 | COOKING for
PEACE Cultivating Community, Reaping Revolution Preface Page 1 Rebel Mouse pried open a crack in the metal fence that surrounded an old brick mansion central Belgrad. I followed him down a garden path, over piles of bricks to a skeleton of a stairway and up to the top floor. After stumbling around in the dark Rebel Mouse suggested in enter one of the doors. Five young Food Not Bombs volunteers were sitting on three water soaked mattresses in the only warm room of the building they called Rebel House. They warmed their hands over an electric heater. A dim yellow bulb lit our conversation which quickly turned to war. It started with their interest in the movie "Bowling for Columbine." "Was Michael Moore's movie true? Do Americans have guns?" I had just finished Moore's latest book "Hey Dud Wheres My Country" and reported he was supporting Wesley Clark for President. Emma was seventeen with natural red hair, dedicated to Food Not Bombs when she wasn't busy with her courses in medicine. "Wesley Clark for President? You must be kidding? Wesley Clark destroyed our country!" Emma could't contain herself. "I went to stay at my mother''s apartment the first night of the war. She lives on the tenth floor. We sat nervously watching the war start on TV. My mother started to rock back and forth in her chair. I never saw her like this. As images of jets and missiles cross the television screen she rocked faster and faster. Sirens were blaring outside. Then suddenly the apartment building rocked. The reporter announced that cruise missiles had destroyed a radio tower in the outskirts of Belgrade. Then an explosion and everything went dark. My mother screamed that we had to get to the basement. I took her hand and lead her down the stairs feeling the wall with my other hand. Other residents were also stumbling down the stairs. A few minutes after we arrived in the basement, there was another explosion and screams at the door. Some one opened the door and my uncle fell into the room covered in blood. Shards of glass sticking out of his face." Emma was also working as an intern at a hospital. "There are over 700 children in our hospital. The depleted uranium dropped on Serbia caused these children to be born with out arms, legs, eyes - one child has an arm growing out of the top of his head." They shared story after story about surviving the war, watching cruise missiles lumber slowly above the streets of Belgrade until they found their target. Everyone lost friends and family. Then I asked to use their toilet. "We use the crater in the room across the hall. Watch out that you don't fall in." Their toilet was made by a misfired cruise missile that crashed through the roof and failed to explode. |
