A Bridge Across Pain, Children to Children

The following message, titled “Dear suffering children of Iraq,” was written by AMIN AL-SARRAF, an eighth-grader at Polytechnic School, Pasadena, for an interfaith peace service held Wednesday at All Saints Church.

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We understand your conflict, but we cannot feel your pain. We read horrifying statistics, and we still cannot feel your pain. We understand the threats of our bombing and the effects of the sanctions against you. We try to do what we can to help, but we still cannot feel the pain that you feel.

The amount of children dying monthly: 4,500. Sure, this statistic hurts, but your pain does not come with it. 4,500 children per month. 4,500 brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors. 4,500 is more than five times the amount of people in my school.

We can live without breakfast or lunch, but not almost every day of our lives with barely any food. As Muslims, also, we fast, but only for a month and only during the day. Most children do not fast and are not required to at a young age. Living in Iraq, you do have to fast, every day, sometimes all day.

We learn about your government in our schools, and we see that it is different from ours in many ways. We do not live in a dictatorship, we live in a democracy. Although we value democratic principles, sometimes our policy-makers do not uphold their principles when dealing with foreign countries. Most of us have never lived in a place ruled by a military dictator. We feel scared to think of what it would be like, but of course, we do not feel your pain.

When we were younger, we heard on the news about the bombings, and then we learned that most of the dead were innocent people, men, women and children, dying because of our leaders. We understand, but again, we do not feel the pain.

We have heard stories from people who have been there before. My grandmother went there and she went to the hospitals and has footage from them. Usually only one doctor and hundreds of patients waiting in lines. Mothers holding malnourished, half-alive children, hoping that their child would not die like the many other children. We see, we understand, but we do not feel your pain.

Through these words, I am attempting to bridge our hearts, so we can unify our pulses in order to feel, understand and share the pain that you are going through.

I pray to Almighty God to try to heal the pain and guide the leaders of our two nations and the nations of the world to act as protectors of all children and not the cause of their suffering.