All seemed normal in the lush countryside and bustling, crammed towns of Ireland on the morning of Aug. 10, 1976. Betty Williams was driving along a winding road to return home after her daily visit at her mother's house for tea.
Without warning, gunshots pierced the morning's silence. Williams, who was passing a mall parking lot, saw a male driver get hit by a bullet while he was driving. His car swerved out of control and hit pedestrians, killing three children.
"The scene is as fresh in my head today as when it happened," said Williams, who would win the Nobel Peace Prize the following year for her grassroots efforts to end violence in Ireland. "I remember thinking that there must be something I can do. I don't know what to do."
Williams left the scene to return home. The next thing she remembers is screaming in her garage.
"I must have been in shock. I don't remember much except screaming. And I remember being angry. That anger has never passed," Williams told a packed audience in McLeod Auditorium Thursday night. The Women's Center and other local and University organizations co-sponsored Williams' appearance at the University.
Williams decided to take action. She went door to door asking her neighbors to sign a petition to end the violence between Protestants and Catholics.
"The women of Ireland had had it up to here. The women didn't have a voice, and the children certainly didn't have a voice," she said.
This seemingly average housewife never had been the leader of a grassroots movement. With a few pages of signatures in hand, Williams had no idea where to take the petition. She didn't want to approach the British government. So she went to the press. "I spoke to the editor that night and told him what I was doing," she said. "He said, 'Are you drunk?' I said, 'No, but I could deal with a brandy right now.' He said, 'Stop the press. We have a new lead."
Williams raised more publicity for her cause by appearing on television and asking women to come to a rally, which would meet where the children were hit by the car. When the press asked her how many people she expected at the rally, she said there wouldn't be more than two people -- herself and her sister. Ten thousand showed up.
Twelve additional rallies were organized, and for each one the number of participants soared from 10,000 at the first rally to a quarter of a million at the last rally.
"There were 300 years of separation between the divided tribes. But together at the rallies, Catholic and Protestant mothers united in their grief for the children who died," she said.
Inspired by the anger and grief she felt after watching the children die, Williams had become an activist for peace and children's rights. She now heads the World Centers of Compassion for Children, an organization she founded in the United States that tries to establish better living environments for children suffering in poverty and war. She also co-founded the Community of Peace People, which worked for peace in Ireland.
Today Williams, who spoke at the Nobel Peace Laureates Conference at the University last fall, is trying to rally support for the Declaration of the Rights of Children. The document, which resembles America's Bill of Rights, would grant children of war-torn and impoverished areas better lives if adopted by the United Nations. Williams helped create the document by traveling around the world and asking children what they need to make their lives better.
"When I started out, I only knew about my own kids," she said. "I was not an expert on children, especially not all the children of the world."
But she soon learned. After her first trip to see Ethiopian children, she said she cried for three days and couldn't speak for two weeks.
"The more I listened to the children of the world, the more they would speak to me and the more I realized how stupid I am," she added. "We never give children credit for their intellect."
Williams said she hopes to tap into this intellect and extend children's rights by asking the U.N. to listen to children once a week. According to Williams' plan, a child from each participating nation in the U.N. would talk to his or her own delegate.
"They know exactly what to say. Adults will tell them how to do it, not what to say," she said.
One child who would like to speak to the U.N. is 10-year-old Greg Smith, who was invited to attend Williams' speech. Smith, already a freshman at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, has seen the destruction of Kosovo on television. "Ever since I was very small, I have been interested in non-violence," Smith said. "I'm not sure what I would say to the U.N. I'll have to keep thinking about it."
Williams said in some nations, allocating 1 percent of defense spending toward food could alleviate hunger.
"Economics is dominating foreign policy," said Soumitra Sharma, a third-year graduate Engineering student and president of the Charlottesville chapter of Child Relief and You. "We spend money to develop nuclear weapons when our kids can't eat."
Williams said defense spending has another adverse effect on children.
"Defense? What is this word defense?" Williams asked the audience, which was filled with Americans. "Are you attacking Sadaam Hussein? No, you are attacking the children. Innocent children die in these attacks.
"America," she pleaded, "stop that -- that's wrong. Remember cause and effect. Do you not think that children in Iraq and Iran might want revenge? They are over there singing songs of hatred you wouldn't believe."
Foreseeing the rise of "a new race of terrorists," Williams also advocated adding peace studies to all school curriculums.
"Until we begin worldwide to teach peace to our young children, all we do instead of stopping the cancer is make it spread," she said.
Students who attended the speech said Williams was inspirational.
"It's amazing that she started out with nothing," second-year College student Dawn Bell said. "She just got mad one day in her car, and now she is traveling around the world, speaking with Henry Kissinger. It gives a lot of people hope that they can make a difference."
In the end, this once-ordinary woman said she believes everyone should work for change or suffer the consequences.
"I began because it was like eating Quaker Oats -- it was the right thing to do," Williams said. "If we don't do what's right, the wrong just gets stronger"
Read More
Cooking, my mother’s love language
By Emilie Kim | YesterdayDespite our different temperaments, my mother and I understand each other perfectly through the language of food.
A bite of home at Barbie’s Burrito Barn
By Sophie Guettel | 2 days agoBarbie’s Burrito Barn is more than just a restaurant — it is a testament to the dreams and hard work of its owner.
The fluffiest Swedish coffee bread
By Finn Trainer | 3 days agoWith its semi-sweet flavor and cloud-like texture, this Swedish coffee bread is a calming, delicious treat to enjoy this finals season.
