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June 29, 2004
Goodbye, Mattie
Mattie J.T. Stepanek, the 13-year old peace activist and boy-poet from Rockville, MD, has just died from the muscular dystrophy that plagued his short life. At his funeral, Jimmy Carter read from a letter Mattie had written him:
..Soon after, the former president received a letter from his then-12-year-old friend: "I feel like President Bush made a decision long ago about the war," Mattie wrote. "Imagine if he had spent as much time and energy . . . planning peace."The letter continued, "Even though I want to talk to Osama bin Laden about peace in the future, I wouldn't want to be alone with him in his cave." The congregation dissolved into laughter.
"In the same letter," Carter added, "he asked if I would join him."
Mattie was obviously very perceptive of his own time. I wonder when he asked Jimmy Carter to join him to talk to Osama bin Ladin, did he perhaps know that Zbigniew Brezinski, Carter's national security advisor, had bragged about aiding the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan to deliberately induce the Soviets into invading -- the very chain of events that gave rise to Osama Bin Ladin:
LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?BRZEZINSKI: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.…
LNO: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
BRZEZINSKI: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Here's a poem Mattie wrote when he was ten:
Future ReminiscingIt is good
To have a past
That is pleasant
To reflect upon.
Take care
To create
Such a gift
For your future.Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek
December 25, 2000
Posted by zeynep at June 29, 2004 01:18 AM
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Comments
In a society that has lost it soul and lost its way, the children will always be wiser than the adults. Children have to be taught to hate. Children have to be taught to discriminate. Children know love because it is the inherent relationship between mother and child as long as mom has been fortunate enough to have survived her own childhood without pathological damage. Great post, Zeynep.
Sincerely,
Old & In The Way
Posted by: Phil Cicchi at June 30, 2004 02:02 AM
You are my hero!
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