The Only Thing That Will Ever Stop These Bad-Guys-With-Guns…Is NOT a Gun

The Amazing Miracle and Inspiration That is Malala Yousafzai or This is a #WakeUpCall

Today I saw one of the best and most moving Zen Pencils I have seen. I got goosebumps and tears in my eyes. People of the world, imagine your own child as Malala in that moment, the gun pointed at her head, targeted because she wanted an education.

I often think about Malala Yousafzai, because she is my hero. One of the greatest this world has seen. Do you know who she is?

Malala was a an 11 year-old kid when she took the huge risk of writing a blog about living under the Taliban while trying to pursue her education despite their banning education for girls in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, where she lived at the time.

Imagine that. Just think about yourself at that age. Think about the kids you know. My friends, this is not a Hollywood horror movie, this is the world we live in. And it is getting progressively worse. Malala was a 15 year-old girl when she was shot point-blank in the head. Imagine that for a minute.

Imagine yourself at 15, getting stopped on the bus, having someone terrifying and with a gun, ask for you by name, threatening to kill everyone if you don’t speak up and admit who you are, knowing they will indeed shoot you. Knowing there is no way out. Think of your family, your friends, your life at that moment, your dreams and your goals, you know that you will be killed if you simply admit to being who you are. You have never known such terror. Your only crime is wanting to go to school, and wanting an education for all children despite their gender.

Why on Earth should your gender matter just to go to f#$%ing school!? Why?! I am a girl. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a wife. I am a friend. I am a neighbour. I am a good person, a decent human being I wish no harm to no one. I want peace. But I want to know how to read. I want to know how to add. I want to learn to be a critical thinker, to create, to invent, to write, to help, to evolve. Is this a crime? Is it a crime to want this for your children?

Do you want peace? Are you a mother? Do you have one? Are you a sister? Do you have one? Are you wife? Do you have one? Is it not clear that we all desperately need to wake up and do something, say something, stand up for ourselves, stand up for each other? This young woman stood up to a crazy, coward of a man with a gun and all his crazy, coward friends at the age of 15! She did it for herself, for her friends, for her family, for all of us!

I won’t apologize for my exclamation marks or my suggestion of curse words in disguise, though I was about to. I won’t apologize because I am frankly sick of apologetically asking for decency in this world, aren’t you? Just some basic, common decency, civility, courtesy…to say these barbarians act like animals is an insult to animals. Meanwhile, what can we say about the rest of us? Standing on the sidelines of brutality with a sort of passive aggression, like we have been mostly doing lately. I am sorry, but we really, really are.

This apology is directed at all the good folks still in denial, afraid and naive, lost and wanting to stick their heads in the sand because the truth is just too fucking scary. There, I said it. No disguises this time. I can’t disguise that kind of truth or that kind of disgust. Because it is disgusting. And we are all guilty. Including me.

When we say nothing, it is pretty much like saying it’s okay. It’s okay that there are people, children, drowning every day trying to get to a better life, it’s okay that a few poor nations should bear the brunt of this, it’s okay that girls are denied education and being married off at age 8 and dying from injuries due to intercourse, it’s okay that women all over the world are still getting raped and then treated as though it was their fault. When is enough, enough?

People of the world, please wake up and do what you can for equality and the right to an education for ALL children all over the world, otherwise we will never know peace.

I am so grateful that Malala survived, she is an incredible human being and leader and fighter, but the most peaceful and loving kind of fighter, who uses words instead of guns and books instead of bombs.

Thank you Gavin Aung Than, for using your art and talent to put us in this horrible moment in our history, so to better understand how critical it is that we all fight for justice for all our children, together.

Here is Zen Pencils 104, on Malala Yousafzai.

Thanks for reading my little rant. If you felt an affinity with some of my thoughts, please give a little ❤ and/or share it with your friends.

Here are some ways to help, thought I bet you are super smart and can figure out a ton of great ways to help on your own. But here’s a quick go-to list: