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http://snipurl.com/niks Posted on Sun, Mar. 12, 2006 Duluth News Tribune Duluth peacemaker recalls lost Iraq colleague Commentary by MICHELE NAAR-OBED The official word of my beloved Christian Peacemaker Teams colleague, Tom Fox, was made public Friday. Tom's body was found along the road to the Baghdad airport. They were able to confirm his identity by his fingerprints. He had been held captive in Iraq for more than 100 days. I met Tom in August 2004 at a protest against the ELF Navy communication base at Clam Lake, Wis., as he was undergoing training to become a full-time CPT worker. I saw him again in Chicago last summer while I was doing my training. A Quaker from Clearbrook, Va., he was the father of two grown children and an accomplished musician. He was also a great cook who could put together a wonderful meal from a mish-mosh of donated vegetables. He had already spent much of the last year in Iraq and went back in early September. Tom was not unprepared for the event of being abducted. He had done quite a bit of reflecting and praying about it, writing in his blog in October 2004: "It seems easier somehow to confront anger within my heart than it is to confront fear. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right then I am not to give in to either. I am to stand firm against the kidnapper as I am to stand firm against the soldier. Does that mean I walk into a raging battle to confront the soldiers? Does that mean I walk the streets of Baghdad with a sign saying 'American for the Taking'? No to both counts. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right, then I am asked to risk my life and if I lose it to be as forgiving as they were when murdered by the forces of Satan. I struggle to stand firm but I'm willing to keep working at it." That is the way I remember Tom, who was an extremely reflective person with an extraordinary power to visualize and teach others to do so, helping us to imagine ways out of difficult situations. Three other CPT colleagues, Harmeet Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember, are still missing. We pray earnestly for their safe release. We pray that the hearts and minds of those holding them will be softened and that our friends will be returned to their families and communities. We pray that our own hearts will not be hardened by this tragedy and that we are able to put any feelings of anger or animosity to rest. I returned from Iraq on March 8. For two months I worked with the team in Baghdad. Our work there seems endless and much of it feels beyond human ability. The situation in Iraq is dire and the collapse of a country, if it comes to that, will have effects on us all. Our work has often felt like we were putting our fingers in the holes of dikes that are overflowing, not with water, but with blood. There has been way too much blood shed in Iraq. Now the blood of Tom is added to that river. We know what it is like to lose a loved one to the insanity of war. Just like the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families and the thousands of families of U.S. and Multi-National Force soldiers, we know what it feels like to grieve. Early Saturday morning, I was startled by the explosion of car bombs, the sight of black smoke rising and the sound of guns. This time it was just a dream. However, somewhere in Iraq at that very moment, those sights and sounds were real. We call for healing, rebuilding and repairing, not just of physical properties, but of relationship, trust, human dignity and human rights for all people. CPT still has team members in Iraq working against all odds to be a part of that healing. I've met MNF soldiers in Iraq who want desperately to be part of that healing and know in their hearts that it can't be done with guns and bombs. They feel trapped by orders from a psychotic leadership, but they work the best they can to extend their hands in goodwill. Then there are the thousands of Iraqis who are laying down their lives and working with a fervor to heal, rebuild and repair their fractured and tattered country. Their work is valiant and this groundswell of good and decent people has not been trampled down yet. I've had the privilege of working with some of them. Right now, it's hard to think of going on, but go on we will. We have to. As Tom wrote, if Jesus and Gandhi are right, we don't have a choice. MICHELE NAAR-OBED of Duluth has served on four delegations of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq since 2002. _____________________________ Note: This message comes from the peace-justice-news e-mail mailing list of articles and commentaries about peace and social justice issues, activism, etc. If you do not regularly receive mailings from this list or have received this message as a forward from someone else and would like to be added to the list, send a blank e-mail with the subject "subscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or you can visit: http://lists.enabled.com/mailman/listinfo/peace-justice-news Go to that same web address to view the list's archives or to unsubscribe. E-mail accounts that become full, inactive or out of order for more than a few days will become disabled or deleted from this list. FAIR USE NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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