“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
