School Girl Shot by Taliban

This is such an important article. It shows us the kind of people we need to be (used to be?)...and the kind of people too many of us have become.

Which sort will you be?

Which will you teach your children to be?

The Gunslinger
Enemy of the Imperial State

Malala vs Sandra

Malala Yousafzai can't speak for herself, and it remains to be seen whether she ever will again. For the crime of going to school -- and blogging about it -- she was shot in the head by a Taliban assassin while in her school bus.

Yousafzai, now 14, knew the risk she was taking when at the age of 11 and under a pen name ("Gul Makai") she began posting an online diary which then appeared on the BBC's website under the banner "Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl."

This followed the Taliban's 2007 overrunning of the Swat Valley where she lives, including the destruction of hundreds of schools for girls.
On Monday, Malala was flown to England for care, perhaps as much to protect her from another near-certain assassination attempt as to get better medical treatment than is available in Pakistan.

Malala's closest friend, Shazia Ramzan, was also shot by the Taliban assassin. Fortunately, her wounds, in her shoulder and hand, were not life-threatening. Shazia is giving voice to the millions of girls like herself and Malala, taking on a similarly brave mantle. In a weekend interview with the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, Shazia said "[Malala] will recover and we will go back to school and study together again."