PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Father of 9/11 victim speaks out against war in Pittsburgh
by Andy Mulkerin Sunday, Sep. 01, 2002 at 1:28 PM

Derrill Bodley, whose daughter was killed in the crash of Flight 93 on September 11, spoke out against the "War on Terrorism" in Pittsburgh as a part of the ISR Anti-War speaking tour.

Advocates of peace convened in the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh on March 27 to discuss the "War Against Terrorism" and to hear the views of some prominent activists in the International Socialist Review's Anti-War Speaking Tour.

The Pittsburgh leg of the tour featured Dennis Brutus, a professor emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and former poet laureate of South Africa; Derrill Bodley, whose daughter perished in the crash of Flight 93 on September 11; and Katherine Dwyer, a member of the International Socialist Review's editorial board. It was sponsored by the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Socialist Organization.

Brutus spoke first, urging the crowd of about 80 people to "change the currency of our way of life." He pointed out the evil coming from the military-industrial complex, and now the military-academic complex, alluding to a small rally he had attended earlier in the day at Carnegie Mellon University.

Derrill Bodley, a professor of music at the University of the Pacific in Sacramento, spoke next. He opened with the story of his visit the day before to the site of the crash of Flight 93. He related how when he arrived in Shanksville at the site he found a bronze plaque with the names of all the crash victims engraved in it. He found the name of his 20-year-old daughter, Deora. "I touched it over and over," he said, "it was like talking to her." Then he saw the cardboard cutouts of angels that had been placed at the site by schoolchildren from nearby Farmington, who formed an organization called "Kids for Peace."

He also discussed a piece of music that he had written immediately after the crash, which he felt represented a direct connection between himself and his daughter.

Bodley said that he realizes that at this point in history we cannot change the things that have already happened. What we can do is get rid of the causes of such horrible things as happened last September.
He attributes the rampant violence in the world to three things: a lack of respect and love for all human, a lack of peacefulness within each person, and a lack of sharing between people.

Bodley then went on to discuss the trip he made to Afghanistan last January. He went as part of a group called Global Exchange, which allows people from more privileged nations to witness firsthand the devastation in places where war has torn the area apart- in this case, Afghanistan in the midst of the "War on Terrorism."

Bodley noted what struck him most about the trip- the way he was made witness to the “grinding poverty” that contrasts the “egregious wealth” of the United States. He noted the interest that the commercial media, along with the arms industry, has in war, and complained of a world in which the gap between the rich and poor only grows wider.

When asked what his daughter would say about the strikes that have been made on Afghanistan in retaliation for the terrorist attacks in September, Bodley said that the following, which she was found to have written in her diary, sums up what he believes her philoshophy would be: "People ask who. People ask what. People ask where. People ask when. People ask why. I ask peace."

Katherine Dwyer, a contributing editor for the International Socialist Review, spoke last, speaking out against the warmongering policies of President Bush and mentioning the recent changes to nuclear policy that were leaked to the press earlier in March.

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