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To Be a Barber in Kabul |
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Written On: November 16, 2001 |
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My friend Bill is always looking to make a fast buck. Since the Northern Alliance forces drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan’s capital city, he wants to open a barbershop in Kabul. If he could get a visa today, he’d be gone tomorrow.
Bill figures he doesn’t need a lot of training, and there is money to be made there since men who were forced to grow beards and long hair would be itching for “a shave and a haircut.”
After I reminded Bill that most folks in Afghanistan can’t even afford to buy food, he took my advice: stay home, keep your job, and be grateful you are in the “Good Old USA” this Thanksgiving.
We all ought to be especially thankful to live in a country that allows us to worship (or not worship) as we please, a country with laws that protect human rights, and where most people have plenty of food, warm clothes and shelter.
I’m not saying our country doesn’t have problems—because it does. And, I’m not saying that people in our land are not suffering because many are. But Americans are generous people and we have hundreds of programs through churches and government agencies to help those in need. On the whole, we are in much better shape as American citizens than the rest of the world. For that, we should be grateful.
However, this Thanksgiving will be different for all of us. For those who lost friends or loved ones in the September 11 terrorist attacks, it will be a sad, trying time. But for others, the attacks awakened a long-dormant sense of pride and belief in the people and principles that make America great.
Yes, America has room for improvement. But the repression and barbarism imposed by the Taliban on the people of Afghanistan should remind us to be thankful each and every day that we live in the land of the free.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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