Anonymously slandering the dead is cowardly and completely indefensible. I never thought I would encounter the shameless attacks against Rachel Corrie that I found Wednesday night. The series of flyers from an unidentified group of student proves that honor, self-respect, and common decency have become completely absent in our campus dialogue. It doesn’t matter why they did it. It doesn’t matter if they were trying to deride another group’s events or to undermine a movement: it was wrong.

Walking through Ursa’s, I first noticed a picture of her with the caption “Propaganda courtesy of the International Solidarity Movement.” It was accompanied by a series of similar flyers, each with a small postscript on each flyer, “just something to think about.” My initial confusion faded as I realized the entire series of flyers aimed at defaming Rachel Corrie, the American activist who was run over by a bulldozer last spring.

Like everything involving Israel and Palestine, there are conflicting reports about her death. From my research, I think everyone agrees upon the following. Rachel Corrie was an American student who went to Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to try to improve Palestinians’ lives. While protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home, an Israeli bulldozer crushed her to death. At no point did she attempt to attack the driver or anyone else present. We can debate who owned the house, why it was to be destroyed, what her politics were, whether the driver saw her, etc. For my argument, I will put these points of contention aside and reference only the agreed upon facts.

The flyers displayed pictures of Rachel apparently burning an American flag. Captions include “believe it or not, she just wants peace, (looks that way, no?)”; “this does not equal peace” and “Rachel Corie. International solidarity movement ‘peace’ activist.” The final flyer contrasts a picture of Rachel with an Israeli and a Palestinian each holding their respective flags. Underneath this apparent display of unity, the caption read “which is more effective?” I conclude that the message of the flyers is that Rachel and the ISM support violence and destroy the peace process.

Given the facts above, these characterizations represent baseless slander. She went to Palestine to improve lives and support human rights, choosing peaceful methods over violent ones. Whoever put up these flyers should be ashamed. Perhaps their anonymity resulted from their shame instead of their cowardice-only God knows. But we all know this: Rachel Corrie is not here to defend herself because she is dead. She never did anything to them and she never asked to be famous. If they have issues with the ISM or other organizations, let them criticize the organizations directly, but don’t bring this poor girl into it.

Shouldn’t we respect life and respect the dead? Shouldn’t we value civility? Shouldn’t we strive to understand each other? The picture of the Israeli and Palestinian each waving his own flag “is more effective” as the flyer indicates. Indeed, we must all not just read, but take to heart what Nat wrote last week, “Let us agree to respect life once again. However in order to allow life to become our top priority, blame must fully be put aside.” And yet, the sad souls who created these flyers have sided against life, choosing to continue the cycle of blame by slandering this great American.

As for anonymity, please do not tell me who did this because I do not want to know. I prefer not to imagine that the people with whom I eat, study, and live have so little respect for human life and human dignity. Whoever you are, let me offer some advice. First, apologize to the family of Rachel Corrie for dishonoring their daughter in a bid for political advantage. Next, I implore you, and all of us, to pray. Pray for an end to the conflict and ask that God forgive us for the excessive actions we have taken, myself included, that have wronged our fellow human being, our souls, and our Creator.

Whatever Rachel may have said, whatever her politics, one thing is unmistakably clear: when it really counted, when her life was in danger, as she was about to be killed, she remained non-violent. You may call Rachel Corrie a hypocrite, you may call her a violent radical, but I call her a martyr. May God bless her and guide us all through these dark times.

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