It is sad to think of the people in this and other countries who are persecuted just for speaking out for what they believe in. Just using your voice to speak out against something that you feel is unjust and you want to do everything in your power to change should be celebrated, not brutally retaliated against.
When 14 year old Malala Yousufzai began speaking out against the Taliban’s demand that schools for girls be shut down and that education to these girls be halted at the age of 11 she could have never imagined that she would be the target of assassins set to try and kill her. She had been threatened for years but she never let that stop her from continuing to speak out publicly in favor of children’s rights in her country. She once told someone in an interview that “if this new generation is not given pens, they will be given guns by terrorists.”
On Tuesday October 9th Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head while she was on her way to school. She has had successful surgery to remove the bullet but is still in critical danger. I am sending up many prayers for her and her family and it saddens me deeply that anyone would be harmed for wanting an education and for speaking out for all of the other young children that are too afraid to use their voice.
We take it for granted that we have the freedoms that we have here in the United States and that our children can go to school and we forget that in other countries they aren’t able to speak up for themselves and they don’t have the right to express themselves the way that we can. What a courageous girl she was for not letting the fear that she felt for her life stop her from using her voice to speak out for what she believed was right. If only we could all be so brave to never let fear silence us.
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)
Writing as “Jaycee Durant”
http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/
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