“You fight every day, not because of what you hope to achieve, but because it’s the right thing to do.” – writerscramp
Danni’s letter from a year ago, and the journey it created for so many. This is about what we can learn from all our children. For they are truly Citizens of the World.
Many of us were stopped in our tracks over the pictures of the children in Tal Afar who were instantly orphaned when their parents’ car was gunned down at a “check point”. My daughter wanted to do something. Anything. So she decided to draft out a letter. After a week (lots of stuff going on at school and martial arts commitment) she finally got a letter she liked.
She handwrote in Hello Kitty sparkle glow pen in the To: field and signed them all and addressed each envelope herself. Amongst the several who recieved the letter: Unicef, Howard Dean, Pelosi, Clinton-Rodham, John Kerry (who she contacted once and mailed him campaign posters she made herself in a school mock election) Her teacher and principal, Nickelodian, AirAmerica, Barbara Boxer.
She received ONE letter back. State Senator Wes Chesbro (D-CA) wrote a non-standard letter to her telling my daughter that he had nothing to do with the vote as he was a State Senator. …
Here are her words from Jan 31, 2005
Kids have to stop the killing of kids. That’s because adults don’t believe each other and grown-ups aren’t doing their jobs. Killing an Iraq kid is just like killing a kid from the United States.
How can I help? Writing a letter is all I know what to do. Kids are suffering and nobody’s doing anything about it. Please help me find a way to stop the killing. It’s just not right. People shouldn’t just kill people. Killing kids has nothing to do with freedom.
Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Danni Nicole snipped – 10-year-old 5th grader
P.S. I’m writing this to a lot of people but not George Bush because he won’t do anything and he doesn’t care. Again, thank you very much!
That was a year ago.
So much has happened since then. So much happened before. But it is my daughter who is truly the activist in this family. It is her who inspires us all. She has inspired her father to join Veterans For Peace. She’s become a bit of a creative consultant for our local CodePink chapter.
(Danni had the idea for how to make “flames” on the Mother Day’s “Bombs” for the protest/meeting at the Senator’s Federal Building)
(Danni’s own photo she took of Lt. Watada)
I think many of us are driven due to our children. Many want a better future for their loved ones. I am blessed because my daughter is helping me walk this journey.
Danni does not see herself as political or as anything but an artist, a poet and a “thinker of deep thoughts”.
My daughter … is not really “mine” at all, but all of ours. Just as each child who died yesterday and will die tomorrow are our children. They are not somebody else’s. We may never know their names, we will never know what they would have become… but we know what we must become for them.
For those lost and bloodied barefoot poets, the little artists whose hands will never hold a pencil again, “thinkers of deep thoughts”… the future young activists who are no more.
The Children.
We must listen to our children and stop killing our children. They are ALL ours.
X-My Left Wing
…for this diary and for your part in the growth of such a lovely, talented creature. Hope to meet you both soon.
She’s rather shy and quiet untill she gets to feel comfortable around a person and then… watch out! 🙂
We will meet soon. I know that.
She’s also a collector of rocks, gemstones and marbles…
Marble Madness on carpet 7/21.
My daughter has from day one, colored on floors, walls, furniture and herself, even. Chalks, magic markers, crayons, watercolors, pastels, wax, oils… leaves, twigs, rocks – anything
I’ve neglected my own “artist” side and have found that I can’t ignore it any longer. If nothing else, I need it as a release. I’ve met many marchers who also paint. I think it’s no coincidence that people who love art, the earth, music… choice and thought… they aren’t full of hate. They are outraged because of the simple fact they do care and do love.
So again, as Danni inspired me with her political letters and her own activism… she’s pulled me to pull out the paints and sketch pads.
Kids… boy, does this world need them.
I hesitate to do this, but it’s important to point out how our children, are what we teach them to be. A child can be raised in a loving and peaceful home and grow to be a loving and peaceful human like your beautiful daughter Danni.
Or they can be raised to hate and care none for another child because that other child is deemed an enemy. This happens all over the world which is why I hesitate to post this particular picture because it represents only one child, from one country, being taught to hate another child from a different country.
