Fools Rush In : A True Story of Love, War and Redemption

Bill Carter

This is the story of Bill Carter, who, as a young man, went off to war, not as a soldier, but as a confused and grief-stricken wanderer curious to find out the truth behind a conflict being waged thousands of miles away in a place called Bosnia only to rediscover along the way his love of humanity and an aching desire to reach out and help. FOOLS RUSH IN is the true account of his courageous efforts, first as an aid-worker with a motley crew of expat punk rockers and thrill junkies, who dressed as clowns to deliver food to the bombed out orphanages; and later as a dogged emissary who convinced the rock group U2 to help bring the story of the siege of Sarajevo to the world via satellite broadcasts beamed out in the middle of their concerts during their world tour. Above all, FOOLS RUSH IN is a memoir of witness, that provides readers with both a searing account of an innocent city under siege, as well as indelible portraits of the people of Sarajevo, who continued to live their lives with hope, humor, passion, and rock n' roll.

Preface by Charles Bowden

People borrow this book and then never bring it back. I have learned to write this off as the cost of living. Generally, the most avid readers and book thieves are in their twenties and thirties. Given the nature of the tale, this at first surprised me. After all, the basic story is of a depressed young man who hitchhikes in gloom to a certifiable hellhole, Sarajevo during the siege, and then flounders toward a simple conclusion, that life is better than death. And does something to save lives.

But what I'd failed to see initially was how necessary this story is for our times when people have become passive and when the flow of events has created more numbness than action. No one in this book is numb by the end. The people of Sarajevo murdered daily by killers firing from the hillside refuse to surrender joy, humanity and lust. They are life against death and their example will remain with the reader long after this book is closed. It is telling how easily we lose touch with the simple facts of life, that the first flowers of spring are more powerful than the strongest drugs, that music matters regardless of the bullets flying through the air, and that the stubbornness and zest of young girls has more significance than the babble of politicians. Sarajevo, some name on a map, becomes the center of the real world and, at least for me, a touchstone that demands I do things and that I enjoy things.

We keep forgetting what we can do and so we need writers like Bill Carter to slap us in the face and remind us of what we can be and must be. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Edwardsville, Illinois that could function as the backbeat for this book:

Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.

Of course, this book is not a political tract, nor is it some skeleton key to the centuries of tribal hatreds in the Balkans. It does have a rock'n'roll band but they really play second fiddle to the people of Sarajevo and what they taught Bill Carter and what he teaches us.

I can't claim to know what life is about but I know if my life does not entail helping other people, then it is not much of a life at all. I keep a copy of this book near at hand for those moments when I seem to forget who I am. And it helps, every time.