We All Know the World Is not Fair

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 By Laila Yaghi

6/23/02 

We all take things for granted, like watching a movie, sitting on our deck and watching the beauty of the lake in front of us or the beauty of the flowers and the butterflies, but do we ever take a moment and think of the people that are suffering in this world?  Do we ever think of the people that are starving or under occupation?

I often think of people in this selfish world and wonder why they kill innocent people for a peace of land! The world is huge.  It does not make sense for one to kill a human being and eradicate him and his entire family from the face of earth for a peace of land! How can one feel good about themselves after taking by force people’s homes and then live there instead of them?

My Questions arise all the time when I watch people suffering in this world.  I watched many Palestinian immigrants who migrated to the United States, so they can give their families a better life away from the bombing and killing of Israelis soldiers. I observed and watched some of the people I know.  I observed the intense suffering they go through every day which made me feel that my own problems compared to theirs are mild

I witnessed a guy who stayed away from his family for three years to give them a better life.  His few months old daughter then, is now three, does not remember her father.  His only son, now 12, did not see his Dad for three years!  The father over worked to save money so he can buy his 5 children and wife a ticket to come to the US so they can try to live in the shadows of the American Dream

But how can this educated abroad father provide for his family by working in a Subway?  How can he afford health insurance, clothing, food, etc for his entire family with just one salary?

This is an ordeal many Palestinian families face when leaving their country.  The lucky ones have some money to migrate some where.  But what about the unlucky ones, the Palestinians that are facing death and humiliation every single day of their lives, what about them?  Palestinians who are denied the right of existence in their own country as equals to their own occupiers?  Palestinians who are under siege and curfew day after day; their children cannot go to school or go to hospitals when sick!  Even getting vaccinated against diseases is not permissible when under siege.  What do you think happens to these children?  Also women, who are in labor, are also denied access to hospitals.  And the struggle continues, kids getting killed by Israeli soldiers in front of their parents and parents getting killed in front of their children!

Therefore, the Palestinians who immigrated to the US are considered the “lucky ones”.  I watched the life of many Palestinians being sapped out of them from either over working or either over worrying about their families or both. I watched how hard the “lucky ones” have to work in this country with really no future because they do not know English and do not have enough time or money to go to college and in the process this keeps them from getting ahead in life!

But the determination in these families make them not give up, the determination and hope are keeping them alive.  Keeping them from weathering away, from becoming depressed or handicapped to this unfair world!

What is our duty in this selfish unfair world?  To donate money, to volunteer our time to these people who need help by teaching them English or teaching them how to drive so they can be independent, to smile to these desperate people and give them hope, to write letters to the congress in the US to force the Israelis to withdraw from the occupied territories.  There are many things a person can do.  I ask you while sitting on your porch or deck this summer to make use of it.  Think of these unfortunate people in this world