[CIMC-work] Re: [Imc-chicago] story idea for center panel - Brian Avery - CORRECTIONS

[david meyers]

A few corrections!

Photo number two, is most likely a photo of Brian in the West Bank,
before he was shot, NOT a photo before he went to Palestine, as
stated in my previous email. 

And I've cleaned up the text of the poem about Brian, which had alot
of formatting glitches in my previous email: 

[poem]
The Face of Brian Avery

On April 5th, 2003, Brian Avery's life changed forever.
An Israeli sniper fired his machine gun through Brian's face
And pulverized it beyond recognition.
The Apartheid Wall, the Roadmap to Peace - I never really understood
it all - 
Till I saw the scars on Brian's face. 
Till I saw the brutality, injustice and hypocrisy of the Occupation -
Quilted into the stitches on his cheeks.
Every line, every ridge -
Is a story of courage, of struggle, of grief beyond description;
And his eyes are pools of hope. 

The lines on our palms may tell our fortune,
But the lines on Brian's face tell the tale of brutal oppression:
This scar on his chin...is the humiliation of a Palestinian man at a
West Bank checkpoint, stripped and searched for hours.
This scar on his forehead... is a pregnant woman who couldn't make it
to the clinic in time.
This one on the left cheek... is the Israeli soldier who couldn't
bear to kill innocent children anymore, so he killed himself.
This one on his temple... is a suicide bomber from Gaza whose
existence was so painful that he blew himself up in a bus filled with
Israelis.
This one on his lip... is a five-year-old Palestinian girl whose home
was demolished by a Caterpillar bulldozer. 
Her father and brother were shot. She hasn't said a word since then. 

On April 5th, 2003, Brian Avery's life changed forever.
He was wearing a fluorescent red vest, with a big white cross on the
front and the back.
He carried no weapon,
He even put his hands up in the air!
The press said it was an 'unfortunate accident.'
But Tom Hurndall is brain dead; Rachel Corrie and James Miller paid
with their lives –
So it was no accident that Brian lay in critical condition in Jenin
Hospital.
We may never understand the trials of those in Palestine,
We may never risk our own lives to take pregnant women to a clinic,
under the watch of snipers and tanks,
But we know in our hearts that the brutal attack on Brian was no
accident. 
 
In the face of an illegal occupation, Brian chose to step in harm's
way:
He protected those who didn't have a choice.
In this scar near the ridge of his nose... is the untold story of a
grateful people 
They have nothing to give him but rivers of tears.
They run their fingers gently down the scars on his face;
They hold him in their arms and rock back-and-forth;
They try to speak but their words choke in their throats -
They love him like a brother.
I know this because it is etched into the most beautiful face
on earth 
I've seen with my own eyes... the face of Brian Avery. 

- Neesha Mirchandani
June 20, 2003