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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison

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Author Kathy Kelly is a peace activist. As a member of Voices in the Wilderness, she and fellow activists traveled to Iraq numerous times to deliver medical supplies. Embargoes against Iraq were in effect during this period, but Kelly felt very strongly that the Iraqi people should not be punished just because they had a rotten leader. So, since 1996, defying U.S. law, and at great personal risk, Kelly made the trips and delivered the medical supplies to Iraqis. She was also in Iraq during the March 2003 invasion.

The stories about Kelly's trips to Iraq are just part of the book "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison." Additional sections in the book are devoted to stories of prisoners she met in Pekin jail, and Kelly's arrest when protesting at the School of the Americas.

I can't say that I agree with all of Kathy Kelly's beliefs, but at the same time, I have to admit that this woman is dedicated. From her teens, Kelly admits she "never wanted to be a spectator," and I don't think anyone could accuse her of that. The book includes a LONG list of arrests for events such as protesting draft registration, planting corn near nuclear missile silos, and posting photos of victims of the Contras on federal buildings, etc. At one point, she was a teacher at a school that enrolled only those students who could prove they couldn't enroll anywhere else. After reading this book, my main sense about Kathy Kelly is that she never gives up.

The book begins with a brief history of the weapons inspections and the subsequent economic sanctions. Kelly then details the trips made to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness, and she relates the hardships faced by the Iraqis under economic sanctions. She notes that the sanctions never caused Saddam to "miss a meal," while U.N officials state that the sanctions "contributed to the excess deaths more than 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of five." During Kelly's trips to Iraq, she met many of the dying, starving children, and a fair amount of the book details this. It doesn't make for easy reading.

A large portion of the book is devoted to Kelly's time in Pekin prison and to the women she met there. There are some valuable details here regarding the Federal Prison Industries (FPI) also known as UNICOR. Kelly explains that at Pekin, the prisoners manufacture armoured plates for military Humvees, and earn somewhere between 23 cents to 1.23 an hour. (The author points out that phone calls to home cost around .25 cents a minute.) Apparently, although prisoners may gain valuable employment experience from working in a UNICOR factory, they are not allowed to list this experience on any future resume. This seems counter productive. Prison is supposed to be a punishment for crimes committed, but are prisons then dumping prisoners back into society with more or less problems than they had when they were incarcerated? Kelly details the cases of some of the female prisoners she met, and again, while I don't agree with all of the author's beliefs, I think she has a point that poverty can cause crime, but the prison system often fails to create conditions for prisoners' rehabilitation.

The book includes an index, an afterword from the publishers, and a brief history of Voices in the Wilderness--displacedhuman

Kathy Kelly, a two-time nominee for the Nobel Peace prize, powerfully documents the horrific effects of US military and economic intervention in the Middle East and Latin America. Like all the CounterPunch titles being published by AK Press, this is a necessary read. Kelly's compassion and commitment to peace and social justice shine through on every page. It's a shame that Kelly has not yet won the Nobel Peace prize, when such right-wing nutcases like Kissinger, Rabin and Mother Teresa have. (To learn more about Mother Teresa, read Christopher Hitchen's wonderful book, "The Missionary Position", written when he was still somewhat of a leftist.) It's a shame too that Kelly, who exemplifies the true gospel message, is relatively unknown outside of the peace movement, unlike Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who instead of preaching peace, preach war, who instead of preaching love, preach homophobia, racism and sexism. (Just look at the connections between evangelical Christians and the Israeli war machine and the efforts of Christian fundamentalists to undermine the Chavez administration in Venezuela!) While I am not myself religious, I nevertheless honor Kelly's courage and solidarity with the poor, as I honor also the thousands of radical nuns and priests who've been tortured and disappeared in Latin America. Like Jesus said, "Blessed be the peacemakers." Anyone interested in 21st century liberation theology, the Catholic Worker movement, and post-1960s' peace and justice activism, look no further. With humility and deep concern for the weakest, poorest, and most oppressed of our sisters and brothers, Kelly speaks like a modern day reincarnation of Dorothy Day.

From Letters from Iraq, 4/15/03, Other Hearts
"We joked that he could direct the telephone exchange as he tinkered with our satellite phone's solar powered battery. I told Majid we has some sheet music and a guitar for him. 'What are notes?' he said, 'We don't even remember.'"...

"'Please, ' Majid said, 'we will give you the instruments, give you the furniture, but don't destroy the music, the records, the history.' 'No, ' the armed men said. 'Baghdad is finished.' They ransacked the school, broke many instruments, burnt the music and the records."....

