Symbol
I’m an NPR junkie. I listen to All Things Considered when I cook dinner. I wake up to Morning Edition. On the weekends I love Wait Wait don’t tell me and On the Media along with Car Talk (So tell us your Saab Story). I was listening this morning when they did a report where we heard people who had watched Nick Berg grow up.
Nick Berg went to Iraq to repair radio towers. He went on his own to try to drum up business for his company. He was a bit of a bookworm according to those who knew him. He was clever with math and science. He spent time in third world countries trying to help these countries become better places for the people living there. He has been described as a free spirit and generous with all that he had.
His parents knew he had died in Iraq when the US government informed them this past Saturday that his body had been found. What they didn’t know was how he died or what his last hours were like. Now they do as does the rest of the world. Beheaded with a knife. This sickens many in Iraq. This is the sort of thing that enforces a very negative view about Muslims. Muslims I have known through the years have run the gambit from the casual Muslim to the devote. I don’t think one of them would support what happened to Nick Berg.
The ironic twist in the whole thing is that the FBI had detained Nick for 13 days and he missed his March 30th flight out of Iraq. If he had caught it, I wouldn’t be writing this right now. His parents are upset that their son was detained with out a lawyer and they had to sue the US government to find out if the US had their son in custody. If he had a lawyer, he would have been on that plane and would have probably continued to do good works. Now he has become a symbol for many people of a variety of things. I think his parents would rather have a live son than a dead symbol. I know I would. After I heard the new story, I went into the living room and picked up my daughter and just held her close. She rested her head on my shoulder and said softly, “Mama”. My prayers are with Nick Berg’s family who now have to live with a Nick sized hole in their lives.
Nick Berg went to Iraq to repair radio towers. He went on his own to try to drum up business for his company. He was a bit of a bookworm according to those who knew him. He was clever with math and science. He spent time in third world countries trying to help these countries become better places for the people living there. He has been described as a free spirit and generous with all that he had.
His parents knew he had died in Iraq when the US government informed them this past Saturday that his body had been found. What they didn’t know was how he died or what his last hours were like. Now they do as does the rest of the world. Beheaded with a knife. This sickens many in Iraq. This is the sort of thing that enforces a very negative view about Muslims. Muslims I have known through the years have run the gambit from the casual Muslim to the devote. I don’t think one of them would support what happened to Nick Berg.
The ironic twist in the whole thing is that the FBI had detained Nick for 13 days and he missed his March 30th flight out of Iraq. If he had caught it, I wouldn’t be writing this right now. His parents are upset that their son was detained with out a lawyer and they had to sue the US government to find out if the US had their son in custody. If he had a lawyer, he would have been on that plane and would have probably continued to do good works. Now he has become a symbol for many people of a variety of things. I think his parents would rather have a live son than a dead symbol. I know I would. After I heard the new story, I went into the living room and picked up my daughter and just held her close. She rested her head on my shoulder and said softly, “Mama”. My prayers are with Nick Berg’s family who now have to live with a Nick sized hole in their lives.