OLYMPIA, Wash. — At 23, Rachel Corrie was the kind of person many people dream of becoming someday: passionate, creative, giving, courageous to the point of risking her life for a just cause. One-on-one, friends say, she was as soft as a petal.
Which makes the circumstances of her death -- crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer on Sunday -- all the more brutal for the stunned circle of family and friends she leaves behind in this liberal patch of woods known as Washington's capital.
Although her supporters stop short of calling her a martyr, some said her death will only fuel the peace movement at a time when war with Iraq looms.
Corrie was outside the town of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, acting the part of a human shield. She stood in the way of a bulldozer that was about to wreck a Palestinian home. Depending on whose version you believe, the bulldozer was either digging out bombs (Israel's version) or razing neighborhoods for a new wall that Israel wants to build (the Palestinian version).
Corrie and other peace activists from a group called the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led group, believed that the bulldozer would stop.
Just as military vehicles did in Manila when, during the 1986 "people's revolution," nuns handed out flowers to the machine-gunners. Just as the column of tanks did in Tiananmen Square in 1989, when a lone man, broadcast worldwide on television, stood in the path and brought the war machines to a standstill.
On Sunday, the armored, super-sized bulldozer, called a D-9, did not stop. It inched forward, lurched and caused the ground to give way, causing Corrie to fall into the path and underneath the vehicle. The bulldozer, witnesses said, moved forward and then backward over Corrie's body. Her head and chest were crushed.
The Israeli military called it "a regrettable accident," but blamed the activists for behaving recklessly in a dangerous zone. The U.S. government has asked for an investigation.
Fellow activists in the hundreds gathered for a candlelight vigil Sunday night, and again Monday afternoon at a downtown park to honor their fallen colleague, and to rally the community to continue the work that Corrie died for.
"Rachel was filled with love and a sense of duty to her fellow man," said her parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie, in a statement. "She gave her life trying to protect those that are unable to protect themselves."
