery we call God,
for lack of a better word.
Crossing paths with Bernice was the
first time I had known a visceral, intuitive experience of the presence
of God within another.
It happened for the second time in the courtyard
of St. George's Cathedral in 2005, during the chance crossing of paths
with Vanunu, who inspired me to do something I had not yet imagined I
would or could.
During our third meeting, while Vanunu was
telling me about growing up in Marrakesh, Morocco he asked me if I had
ever seen the "Dorothy Day" movie, "The Man who Knew Too Much" for the
beginning scenes were shot where he grew up.
He meant to say
Doris Day, but in that moment I realized my childhood dream of being
Brenda Starr had matured, for Vanunu's slip of the tongue was the
catalyst for me to begin to imagine following in the footsteps of
Dorothy Day, the 20th century socialist muckraker who became a Christian
and a voice for the voiceless in her newspaper "The Catholic Worker"
which persists today.
Dorothy Day understood that, "Love
is not the starving of whole populations. Love is not the bombardment
of open cities. Love is not killing......Our manifesto is the Sermon on
the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers."
During
my travels through occupied Palestine and after listening with my heart
to the people who shared their stories with me, I asked everyone, "How
can I help? What can I do to try to be a peacemaker?"
Everyone responded, "Tell our stories."
Dorothy
Day and Rachel Corrie told the stories of the oppressed. They both are
dead, but as long as I can do something and have breath, I too will tell
the stories I heard and try to be a peacemaker by seeking justice;
equal human rights for all, and I will always persist to hope for the
best.
Rev. Theodore Hessburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, spoke those words at the end of my first 16 Days in Israel Palestine in 2005.
In pursuit of that goal, I founded my website WeAreWideAwake.org three weeks after that first of seven trips to the Holy Land and on 7 January 2012, I founded Eileen Fleming for US HOUSE of Representatives
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
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