"'Here,'Hisham said,'listen to this. This is all we have left.' He handed me headphones borrowed from a Norwegian television correspondent. The taped orchestra was playing "O Finlandia". Listening to the children craft their music, I softly sang the words: "This is my song, O God of all the nations. A song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is. Here are my dreams,my hopes, my holy shrine. But other hearts in other lands are beating, with hopes and dreams as deep and true as mine." Then I stopped. Hisham had begun to cry."

(Joan Baez's newest CD begins with this song. It's truly beautiful.)

Kathy Kelly and other members of Voices in the Wilderness are listening to the hopes and dreams of other lands as they stand in witness with the people whose lives have been severely impacted by our country's policies and actions.

Kathy Kelly writes with an easy style without accusations or stridency about inaction to the injustice she has witnessed. She tells her experiences in Iraq and in prison and shares the stories of the people she has met in her journey.

She tells her story and waits for the numbers of the Voices in the Wilderness to grow, and grow.

Kathy Kelly is a true American hero. Not only is she willing to put her life on the line for her ideals, she's also a genuine voice of peace in a time of conflict and war. I think it would be hard for anyone to walk away from this book and not feel empathy for those that have suffered at the hands of US foreign policy. The right-wing doesn't like the Kellys of the world. They'd rather sit back and breath in the smoke of propaganda puffed out by Republican spin machines. But Kelly doesn't inhale. She's articulate and honest. She's hopeful, but realistic. If there were more Americans like Kelly out there, willing to sacrifice it all for a better tomorrow, the United States would not be as hated or despised as it is today. Indeed Kelly truly is the anti-terrorist. Buy this book and take it home.

Kathy Kelly and her fellow volunteers at VitW have shown that pacifism is not passive. With bravery and selflessness, they have shown compassion for all human beings, and worked hard to sound the cry for justice from the poor and the ignored.

I firmly believe that Kelly and the rest of the tireless workers at Voices in the Wilderness deserve recognition for their bravery and dedication.

While politicians waiver to special interest, and mislead the public towards violent and belligerent action, Kelly is a modern-day David bravely confronting Goliath despite the threat of (and actual sentences to) prison time.

One question this book should raises in its reader is: "do I have the guts to stand up for human dignity and justice despite the threat of abuse and imprisonment, and without the machinery of war?".

This book is a good antidote to the mainstream media. This is the American assault on Iraq without the spin, as witnessed by an unembedded American who was there voluntarily, in solidarity with the local people. It is a cry of protest against what Americans are doing to the rest of the world, specifically to Iraq. The sanctions against Iraq were "child abuse" and "child sacrifice." The United Nations is a "battered woman" bullied by the U.S. rogue superpower, the "world's greatest killing machine," which has an "unfortunate addiction" to war making. The suffering the author relates is horrendous, and it is real. Americans need to know about it. This book is important because it exposes ongoing crimes that depend upon secrecy.

From our "abysmally failed foreign policies" she proceeds to our "abysmally failed" prison system, as seen from the inside. She complains of "absurdly long sentences," dehumanizing and cruel treatment, and disrespect for the family ties of inmates. Nonviolent lawbreakers are being scapegoated while lethal crimes in high places are ignored. She asks, are prisons necessary? And suggests alternatives, at least for nonviolent criminals.

Not a comfortable read, but important. Although the sanctions are now history and the focus of American imperialism has shifted from Iraq, this book is by no means out-of-date. Would that it were!

I had heard Ms Kelly speak in public in my town. Afterward I knew that I wanted to have her words to savor. This book is primarily a diary of many experiences worldwide as a dedicated peacemaker. Her word are supremely convincing to me about the direction my feelings should go even if my body can't do it.

The author is supposed to be a human rights activist. But she sure doesn't seem that way to me. This book does make me want to become a human rights activist, however, if only to try to counter some of the damage people like Kathy Kelly are doing.

I think it is a good question to ask if we Americans are behaving properly in Iraq. Especially from the standpoint of human rights. We surely could use some sensible advice. But Kelly is not the one to provide it.

One test I give Kelly is what she says about the Israeli attack on the terrorists in Jenin in April, 2002. Israel went out of its way to use ground troops, incurring more casualties in an effort to reduce the number of civilian casualties. The Israeli doves were successful in convincing Israel to take this approach. And that makes this a true test: if Kelly can't find a way to praise this, she's no supporter of human rights.

Anyway, the author flunks this test completely, writing dishonestly about Jenin and even going so far as to blast America for permitting Israel to defend itself against terrorism. If she's going to cheer for anti-American terrorists and mislead us about what is happening, I think we have little reason to trust her advice.