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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Pens Mightier Than Swords

Malala Yousafzai
 “If this new generation is not given pens, they will be given guns by terrorists.”     - Malala Yousafzai

While a majority of teenage girls in the US seem preoccupied with boy friends, the latest fads and facebook, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan has been crusading to help girls in her country get an education.

Already at 11, she was an anonymous blogger for the BBC, writing about what it was like to live in her Taliban-ruled area. Just a month ago, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because of her efforts, and is still recuperating in a hospital in the UK.

It makes me wonder how we could instill in our own children and grandchildren more of the kind of priorities stated by Malala before the tragedy that nearly took her life, “I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is an education. I am afraid of no one.”

Hers is the kind of story we want to be telling our sons and daughters, along with those about the heroes and martyrs of our own faith, inspired by none other than Jesus himself.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Lloyd, a professor of sociology in Rochester, New York, has started a petition to nominate Malala for a Nobel Peace Prize.

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