QUILCENE — Activist Kit Kittredge expected to face obstacles on her sixth trip to Gaza, but she didn’t anticipate getting a front-row seat to a news event that drew worldwide attention.
Last week, Kittredge found herself in Cairo in the middle of the uprising that is demanding the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from office.
Kittredge characterized the events she witnessed as “a little bit of history.”
“The people in Egypt were repressed for years, and free speech was kept to a minimum,” she said.
“It was an amazing thing because the people were rising up and saying ‘no more’ to the lack of freedom and justice.”
Kittredge, 53, has traveled to Gaza five times in order to bring aid to the population while focusing attention on what she believes to be Israel’s mistreatment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.
She travels under the auspices of Code Pink, a woman-oriented peace advocacy group.
To reach Gaza, she flies to Cairo and travels five hours by land, always aware she might not be allowed across the border.
On Jan. 31, she attempted to cross, but the border was closed, and she returned to Cairo.
At that point, Kittredge said, the Egyptian capital was just like a movie.
“Normally, the streets of Cairo are full of people and cars,” she said.
“But now, all you can see are the people across six lanes of road and no cars at all; it was intense and surreal.”
Kittredge uses the same word to describe the difference between Cairo, where she was Feb. 3, and Quilcene, where she arrived the next day.
“It was surreal to go from this enormous city with millions of people who are in a revolution to a place where you can look at the mountains and across the bay where there is peace everywhere,” she said.
“I don’t think you could find more opposite environments.”
Kittredge said people in the streets of Cairo were aware that the eyes of the world were upon them.
“We had access to both CNN and Al Jazeera, and both were reporting the situation accurately,” she said.
While the turmoil in Egypt doesn’t disrupt life on the Northern Olympic Peninsula, Kittredge thinks it has an effect.
“Our economy is suffering from the impact of these poor decisions,” she said.
“Programs are being cut, and there is no money to pay for health care and education, but we still continue to support the military-industrial complex when the money is needed elsewhere.”
________
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
