Faith Fippinger-Human Shield Sentenced!
Posted: 2/15/2004 5:46:27 PMAuthor: Zalala
It was quite an honor to be able to speak with Faith Fippinger, the Human Shield last week about her sentencing to 3 months in a federal prison for performing humanitarian aid to the Iraqis at the beginning of the war. Faith’s voice is sweet, kind, very much the voice of a teacher and inflected throughout with the emotion of what she has seen and what has happened to her since her sojourn to Iraq. I cried with her when I told her to feel free to shed a tear or two and that many others and I were crying with her.
I asked her how she felt at becoming the media darling of the so-called liberal and progressive left. She feels very humbled by being compared to other great peacemakers. It is a situation that she does not feel comfortable with...she is not what she calls a public speaker and does not feel that she excels at writing, so she feels at times like she was thrown into this position. She did not think that she would ever receive recognition for anything she had ever done previously either, to include teaching the blind, being an active voice against the School of the Americas and other political actions that she has had a part in. She did envision playing tennis, reading and gardening during the sunset years of her life. Instead, by being a concerned citizen, she has become an impressive and loud but humble voice for change!
There is an old media image about strong women, "You've come a long way, baby!" from an old cigarette ad, and I told her that this truly describes women like her, who are brave and will not back down while facing so much adversity. She did not see herself as a liberated woman, so to speak, but one who wants to be a voice for change. She encourages others who are in situations similar to the one she is in to keep doing what they are doing, to rise up. “Never back down! Never deny who you are!” she stated emphatically.
What were her impressions in the courtroom? That the sentences for all who were guilty of what she had done—as she was sentenced with others were previously set and nothing that she or her attorney could have done would have changed the outcome. She remembered that there was a quote on the wall in the courtroom by Jimmy Carter about justice, but she could not remember the quote. She did note that it seemed eerily out of place with what was really happening there in the courtroom. One of those being tried with her lost his mother in a car accident and his father had survived the same accident. This had occurred during the proceedings and he still received 3 months of incarceration. Faith was sure that the decisions about the sentencing were all set before any of them had even walked into the courtroom. She considers herself fortunate to have a very small sentence in light of the possibilities of how long the sentence could have been and how much she could have been fined.
Her family and friends are wonderful and continue to support her and what she is doing and her faith sustains her. She is a Buddhist. She takes solace in knowing that there are others who do the same things as she does. She keeps in touch with a whole network of people from all over, SOA people and others. She listens to music and meditates for stress relief. She does not think that she suffers from any stress related illnesses at this time. But she does cry all the time for those that are suffering or being killed in the war zone. She wonders about the specific people that she met in the hospitals in Iraq; about the man who had lost his whole family and the woman who could not hold her baby because her arms had been blown off.
I asked Faith how she will spend her time while incarcerated as a political prisoner here in her own country? She said she would go outward and inward, write, and spend time with different people from a whole different system of disenfranchisement and oppression. She is aware that many of the people that she will be incarcerated with are black and poor and she is white and grew up privileged and that there are many lessons to be learned from that. She will take the opportunity as a time to do well and to help others and to spread the word about peace and love.
Faith does not let a lot of negative enter in her world and that is a good thing for her. She is not connected to the Internet right now and uses her brother’s computer when she needs to be updated or check out certain websites. She does not watch TV, but she listens to radio programs and community radio, WMNF-FM and reads the newspapers. She is aware of the propaganda in the mainstream media and works at discerning what is truth and what is false.
Faith has been asked to write about her experiences but does not feel comfortable doing that at this time. She has left her options open, but takes each day as it comes and feels that the decision-making needs to be done after her time of incarceration is served.
I told her that for a woman who does not get on the Internet very much, there sure were countless pages, websites, blogs and a tribute site made for her that I was able to get by just putting her name into a search. She laughed at that and seemed quite surprised. I described her tribute site to her, the painting on the main page, the colors, etc., and gave her the URL so she could look it up. Then I read the poem on the main page of the site to her, the one by Helen Keller. She cried and I did too! We can only aspire to how this soft spoken and dedicated woman looks at life!
Bless you, Faith!
“Doubt sees the obstacles, Faith sees the way,
Doubt sees the darkness, Faith sees the day!
Doubt dreads to take a step, Faith soars on high,
Doubt asks, “Who believes? Faith answers, “I””
http://www.faithinamerica.org/
http://www.faithinamerica.org/main.html
posted by Zalala @ 2/24/2004 10:05:00 PM
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