found in my email

[Stormymystic]

A LESSON TO MY SON by A PROUD AMERICAN Irma S. Chambers


The other day, my nine-year-old son wanted to know why we were at war.
My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I
were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and
defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a
good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand
in our front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell
me what you see?" "I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." He
replied. "OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is
the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every
house and yard on this block is a different country." My husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man
come out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is
hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face,
he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their
children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are
watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their
father. You see all of this son....what do you do?" "Dad?" "What do you
do son?!"

"I call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your
call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do
you do then son?!"

"Dad, but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or
your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my
husband says.

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want
you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're
pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his
children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door
neighbor to help me stop him." Our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get
involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him, my
husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask
for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller
and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her
door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire
and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he
window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!"

"Daddy..."

"WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!"

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the
blinds, Daddy."

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks
him..."Why?"

"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who needs
it....and they won't help....You always say that neighbors are supposed
to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop
him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself...Daddy.....I can't look
out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things
and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds....so I can't
see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not
happening."

I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine-year-old son standing in
the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband’s
questions and he tells him...."Son"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Open the blinds because that man....he's at your front door..."WHAT DO
YOU DO?!!!!"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up
this tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without
hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT
MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA

FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his
chest and hugs him tight, and cries..."It's too late to fight him, he's
too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have
stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even
if you have to do it alone, before......it's too late." My husband
whispers.

THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good
men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all. Our
President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand that
this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove this evil man from power
so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid
to look out our window and see crimes on humanity. So that my
nine-year-old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just
"closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him."

Today the second day of "WAR on IRAQ" I felt compelled to write this
and pass it along. Hopefully, you will understand the lesson my husband
tried to teach our son.

"YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO
IT ALONE!" BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT! BE
PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA!! SO THAT IN THE
FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."

[ 04-28-2003, 11:09 AM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

[Iron_Ranger]

Well, its a bit simplistic and distorted, but yeah, it has a good message.

[ 04-23-2003, 03:29 AM: Message edited by: Iron_Ranger ]

[Donut]

I'm lost for words.

Is the man beating his wife from Zimbabwe or from Tibet?

[ 04-23-2003, 05:07 AM: Message edited by: Donut ]

[Stormymystic]

Originally posted by Donut: I'm lost for words. Is the man beating his wife from Zimbabwe or from Tibet?

I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want
you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're
pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his
children."

[Masklinn]

Stormy, what Donut tried to make you understand is that so many other blinds are closed or being closed.

Sometimes cause the neighbor gave you some money to not interfere, sometimes because you have way better to do, sometimes because you don't care at all about the wife he is killing, even sometimes because you wanted that wife and these children to be killed.

As well, the father forgot to mention that he helped this evil neighbor to move in, he even gave him a knife to get rid of another neighbor cause he didn't want to do it himself and he also knew for years that this neighbor was regulary beating up his wife and kids without moving a damn finger.

Unfortunately, sometimes, other countries are little boys watching and the US is the evil neighbor beating up some other neighbors. It all depends on the point of view and at what point you started watching the show.

It's not as simple as described in this story, it has never been and it will never be. And anyway it's not even a good story : the father could have explained the boy without yelling, without scaring him, without making him cry.

Scaring him to make him say and think the stuff wanted, not showing him other windows where other neighbors can be seen slaughtering wife, kids, grandma and pets....hmm yeah, I think the father represents the medias in this nice analogy eh ?


Anyway : analogies are bad for your health.

[Stormymystic]

I agree, it made me mad, my husband liked it, but a 9 year old should not have been forced and yelled at because he was afraid

[Nogbad The Bad]

Originally posted by Stormymystic: A LESSON TO MY SON by A PROUD AMERICAN Irma S. Chambers "WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.

That's some Grade A parenting, scare the living daylights out of a child, using an analogy that is more factual than metaphorical (suburban violence) all just to oversimplify & justify some misplaced Nationalistic pride. I've got a better version of describing the war to a child:

Son what would you do if one of your neighbours petrol bombed your house, causing tragic loss of life / damage. The neighbour, who you had actually taught to make petrol bombs when he was younger, has now gone to ground leaving you with no chance of getting revenge. "Don't know Dad, but you're scaring me!" Never mind that son, what you do is pick on another neighbour with a history of violence who "might have petrol bombs of minor destruction" and who you had a quarrell with years ago and could have finished then but you let him continue his atrocities for a decade. Now when you need to re-establish your position & reputation as top dog in the neighbourhood who destroy this neighbour, after all they're all the same these neighbours anyway!

[Stratos]

I agree with Masklinn.

The problem with fighting for what you believe in is that others have other opinions. This isn´t necessarly a problem in normal civil life, but ít´s a huge problem when there´s weapons involved. War is serious business.
There are SOO many other neighbours hitting their wives around the neighbourhood and have been doing so for a long time, why is this one so important.

Besides, you forgot to mention that the Dad is a police officer himself ( i.e. member of the UN)

[ 04-24-2003, 10:45 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

[Thoran]

I hope Irma or her husband wrote this as a way to make a point and didn't actually DO this to one of their children, IMO 9 years old is too young for even simplistic lessons about international diplomacy... and teaching by stressing the child into a breakdown is no way to teach a lesson.

I also agree with the concensus that the analogy is too simple to even capture the basic forces in play, of course so were many of the responses. The thing to remember about simplification is that it's often used to skew the situation being analysed, creating a "straw man" that is easier to attack. Your story used a young target as justification for that simplification, but that doesn't change the intent (to skew the real situation and turn it into something that we can be "proud" of). Others simplify in order to add weight to their attacks AGAINST US behavior, both accomplish the same thing.

Storymystic I would never use this story simply because I believe there is nothing patriotic or good about war. War is the utter failure of humanity... turning us into nothing more than fighting animals, which I try to believe is something we can someday transcend. That's not to say I didn't support this war, but I'm sad that someone like Saddam has the ability to pull others down to his violent bestial level.

[Stormymystic]

Everyoneis misunderstanding e, i do support the war, in fact my cousin is a LT in the war, and i am proud of him, i wish i could have joined, but medical and emotional reson i could not, as for the woral of the story, i understand it, but think that there could have been abetter way to explain war to a 9 year old child