As this year comes to close I am filled, as every year-end, with thoughts of the past and thoughts of the future. 2011 looms before us like a giant basket of hope.
We cannot keep from admiring those young Iraqi adults who, just a few years ago, were schoolkids writing to their peers in the US. They were just kids interested as much in Jay-Z as much as in politics. Maybe more! Interested in klaicha and knishes, boy and girl friends, schools and horrible teachers.
What have they become? Those that have graduated are now doctors, lawyers, peace workers, teachers, language scholars, and more.
We kvell as if merely knowing them from afar gives us the right to feeling so very proud of these brave souls.
They stayed, and somehow kept thier focus. They studied, they conquered fear, and have won themselves a seat at the table of the future.
May they live in peace and continue to build what was so horribly crushed.
Inshallah.
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