Where I Was When the War Between Ethiopia and Eritrea Started.

I was just trying to check on Google how far it is from Mezbir, Ethiopia to Tsorena, Eritrea. Google knew better one can’t walk across the border, so it gave me this directions L

 

A little over 20 years and 2 months ago, I was up on a very tall eucalyptus tree some 30km north of Adwa. Out of nowhere two fighter jets flew directly above my head. It was probably the closest I have ever been to a flying plane. They were so low to the ground and so fast, it appeared to me as thought they were racing each other side by side. They were exactly on the same level and exactly side by side, so fast almost no sound until they pass you.  Little Daniel was amused for sure. It was COOL. I didn’t think of it much at the time, so I did what I was there to do (collect leaves for our house in preparation for a religious holiday the next day) and when I got home that evening, we learned the fighter jets that flew over my head were on their way to bomb Ayder elementary school in the middle of Mekelle.

Some months after that, Ethiopia and Eritrea went into full out war on many front of their border. The Ethiopian army’s presence in our village was overwhelming. They would train there and get sent to the front line (it seemed they were being rotate frequently perhaps every week or so). The Tsorena frontline was not too far from where we were. We could hear the sound of heavy artillery and see tracer fire lit up the mountains from a safe distance in our homes. Sometimes we would wonder, what if, if the Eritrean forces get past the Ethiopian defense line, would that mean we would have to move from our homes? Three of my cousins used to live in Eritrea at the time. They were all deported empty handed of course; but as you can guess everyone was happy they came back alive. If my memory serves me right, some spent sometime imprison before they were finally allowed to cross the border. How about my aunt and her family, who lived in Egela, very close to the border, had they already moved? There was no way to know? However, often I was not worried at all. With all the propaganda coming out of both countries, you would think both countries were wining tremendously.  

The more I heard about what was going on, I started to feel so violated my pride striped naked. Why did I feel that way? I am not sure, but the one thing that was repeatedly aired over ‘Dimtsi Woyane” radio was, how Eritrea with its 3 or so million people had the audacity to invaded the never before colonized Ethiopia; a country with a population well over 60 million inhabitants. With those numbers, I thought, the Eritreans must not be smart. The population size outweighed everything else as far as I was concerned. I didn’t know or understood each country’s military capability. Anyway, one of these days I sat down under a little tree and wrote my first actual poem. It was mainly focused on Ethiopian pride and how dare Esayas invade us. I remember one of my insulting lines was, calling Esayas an old monk. Obviously in retrospect, it doesn’t make sense why that should even be an insult. I gave my poem to my amazing teacher Negasi, who encouraged me to go on and read it in front of the entire elementary school in the morning when we would line up to sing our anthem. There is some thing about being young and ignorant. I felt I stood up right, as thought I went to the war zone and defended my country!

About two years into the war, I had just started 7^th grade and a large town meeting was called on. School was dismissed early so that students could attend the meeting. I remember as soon as we were let out of school to go to the meeting, many older students would stray out of the path to the meeting, sometimes even run away and just disappear. Once we got to the meeting place, we were reminded of the bravery of our people. This was a meeting run by military personnel under a Ficus Vasta tree of course; the organic way. They basically came to enlist young adults and teens for the Ethio – Eritrea war.

This is last part to my previous post. The way it was done makes me very sad till this day. Very persuasive soldiers make the case why; we must go defend our sovereignty from the Eritrean aggression. They made it very clear, no one was being coerced or obligated, but peer pressure, your manhood and your patriotism or there lack off was in full display for everyone to see. So after taking few short questions mainly from concerned parents, they play Eyasu Berhe’s songs (I can’t explain what Eyasu Berhe means to the people of Tigray, so I will just not even try) and everyone is clearly instructed, if you don’t want to commit to enlist, you may not dance. If you do dance, that’s basically signing up to go.  All the sudden, within minutes you find yourself in a crowd of highly emotional people jumping to the middle dancing and shouting timeless slogans. You look to your left, you look to your right, and well you can’t be the only coward amidst all bravery. So, you jump in too. Once the song was over, we were pretty much led away to a transient camp with soldiers in the front, in the middle and in the back. There was no, go say goodbyes to your family and meet us in an hour kind of stuff, obviously understandable of course.