But here it is. It’s a picture of Israeli children writing messages on artillery shells that will be rained down on the heads of Lebanese children. I won’t link to the pictures of the children who recieved these messages because they are extremly graphic. But you can imagine that they got the message loud and clear.
Our gal in DC from CPP sent that photo to the CodePink inbox. It was said, it was a few kids. A photo op for the masses. One of the few photos you’ll see of Israeli children. It’s not all the children. I have to believe that. Like the photos of American kids done up in red white and BOOM at inaugurations, or held up with Bush.
Your post it reminds me of a song
Teach your children well… from CSN or Buffalo Springfield…
but I think that we can learn more from our children, too.
I saw many kids being so kind and empathetic to my oldest son when they first met him in Kindergarten. They hadn’t learned to hate yet. But as the years wore on… by middle school they had learned divisions and borders. They learned to point and to hate. I think kids are peacemakers, activists… untill “adults” get ahold of them.
Thanks (((SuuperSoling))))
that’s truly offensive. I’d like to think it was photoshopped. It’s a terrible image.
.
THE WARS GO ON
The two photographs above should disturb anyone who shivers and sobs at all of the fighting in the world – and wonders how to make it stop.
How we pray that it stops. Neither prayers nor politics will sheath the swords of war if we, as these pictures suggest, teach our young to revere killing.
In the left photo – see link CAMERA below – an Israeli girl writes on a shell in northern Israel. One of the other messages the girls wrote says, “To Nasrallah [Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader], from Israel with love.”
No child should be allowed anywhere near a shell, let alone think of it as a yearbook to be smilingly inscribed. Israel is using those shells not only to kill Hezbollah militants, but Lebanese civilians who did not start this war yet are trapped in it.
She has named her son 'Raad'.The photo on the right looks like a tender portrait of a Lebanese mother and her newborn – until you learn one detail: She has named her son Raad, after a missile Hezbollah is using to kill Israeli civilians who did not start this war yet are trapped in it. A society risks losing its soul when its children are taught that weapons and war equal justice and progress. The future dims if the young believe that victims of venom are less than human.
How we pray that little Raad grows up to be a peacemaker, with those girls at his side.
The other side :: CAMERA — Philadelphia Inquirer Discovers Hate Education – by Israelis
“Israel is subject to restraint, we are a moral country facing immoral savages, having no moral boundaries”.
Click on VIDEO button in article –
The interview will be in English.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Thank you so much (((Oui)))
I have a lot of hope for the future because of kids like Danni. My son helped to found a chapter of Amnesty Int’l at his high school and both of my sons regularly attend peace rallies with me. In just over a year when she finishes college, my daughter will most likely be going to Africa with Peace Corps. Anyone who says kids are selfish and blind to the worlds’ problems doesn’t know kids.
You done good, DJ!
Hooray (((Second Nature’s))) Kidlets! 🙂
That Will Become ‘Responsible Adults’!!!
Sadly the others won’t!
Thanks Jim. I think all children should have at least the right to grow up.
To That, Janet, AMEN!!!!
guess I’d better start taking better care of myself so I can vote for Danni for President in about 40 years… 😉
My start into political activism didn’t begin till high school when I marched for the UFW — I’m glad to see that your daughter is starting even younger.
I’m thinking of something I heard years ago, “Teach a child to love…” but I can’t remember how it goes. Oh yeah, that was “Pre-9/11 Thinking”; we can’t afford any of that softy stuff here and now…
Blessings, peace, and lots of love to you and yours…the spouse and I have got to get up there sometime next year…
(((Cali)))) and she’s a hockey fan 🙂
KamaKid is also really active. Right now her big thing is trying to get other kids to accept the gay students in her school. Being an arts school, there are plenty of gay kids and kids in gay families, but it is also a black urban school, so there are a lot of kids who reject the gay students.
I am really proud of her too. Our kids are the future. Way to go DJ Kid and DJ for raising the next generation.
Wow! I wish sometimes that they had award programs for these kids… but I guess the reward is BEING that kid and being around a person like that.
I’m very proud of her, too.
I started this diary out because of where this family’s footsteps have brought us so far and how we are doing this together more and more it seems. Last Friday it was too hot to take Danni to a rally/march and I was really struck by all bummbed out the other three in this house were by not going.
