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| A boy named Osama... |
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| jannah |
| 12/29/04 at 13:19:36 |
| This is kinda positive right? A boy named Osama From Brian Todd CNN WASHINGTON (CNN) -- We can't show the boy's shoes, but try to put yourself in them. We can't show his face; we can't tell you where he goes to school or the area where he lives, or even the state where he lives because his parents are concerned about potential retaliation. We can tell you the boy's first name: Osama. And he can tell you what he's been through by age 11. "You'd get pushed around and sometimes you'd have -- I'd have to ask the teacher a couple of times, because it was severe -- so, and it was, you know it was bad. I felt bad. And it made me feel down and horrible," Osama says. This was a carefree kid -- born to Muslim parents -- with a name that was, until September 11, 2001, simply different. "When I came home that day -- I can still remember, just saying 'Today was a good day'. But then my mom said 'Didn't you hear, that it's -- you know, what happened?' and I'm just asking what happened and she said -- she gave me the whole event and she told me what happened. And so I realized that my name was unique in this part of the world and what I was gonna do," Osama says. His parents say that Osama also had sand and rocks thrown at him, and that he endured what his mother called tremendous torture. It was enough to prompt his parents to consult their pediatrician about changing Osama's name. Asked if he wanted to change his name, Osama says, "Not really ... because it's sort of special. Really when you grow older, they won't remember back -- I don't know, how many, 20 years back. Because they don't -- if your name is Jack they don't refer to you as 'Jack the Ripper.'" They did refer to him, he says, as a "towel-head." Osama was only 8 years old on that day. Asked his opinion of the United States and American children since then, he says, "I'm not blaming anybody for that. I wouldn't be happy if I saw so many people die in my own country. I wouldn't be that happy. And I was born in America, so I can understand their temper too." He says things have gotten better in recent months, but his parents are again worried. Osama is entering middle school next year. But their child may be more resilient than even they know. Asked what he wants to be when he gets older, Osama says he's not sure but that he just wants to make the world a better place. |
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