Make videos, not war

Pretty amazing kid in the Chicago Tribune story below. No matter what she chooses to do in life, it'll probably be fulfilling and most likely impressive, IMO.

16-year-old anti-war vidcaster stirs up controversy

By Nara Schoenberg
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 4, 2007

A home-schooler with a cat named Pumpkin and pink rubber bands on her braces, Ava Lowery isn't your stereotypical peace activist.

But with her Web site peacetakescourage.com getting 60,000 hits a day, and her homemade videos juxtaposing images of the war with popular music and provocative quotes landing her on CNN, Nick News and the editorial pages of The New York Times, the 16-year-old from Alexander City, Ala., is increasingly a political force to be reckoned with.

In December, Rolling Stone, which had previously praised her "genius videos," listed her with the likes of Al Gore and Stephen Colbert as one of the greatest mavericks of 2006.

Along with the acclamation have come the accusation that Ava is just a parrot for her mother and stepfather, both lawyers, or a front for a liberal organization -- both of which she denies -- and a series of angry e-mail responses and Internet postings, including death threats and the observation, "it's people like you who need to [expletive] die and get raped while your corpse rots in the sun."

In an interview conducted via cell phone while she was tagging along with her 19-year-old brother, also a home-schooler, on a photography project, Lowery discussed her most famous video and responded to her critics.

The following is an edited transcript.

Q. In your best-known video "WWJD?" you juxtapose photographs of wounded and grieving Iraqi children with the hymn, "Jesus Loves Me." How did you decide to pair that music with those images?

A. My mom actually suggested using a church song for a video, and that's something I wanted to do because I am a Christian, and I don't believe this war is a Christian thing to do, even though George W. Bush says he's a man of God. So I decided to use "Jesus Loves Me" and put it up with [photos of] Iraqi children, because I believe Jesus loves all children, no matter what their religion, or race, or anything.

Q. Have you always been against the war?

A. I've been against the war from the beginning, but in the beginning I sort of gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt. I was only 13 at the time of the invasion, but soon after my 14th birthday I started to do research online, and that's when I came across a lot of things like the Downing Street Memo, and because of that I decided to speak out against the war.

Q. What would you say to someone who says a video such as "WWJD?" contains a lot of blood and violence?

A. Well, I'd say they need to see what the results of our actions are. Those aren't graphic photos compared to what many of those war images look like. I have to go through those photos daily when I make a video, and I see those images, and I don't think the American public does see those images, and I think they should.

Q. This question always comes up: Are you a parrot of your parents?

A. Um, no, definitely. My mom and I actually disagree about a bunch of things. Sometimes I'm more liberal than her; sometimes she's more liberal than me. [Lowery's mother describes herself as an independent voter who has leaned Democratic in recent years.] My parents, of course, have an influence over me; I can't say that they haven't. No one can. But my opinions come from me looking at the facts, doing my research and forming my own opinions.

Q. What about the allegation that you're a front for a leftist organization. Is that true?

A. No, I wish it was. I wish someone would pay me. [Laughs.] That would be nice.

Q. Are you involved in any other causes?

A. I'm not really involved with any other cause.

Q. And what do you do for fun?

A. I'm a normal teenager. I hang out with my friends. I go to the movies. Sometimes I go bowling. And I actually enjoy going to peace rallies, strange as that may seem. I just came back from a peace rally in Auburn [Ala.] yesterday, and there were about 75 people there. So I like to do different things, some of them political, some of them not political...