Santa Barbara News-Press
Santa Barbara, California
"I'm mainly interested in reaching out to the
people who are just frustrated (with the crisis),
but haven't found a way to solve it."
--- David Crockett Williams, Peace Promoter
Thursday, November 22, 1990
Isla Vista peace activist plans Iraq trip
By Chris Malcolm
News-Press Staff Writer
There is a small island in the Tigris River just off the
coast of Iraq where David Crockett Williams believes
peace will thrive.
"But there are certainly some things to be done
before that's achieved," said Williams, a 45-year-old
resident of Isla Vista.
Williams wants to go to Iraq.
Plans to organize 100 people, including Native American
Indian chiefs and peace activists, for a trip to the island
are under way. The local group would stay at a peace
camp that was set up on the island several weeks ago
in response to the growing tensions between the
United States and Iraq.
The main focus of Williams' mission, dubbed
"Operation Burning Bush," is to promote the non-violent
teachings of the Indians. Mohawk Chief Jake Swamp,
who planted a tree of peace on the UCSB campus
five years ago, has already said he would go. The
mission would include planting a similar tree in Iraq
as well as carrying a Peace Flame from Santa Barbara to Baghdad.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been invited to meet
the group and Williams said plans have been made
to meet with Iraq officials. The mission will also
include a tentative address to the United Nations
General Assembly by Chief Swamp. After the address,
the group would fly to Iraq.
The trip is far from fantasy, Williams said.
"I'm mainly interested in reaching out to the
people who are just frustrated (with the crisis),
but haven't found a way to solve it," Williams said
Wednesday after meeting with several interested
student groups on the UCSB campus. Several area
peace groups and six campus groups, including the
Associated Students Lobby Office, have endorsed
the mission.
So far 12 people, not including Chief Swamp and
nine other native Americans, have told Williams
they will go.
Williams spent three days in October speaking to
officials from the Iraqi Embassy in Washington,
D.C. and said they were "interested in any overture
of peace." Plans to transport the mission on an Iraqi
Airliner are also under way. The problems begin there.
Williams and his friend Lawrence Karol are seeking
funding to take the activists and gear from Santa Barbara
to New York. The two are unsure how much that leg of
the journey will cost, although Operation Real Security,
an Arizona-based peace group, has said it might help
fund the trip.
The drive behind the entire mission is the peaceful
teachings of Native Americans who stress non-violence
and cooperation. Operation Burning Bush also includes
a four day walk from Baghdad to Babylon where the
Indians would teach their non-violent beliefs to others.
Another problem is the credibility of the mission,
which Williams admits seems far-fetched. Getting
the word to international journalists in the Middle
East who can publicize the island is a key part to
the success of his trip, he said. The mission is
planned to begin by the end of November although
that depends entirely on funding and the public's
response.
"If it looks like a reality," Karol said, "the public gets
behind it. But they don't want to be in a position
where they're left hanging."
---------end of retyped article text
Note that within a few weeks after this when support
was not apparent, Chief Jake Swamp phoned
to withdraw his agreement to go to Iraq then.
Recently he has expressed interest to go to Jerusalem
and conduct the Peace Tree planting ceremony
there and offer the Iroquois teachings from the
Peacemaker about the Great Law of Peace and
the Tree of Peace, pending support for such mission.
http://www.treeofpeacesociety.info