Mazin Qumsiyeh on the bus.

Boulder, Colorado.

Palestinian Night at Colorado State University

(left) With Maysoon Zayid, the self-described Palestinian Muslim Virgin Comedian from New Jersey. Check out her website and go see her perform if you are able.

(right) With Mona one of the organizers of the event. Mona is from Gaza City and a student at CSU.

Camp Casey, Fort Collins, CO

San Luis Valley

One of the most remarkable places we visited was the San Luis Valley in Colorado. The valley is the size of NJ and gets an average of 6″ of rain a year. One afternoon, Charlie and I walked for a few hours in the valley. The weather changed quickly from warm and sunny, to cool with snow flurries, and back to warm and sunny.

We only passed a few homes and an occasional sign….

We drove from the San Luis Valley west into the Rocky Mountains to get to Paonia. This is Kevin our bus driver and one of the sunniest people I’ve met. He often led Bea and I in songs from the 70′s and 80′s.

Yesterday a reporter from a local paper came to Christina’s house to interview the Wheels group. Charlie may have made more of an impression than the rest of us. “What kind of dog?” she asked while scratching his head. And wrote down my answer. The best kind.

When we went in the bus to take pictures, Charlie climbed into the driver’s seat. The reporter jumped off the bus and began shooting him from the street. “Hey, chould you open the window?” she asked, pointing to the glass beside Charlie’s head, “I’m getting a glare.” This happened once before. We left Charlie in the bus while I gave a presentation at a charter school in Denver. When Bob and I returned to the bus there was a group of kids standing by the front of it, taking pictures. As we got closer we saw Charlie, sittting tall in the driver’s seat, occasionally turning his head as if offering different poses.

Today we are heading to Glenwood Springs . On Friday, back to Denver and the end of the Wheels tour. A day or two of rest and Charlie and I will begin to head back to the east coast.

Kristina took this shot of Charlie and me on the irrigation ditch path. Charlie has a stick in his mouth that he has just subdued.

With Bea (tour manager) and Kevin (bus driver) about to leave Paonia

Paonia is a small town in the middle of the Rockies. Many artists live here.

From my friend Michael Berg of the Carolina Peace Resource Center:

Today, military recruiters have unprecedented access to public schools. The little-known Section 9528 of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 grants the Pentagon access to directories of all public high schools (supplying them with student names, addresses and phone numbers) to facilitate contact for military service recruitment. A student or parent wishing to protect privacy must actively contact the school to opt out and protect their personal information. In some districts, it can be difficult to withhold information specifically from recruiters, yet still allow this information to be used for other purposes that parents and students may approve of, such as honor rolls or school TV shows.

Candy standing with Dennis Apuan at Camp Casey in Colorado Springs.

It’s been a full week of events. My favorites have been high school classes. On Wednesday, the Wheels tour went to a charter school in Denver. After our presentations, a few of the kids in the class made it clear they were planning on enlisting in the military in order to go to college. One wanted to hear from Kelly that they could enlist without being sent into a war zone. Another lives in a rough neighborhood and said he’s likely to get shot there anyhow, so why not take his chances in Iraq and get the benefit of the G.I. bill.

Bob left the bus yesterday. Our new bus driver, Dan, has been to Iraq and Palestine and is more eloquent on the issues than any of us. He has a good sense of humor and often uses it to diffuses combative energy when it enters the dialogue. Candy, a vet from the Gulf war, also came on board yesterday. She mostly gets around in a wheelchair, wears a crew cut and “S-W-E-E-T C-A-N-D-Y” tatoos across her fingers. As she spoke last night to the group in Lyons, she listed a dozen ways her body and mind have “fallen apart” since the war, including intense pain in the muscles and joints of her legs which make it difficult to walk. She attributes many of her ailments to shots she was required to get before heading over to Saudi Arabia, including one that contained anthrax.

Tabling with Bea, Dan, and Candy at Columbia College

Dan

Dahlia (Kelly behind her) speaking to students at PS 1, a charter school in Denver

Students at PS 1 listening to Kelly tell her experiences as a soldier in Iraq

When we arrived at the lounge at Tivoli Auraria campus, where we were giving our presentation, there was only one vertical person. Dahlia is holding up a publication entitled “Sign of the Times.”

