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aaah youth

A U.S. teenager decided to travel to Iraq to “go the extra mile” for a school essay. Farris Hassan has Iraqi parents, but had never been to Iraq and speaks no Arabic. Via the AP, here’s portions of the essay:

Life is not about money, fame, or power. Life is about combating the forces of evil in the world, promoting justice, helping the misfortunate, and improving the welfare of our fellow man. Progress requires that we commit ourselves to such goals. We are not here on Earth to hedonistically pleasure ourselves, but to serve each other and the creator. What deed is greater than sacrificing one’s luxuries for the benefit of those less blessed? …

I know I can’t do much. I know I can’t stop all the carnage and save the innocent. But I also know I can’t just sit here …

I feel guilty living in a big house, driving a nice car, and going to a great school. I feel guilty hanging out with friends in a cafe without the fear of a suicide bomber present. I feel guilty enjoying the multitude of blessings, which I did nothing to deserve, while people in Iraq, many of them much better then me, are in terrible anguish. This inexorable guilt I feel transforms into a boundless empathy for the distress of the misfortunate and into a compassionate love for my fellow man …

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless the one who gives them.

Going to Iraq will broaden my mind. We kids at Pine Crest (School) live such sheltered lives. I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday, so that I may better empathize with their distress. I also want to immerse myself in their environment in order to better comprehend the social and political elements …

I plan on doing humanitarian work with the Red Cross. I will give my mind, body, and spirit to helping Iraqis rebuild their lives. Hopefully I will get the chance to build houses, distribute food supplies, and bring a smile or two to some poor children.

I know going to Iraq will be incredibly risky. There are thousands of people there that desperately want my head. There are millions of people there that mildly prefer my demise merely because I am American. Nevertheless, I will go there to love and help my neighbor in distress, if that endangers my life, so be it …

If I know what is needed and what is right, but do not act on my moral conscience, I would be a hypocrite. I must do what I say decent individuals should do. I want to live my days so that my nights are not full of regrets. Therefore, I must go.

In Baghdad, Farris sought out editors at the Associated Press, saying he was doing research and humanitarian work. “I would have been less surprised if little green men had walked in,” said editor Patrick Quinn.

They turned him over to the 101st Airborne; he’ll be shipped back to the States this weekend.

4 comments to aaah youth

  • Let’s have this kid enlist when he turns 18 so as an Iraqi he can start paying back the $400 billion we’ve wasted on someone else’s country.

  • tenacity

    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.

  • Well I don’t know that I disagree with you. I certainly don’t think what he did was trite (dictionary.com defintion: “Lacking power to evoke interest through overuse or repetition; hackneyed”). Reckless, certainly. But not trite. I think if you read what I wrote, I was mostly passing it on without comment. Well, except for the title … it was certainly a youthful, idealistic move. Really, I’m just 33, but am pretty cynical by now.

    If anything, Farris reminds me of Chris McCandless, the 24-year-old kid who died on this crazy expedition to Alaska that Jon Krakauer wrote about in “Into the Wild.”

    You make it sound like this was some anti-war, peaceful gesture. But I don’t think it was. This was a gesture of a Republican Party club member who saw a “struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction.” (I’m not saying that makes what he did any less, well, courageous).

    BTW, my story about this is here. It was really just a wire rewrite job, as the mother was deludged with press queries.

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