Also… lately we’ve seen such horrible, heartwrenching photos of children. Dead. Destroyed… and each one of them, to me, is a Danni. A Kamakyya kid.
Thank you so much for letting us love your child. 🙂
It’s an older song, but it still applies. I’d love to quote all of it, that great song from South Pacific:
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
One of the saddest things I read this past year, was an entry in a Democratic blog – I have mercifully forgotten which one. A “proud father” was relating his middle school daughter’s essay, in which she had likened Republicans to stupid, mentally ill people. I was appalled that he would be showing off the hatred that he had taught his kid.
That essay sounds so completely wrong…. on so many levels. I truly think the Peace Movement is the hardest to grasp and live by. There are so many issues around it and so much to learn and so much that you have to bring into your own personal life. It’s not just about politics… but it’s about your home and surroundings.
My Mom’s side of the family… they are proud that their children and grandchildren “HATE” the same people their “GOD HATES”.
Maybe one day it will be safe enough for me and DanDan to go to Baghdad and visit Eman and her daughters. Maybe.
Danni’s best friend, it’s now long distance, her Mom loves Bush and feels PITY for Danni. She feels that we have brought her to have a “closed mind”… about what Bush is trying to do for her and the world… nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t feel pity for her daughter, I know she is loved and cared for.
You’ve clearly been the very model of a different – and better – sort of parent. I thought of you immediately when I saw the toddler in Malibu wearing a code pink t-shirt last month. I’ll briefly put on my child psychologist hat and say “well done”!!!
DJ, one of my lessons learned on this old earth is others respect you if you respect them, as well. Respect and trust is earned not just given freely. Children are no different than adults. It is a natural response for us all. We all want to be loved and to return love. That is a human response. Your child is one of the brights among all. I respect and love her, as if she were my very own.
She is one that understands peace must come from us all not just a certain few. We all have a stake in all this on our earth. Peace must come from each of us….straight from our hearts…always. That desire is from hearts all over the world.
I applaud her and please do give her a hug from me and let her know it is from me, personally.
My grandchildren are just like your child. They are ripe minds for the learning of lessons for they are our future….all of them are! I pray they learn those lessons well as to help us live in our future together in harmony. Hugs, DJ, for your her mother and I know now who she gets it from…:o)
DJ, Your daughter is wonderful! I’ve got to get the boran2 boy interested. Thank you!
Interested in Danni?? 🙂 Or interested in some sort of activism?
I think the best way is to just listen to them. He must be upset about something Bush, Inc/War has impacted his life or likes. Then help him feel empowered by giving him some ideas about how to change, challenge or confront it.
With Danni it was a gradual outrage from her regarding the war which started from the first day of bombing and the questions she asked. She wrote a letter… and since then… she’s inspired us all.
((Boran2)))
Ha! No, not he’d probably not be interested in Danni,…yet. Seven year old boys are still at that “girls are yucky” stage. But in a couple of years, who knows? 😉
But you’re right, I will try to listen and see if he has any feelings about current events other than just parroting me that Bush is an asshole.
Good idea to wait… As Danni knows judo/jujitsu. 🙂
Speaking of asshole…
Bush Asshole Song Video
Janet, I am late to this party, but wanted to thank you so much for this diary, and for who you just “are” by your nature, and who your children are, just by thier natures, and by their great good fortune of having you for a Mom. (Now, SWALLOW that!..Son’t spit it OUT, OK?) (grin)
You’ve made me think..and inspired me to write a diary along these same lines as soon as my toughts gel a bit better. For now, I think our children and grandchilren are the brightest source of hope and encouuragement and empowerment we all have, and I think every one of them have valuable things to teach us, and remind us of.. that we need to know and remember now more than ever before.
Thank you, sister peace.
Thank you Scribe
Value and Worth…
I’ve been thinking about children… It’s the hardest part of the RubDMC diaries for me but the main reason I keep witnessing… The Children.
And I think that most countries, including this one, don’t value children very much.
I know that in my mother’s home… children were to be seen and not heard.
They have the most to say I think.