Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison

At a moment when so many despairing peace activists have thrown in the towel, Kathy Kelly, a witness to some of history's worst crimes, never relinquishes hope. Other Lands Have Dreams is literary testimony of the highest order, vividly recording the secret casualties of our era, from the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children inhumanely denied basic medical care, clean water and food by the US overlords to young mothers sealed inside the sterile dungeons of American prisons in the name of the merciless war on drugs. In the spring of 2004, human rights activist Kathy Kelly, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was sent to Pekin Federal Prison for leading a protest at the School of the Americas. While in prison, Kelly's organization, Voices in the Wilderness, was targeted by a U.S. State Department lawsuit charging that Kelly violated U.S.-imposed sanctions when she took humanitarian aid to Iraq during numerous visits over the last 5 years. In this fiercely eloquent book, Kelly recounts such trips to Iraq, tells the largely unknown story of the School of the Americas, and describes daily life inside a federal prison, where America's poor are warehoused. Like Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Kelly's powerful narrative gives voice to the unheard millions suffering at home and abroad. Written by a human rights activist, this extraordinary narrative gives voice to the cries of people afflicted by military and economic warfare.