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Show Kurds plight sobering Letters to k igl the Editor ffft Guidelines gf Kaysvliie Todoy welcomes letters from our readers. In the interest of space and conformity, the maximum length should be 300 words (about one and one-half double-spaced typewritten pages). All letters are subject to condensation, as deemed necessary by the editor for space reasons We cannot accept tor reprinting letters that may be defamatory or deemed by the Clipper editorial board to be offensive to the community. Ail tetters to ine editor should Include the writer's name, address and a daytime telephone number. Typewritten signatures are not acceptable. No more than one letter from an Individual will be published during a month. Letters of appreciation will be published based on individual merit. describable joy that comes with each sweet new child. When I think of what it must feel like for those mothers to helplessly watch their own children suffer and die in front of their eyes, I feel pain and sadness. I cannot relate to that kind of agony. As Mother's Day approaches, I can't help but wonder if I really deserve de-serve to be applauded as a mother. More appropriately, I am the one who should be grateful that I live in a land of freedom, a land of abundance abun-dance where I can enjoy bathing my children in clean and plentiful water, where the challenge of mealtime is how to minimize the mess, not where to get enough food to fill their tummies, where bedtime tears are shed because little ones don't want to go to bed, not because their bed is on the cold, muddy desert floor. Next time 1 find myself tiring over yet another load of laundry, I will be grateful that I can provide Editor: It is a rare occasion that finds me struggling to put my feelings on paper, but a few recent incidents have sparked such poignant emotions emo-tions within me that I need to ex-press ex-press them, yet words seem inadequate inade-quate to do them justice. Perhaps if I write simply as a mother, a powerful power-ful message may nevertheless be communicated to those who share similar tugs to the heartstrings. As I daily watch the news reports of the Kurdish refugees camped miserably on the Turkis-Iraqi border, I am heartsick over the wretched condition of these people. I see fathers fighting over food drops, hoping to glean even a meager portion to save their children from starvation. I watch as mothers wrap tiny newborn babies in dirty scraps of cloth and hold them close to their bodies as they struggle to survive. And yet shallow graves continue to be filled. The picture of human despair is almost unfathomable. And I feel so helpless, as I sit on a comfortable couch in a warm home and cuddle my three-month-old son while he coos and smiles. He is clean, well-fed well-fed and healthy. It all seems so unfair and while I know that life has never been fair, I can't help feeling that this sordid example of "man's (Saddam Hussein's) Hus-sein's) inhumanity to man" is the greatest tragedy there is. These suffering suf-fering people are innocent of any crime they were simply born in a place and time of horrible circumstance. cir-cumstance. It is tempting for me to wonder why these people continue to bear children when their lifestyle is so poor and their future so desperate. des-perate. But I stop myself, for who am I to deny these women the in- my children with clothes to keep them warm and clean. Of the many contrasts that this world provides the human family, I can only be glad I'm fulfilling my role as mother in this place and time, and hope that the condition for all mothers on earth will someday be such that they will shed tears of joy with the birth of each newborn babe rather than weep in sadness. Sherrie Einfeldt |