Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In the spring of 2004, human rights activist Kathy Kelly, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was sent to Pekin Federal Prison for leading a protest at the School of the Americas. While in prison, Kelly's organization, Voices in the Wilderness, was targeted by a US State Department lawsuit charging that Kelly violated US-imposed sanctions when she took humanitarian aid to Iraq during numerous visits over the last five years.
In this fiercely eloquent book, Kelly recounts such trips to Iraq, tells the largely unknown story of the School of the Americas and describes daily life inside a federal prison, where America's poor are warehoused. Like Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Kelly's powerful narrative gives voice to the unheard millions suffering at home and abroad.
"Activists have always battled the odds... It's a long haul. It's step by step. As Mahalia Jackson sang out, 'We're on our way'-not to Canaan Land, perhaps, but to the world as a better place than it was before. It's what Kathy Kelly and her Voices in the Wilderness project is all about. She is a direct descendant of Dorothy Day, who when asked why she was making so much trouble for the authorities answered simply, "I'm working toward a world in which it would be easier for people to behave decently." - Studs Terkel, author, Hope Dies Last
"Other Lands Have Dreams provides insight into the heart and mind of an extraordinary woman - known as ‘Missiles' in a U.S. Federal prison and recognized as an American friend in the slums of Baghdad and Basra. Kathy Kelly shows her love of others and her commitment to nonviolence by standing courageously with the ordinary yet threatened people of America, Haiti and Iraq.
"She shows U.S. foreign policy to be what it is - ugly, violent, tragic and intrusive. She undermines this violence by her quiet inner peace and with her own presence in American prisons, in Haitian squalor and in Iraqi slums.
"She shares with readers the perception of a small Iraqi boy who unwittingly speaking for much of the world - after the events of 9/11 - said he was feeling badly about the attack, but thought that Americans did not understand what happens to other people when they are hit by American bombs.
"Ms. Kelly has a unique way of educating us by having us understand, almost experience, the pain of others better. She has us look at ourselves, feel wanting, yet encouraged to do better and follow her relentless and non-violent lead." - Dennis Halliday, former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator to Iraq
"On reading these accounts of death and cruelty, we might well lose hope, but we are saved by the other stories, often less told, which Kathy records in her book. Stories of the courage and reslilience of the ordinary Iraqi men, women and children, who continue to maintain their human dignity and in spite of everything, yes, even in the midst of war, show kindness and hospitality to the strangers in their midst.
"These stories of Kathy Kelly's life and work, touch our soul and renew our hope and belief in humanity. They inspire and challenge us to work for justice." - Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1976
Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison
Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison,Kathy Kelly,AK Press,1904859283,Biography,General,History,History: American,Pacifists,Political Advocacy,Political prisoners,Politics / Current Events,United States,United States - 20th Century,Women political activists,History / United States / 20th Century
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