Wheels of Justice

The activism that keeps Bill McGrath busy these days has to do mostly with what he loosely calls “cognitive dissonance” — the tendency for people to cling to their beliefs regardless of facts to the contrary. Rather than bombarding people with facts, Bill (age 56) prefers to use stories, metaphors and persuasive listening. A recent opportunity to do this arose in the summer of 2007, when he spent a month walking around in many West Bank communities. As a trained journalist, Bill tried to visualize how his Palestine experiences could be used to influence Americans who — for whatever reasons — support the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Since then, Bill has given his West Bank presentation more than 25 times. Nothing makes his day better than having a Zionist come up to him and say, “Your presentation has given me a different way of looking at this situation.” In addition to his nine years as a newspaper reporter, Bill has worked as a salesman and for 20 years, owned his own publishing company. He lives in Minnesota.