August 31, 2006

Published February 8, 2006

INTERVIEW
What a Bomb Does
Recovered but not fully restored, nurse Emily Lyons educates people about the extremism that nearly took her life

Interview by LAURA PEACH
Contributing Writer

What does it look and feel like to live through a bombing? Emily Lyons knows. She survived a pipe-bomb attack on an abortion clinic, and her memoir graphically conveys the devastating effects of experiencing a violent act of terrorism.

Emily Lyons was Director of Nursing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala. A bomb was set off outside the clinic on Jan. 29, 1998, killing police officer Robert Sanderson and severely injuring Lyons. She was hospitalized for several months and endured 21 surgeries. Nails and shrapnel were lodged in several parts of her body. She was blinded by a wire in her eye. Her legs were shattered.

Bomber Eric Rudolph was captured in 2003 and convicted of three other incidents, including the attack on the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Lyons’ sight and her ability to walk were restored. But this woman who had made it her life purpose to care for others now had to be cared for herself.

Extremist acts of violence like Rudolph’s continue to afflict abortion clinics across the nation. Less than a year ago, the Kirkland-based Eastside Women’s Health was the subject of arson activitiy. The conflict over abortion threatens the lives of doctors, nurses, and staff who are working to provide women with the health care they need.

Lyons and her husband Jeff were in Seattle for the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Emily spoke at a rally organized by Aradia Women’s Health Center and read from her book Life’s Been a Blast at Elliott Bay Book Company and Third Place Books. The couple met with Real Change to talk about the effects that the bomb has had on their lives.

Real Change: Why did you decide to write a memoir?

Emily Lyons: It’s been a collection for years: things Jeff had recorded when I was in the hospital, speeches that I’ve done. We were trying to put that all together with our past lives: how we got together, how we got apart, then got back together [in our romantic relationship] — the normal person stuff to fit in with what happened to me.

Jeff: I knew that being blind and undergoing so many operations, Emily would have this big void in her life, so, part of it was documenting so I could one day tell her what had happened. Something like this, with this much attention, you would just expect a book to come out.

To give you the bottom-line answer, I wanted people to see what a bomb does. You watch television and it sounds high-tech and it sounds impressive, but when you see what it does to a person, it’s not so great anymore. And I think the average person, unless they’ve been through a war, really has no idea that after somebody heals, this is what they look like — this is what a bomb does.

RC: Being a victim of an extremist’s terrorism, how did you feel after the 9/11 attacks?

Emily: My thoughts were: the people who survived, they’ve got to be burned, they’ve got to be broken. You know how bad recovery is for that, so I can feel what they’re fixing to go through: how hard it is, how painful it is. I look at [what happened to me] and I don’t know how it even happened. And as our lives go by each year, I look back and I go — it’s all kind of unreal. Yeah, that’s me but it just couldn’t be.

RC: How do you feel about some of the other people who were hurt by Eric Rudolph?

Emily: Richard Jewell, the one who the FBI had thought was the guilty party to start with, he wasn’t physically injured by Rudolph’s actions, but he has probably suffered more as a result of it. His life was just really ripped apart by it. There we no apologies, no ‘Help to put it back together’ kind of thing from the government or whatever.

RC: Describe the advocacy work you have been doing recently. Why did you decide to be so public?

Emily: Well, kind of the reason is that we wanted to let people see what the bomb did. To let them know that there are these people out there who are willing to do this to someone to keep women from choosing the health care they want. It is a war, and seven people in this country have died because of this war. It no different than the war we’ve really got going on now in another country. It should be treated the same as a [9/11] terrorist attack. It can’t just be shoved away in a corner.

RC: What do you think needs to be done to change the perception of the issue, then?

Emily: Education. Start basic — at whatever age someone can comprehend, there should be education for tolerance. Society is not just one group of people. It’s a multitude of different races and religions and etc. You can’t go around acting like there’s just one of us; it don’t work like that. You don’t have to agree on everything, but you’re not going to kill somebody because you disagree.

RC: What do you think about the possibility that Roe v. Wade may be overturned?

Emily: I truly believe that that is going to happen. It may not be this year or next year, but they’re going to continue to chip away at it like they’ve been doing, causing more restrictions and limitations along with the anti-choice advocates who are putting so much fear into doctors. So that, in a little bit down the road, a case is going to come up again and the balance is going to change all of that. Thomas, Scalia, and now, Roberts: you know what their views are. You can’t tell me that their views are not going to have any bearing.

RC: What do you think should be done to protect the decision?

Emily: I think that states should really have their own laws. Washington state has it: if Roe is overturned, Washington has a law that it’s still legal. There’s probably half a dozen in the country like that.

RC: What was it like to have your vision taken away?

Emily: If you think about what you do every day, vision is where it all starts. I’m sure a blind person would disagree with me, but I believe that without vision you really cannot do anything. There is nothing to enjoy. I mean, you got sound, but you can’t see anything, you can’t see the pictures, you can’t see the person next to you. Your concept of colors is nothing. And society is very visually orientated. What you look like determines what someone thinks about you. Our society’s not set up for blind people.

RC: How do you feel that your five years of surgery and everything else that you have been through has changed you?

Emily: I look at things differently now; everything is different. I appreciate what I have a lot more. You learn the important things in life. Looks are not everything, and that was a true test in my mind was that no matter how bad I looked over these past few years, those first few months, it didn’t matter to [Jeff]. And that to me is an unconditional love. What people say about me: sticks and stones they may break my bones, but the words are not important.

RC: Jeff, what do you think was the hardest thing about supporting Emily throughout this time?

Jeff: There is nothing more rewarding than to take care of the person you care the most about. That’s what you’re supposed to do. Emily is the person who I want to spend my life with. A lot of the procedures were very painful, and so that’s probably the hardest thing, seeing her go through pain.

RC: Emily, you assert that you are a “bombing survivor” instead of a “bombing victim.” Why?

Emily: For me, when I think of the word victim, faults come to my mind about this person. And that’s not me. You choose what you want after a catastrophe. You can choose to be a victim or you can choose to be a survivor. It’s just the way you look at it, and I don’t want to be looked at that way. I’m a survivor who will continue to make the best of what I got.