With students and teachers from the Best Charter School in Denver

With Bob outside Wheels bus

Writing from the back of the Wheels of Justice bus. The Sabeel conference finished a couple hours ago. My wheels friends went out to dinner and Charlie and I shared a sandwich I had saved from from lunch and then went for a long walk.

The conference had excellent speakers–Phyllis Bennis, Mark Ellis, Jeff Halper, Michael Tarrazi. My workshop was during the final session which worked well. Most of the people who came had had enough analysis and were ready for art and storytelling.

A highlight for me was sitting and talking with Cindy Corrie. Cindy is the mother of Rachel Corrie who was killed in Gaza in 2003, trying to prevent the demolition of the home of a Palestinian family. I met Craig and Cindy Corrie at the Atlanta Sabeel conference last February. Since Rachel’s death they have been tirelessly asking our government for a US-led investigation into her killing. And in March they initiated a lawsuit against the Israel Defence Force and the government of Israel, to seek justice for Rachel and also information. (Unfortunately, the Israeli parliament, counter to international law, has passed retroactive legislation making it impossible for most Palestinians and others to file suit against the IDF for injury that occurred in the occupied territories after September 2000.)

The Corries breathed life into a conference that was heavy on analysis. During lunch Cindy played a video of a press conference Rachel took part in two days before her death, then read some of Rachel’s correspondences from Gaza.

To read a recent article by the Corrie’s go to www.counterpunch.com/corrie10102005.html

With Craig and Cindy Corrie at Sabeel Conference

It’s been a long while since I have been able to sit long enough to put words down. My four days in Columbia, Missouri, were packed with five events each day. Then it was off for a day each in Kansas City, Missouri, and Lawrence, Kansas. What stands out most from these places are the people I met, beginning with Iman Labadia, the main organizer of my events in Columbia. Her energy and organizing skills matches that of my friend Jim Harb in Knoxville, TN. She arranged events at colleges and highschools, a bookstore, a radio station, and a local tv station. Iman is one of those who never looses an opportunity to make a connection and I soon learned anyone she said “I should meet” I really should.

One of these is Ibtisam, a Palestinian poet and writer, around my age, who left Ramallah 15 years ago. She came to the presentation at Missouri University and eloquently expressed the generosity of the Palestinian people and the suffering of peoples everywhere, including that of Palestinians. “The Jews have perhaps been the most persecuted people in history….We, the Palestinians, were ready to share our land. Come, we said, come, this land will be a haven for both of us… But our land has been taken.” She has a book soon to be released about her childhood in Ramallah (details when I have them). And Chronicle will be publishing her first children’s book. We talked about collaborating on another book. It will tell the story of her first good dream, at 25 years of age, of a whale and a zippered pocket in his belly which she climbs into.

And, there is Carol, a woman who was part of a coalition of people who protested my coming to Columbia, and who came to the MU event so she could “see for herself”. Before the event started, she introduced herself and throughout the evening was closely watched me. At the end, she embraced me and the work.

There are longtime peace activists Robin and Paul whose home, The Peace Haven, I stayed in. Paul, who teaches classes on terrorism, made five star breakfasts each morning and Robin sent me off with a care package which included black seed tea and handmade soap from Prague.

There is Paul Sturtz who started a storefront theater in Columbia (www.ragtagfilm.com) and initiated the True/False Documentary film festival (www.ragtagfilm.com/truefalse/home.htm). Paul showed Iman and I samples of animated documentaries created by his students. After just a few minutes of watching, I knew what I am doing next. An animated documentary. Paul gave me a list of tools I will need and offered help in learning to use the equipment.

Paul and Iman at Ragtag Theater

There is Nanette a human rights investigator and community educator who came to three presentations. To one she brought her 11 year old daughter Kai Lee. To another, her friend Rebecca who had recently come back from Israel through Birthright Israel, a program which pays the airfare for Jews who want to visit.

There was a group of students at Hickman High School. Most of them were either from the Muslim Student Association or Amnesty International. “What can we do, now, here?” one asked. We talked and brainstormed creative approaches to education.

And there were shared dinners. I met with members of the Columbia Tikkun group at a vegan restaurant on 9th street. And on two separate evenings broke the Ramadan fast with Muslim families: one Palestinian American; one Iranian.

Group shot after Missouri University event

Presenting at Hickman Highschool

Students from Amnesty International and Muslim Students Association, Hickman Highschool

With Paul and Robin