Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Invention by Colin Powell

Earlier in the day, Megs posted on Powell's statement about Religion and Politics. There is an interesting back story to his comment.

After Powell differentiated between the "correct" and "right" choice, he cited a photograph from The New Yorker that displayed a mother against the grave of her son. Here is Powell's quote from MTP and the photo.
I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life.

No comments: