December 30, 2005
Smart/Dumb
At the heart of every good story there is an act of profound stupidity. You really have to earn a good story. Sometimes the dumb act is just leaving your house that day. Sometimes you have to try harder. This kid has a hell of a story, and he really earned it. Farris Hassan, 16, whose parents are from Iraq but who was born and raised Stateside, went all the way to Baghdad to write an essay on Iraq for a class. This kid will actually make a great reporter some day. Great reporters, who we rely on to know what goes on in places like Iraq, are a perfect combination of smart and dumb. Smart enough to write well, dumb enough to go to places like Iraq. So this kid was smart enough to get to Baghdad with some milk money and no Arabic, but dumb enough to try it. Perfect.
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The naysayers may want to consider a different point of view:
Do a little Googling. The whole world is talking about this kid, and people from Switzerland to France to French Canadia seem to have a general consensus: if more young people decided the human condition is worth more than their money, ealth, or safety, the world would be a very different place. Or, as many people have agreed, "the kid has serious stones, man."
I find it interesting that some people are so dissapointed in his choice of how to spend his money. Would they rather he attend to the path expected of him, buying junk and living a shallow life, unaware of and uncaring of others, as so many young American are inclined?
As for what some others appear to consider a trite false attempt to convey compassion, the trite attempt could have been made from his couch. To make it from the streets of Bagdhad implies his devotion to his ideal.
I'm not saying it was bright, but it was brave, and an example to the materialistic humans in this world that the truth is impossible to decipher from a distance.
He's a young man now - he's old enough to take his life and future into his own hands. People his age have been killing other people in wars for centuries - what would happen if more of them fought for peace?
Interesting: when soldiers die for war, they are brave, when a young boy is willing to die for peace, he's stupid. That says a lot about human nature. Maybey people like Farris can change that in the future.
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