I imagine it’s always a mixed feeling for everyone. On one hand, you want to be a patriot, but you also don’t want to leave your family and go to a war where coming back alive and able is up to a mere luck. The Tigreans are intimately familiar with this more than any other people that I can think of. So, I for one, I was the least eager to enlist. But, I felt trapped. More than the peer pressure and sense of patriotism, one of my equals who also happened to be family was very enthuse to enlist. The thought of going home and telling his parents why their son didn’t come home with me after school, that, I couldn’t bear. Deep in my being I felt, they would say, ‘Daniel, you are the smart one, how could you let him go?’ I felt that would be the heaviest burden to shoulder.

Once we arrived at the transient camp in Dibdibo, they start registering people’s names before asking them to get on the back of pick up trucks. All up to that point, I had mainly one goal in my life, to enter Kalamino Boarding High School. Free room and board for the few bright Tigrean students able to obtain the highest test scores on their statewide 8^th grade examination thanks to TDA. Back then J I was as an excellent of a student as they come. Always my in grade except first semester of first grade. But that day at the transient place, there I was wondering am I really going to a war? Once everyone in front of us had registered and jumped up to the track, the soldier taking names looked at my cousin and I and said, you guys are too young go home. You best believe, I breathed sigh of relief! I said, lets go home. He refused. At this point, I felt he was not my responsibility. I left his ass there and went home. When I got home, I told our folks I mainly went that far to try to get him out of it [smh]. I can’t tell you how much of that was the truth and how much of it was, trying to save myself from getting chewed. Again, you get all kind of mixed feelings.

As life goes, I ended up coming to America that year. Later on in College, I choose to write one of my short research papers on Badme (if you have the time you can read it here). It turns out, at least for me anyway, the older I got and the more I tried to read, things like borders, facts, truth, and meanings could almost all be subjective. It just depends the sources of the information you consume and the motives and intentions behind them. I also started to feel a sense of a little embarrassment when I find myself explaining the Ethiopian – Eritrea war or the intra-armed conflicts in Ethiopia. I try to imagine if my non-Ethiopian/Eritrean friends and classmates’ think of us as uncivilized people? Because, we do do very “uncivilized” things often, yet again, we are also off the people who built the Teple of Yeha, ruled over the Axumite Kingdom and carved the rock hewn churches of Lalibela along with the countless human advancement that came with it. 

And

So,

It is wonderful to see Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders holding hands again.

J

#DanielEthiopia

Do You Think Like This

Do you remember the last time you said to yourself or someone else, "She gets me." Or "He gets me."? Or you heard someone explain something and you found yourself so captivated, because you thought you were the only one who thought things in that way? So, I received the following text from a friend and I started to write my reply, but it kept getting longer, so I copied it and moved to the Notes app on my phone to finish my thought. It took a life of its own, 1,128 words later; here is my response to you my dear friend.

“There are ppl I don't think about them.

I don't know why.

There are those I think sometimes about, I think I know why.

Those I think about them frequently

Are interesting. I know why I thing about them” 

This text sprung me to when I used to wonder what is it that I really like and enjoy in life? What is the long term career path that would make me happy? Of course sometimes I still do ask myself these questions, but now, not as frequently. These days, I am too busy ‘adulting’ I can't afford that kind of quality life :) do you follow me? I am sure you can relate. With so much information overload and trying to resist instant gratification from breaking news every minute, time to think alone is almost out of our reach.  

One day, while reading a quote by Leo Tolstoy I believe it was the following quote,

"For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.” 

As I read these words, I felt I was experiencing a momentary epiphany. It felt, the clarity of what I enjoy in life the most was coming to focus so vividly and that is, to live a happy life, meant to achieve a life style that induces positive stimuli continuously, from doing the things you spend most of your time doing. I have heard someone explain it this way, “A man, who enjoys baking bread, should not open a bakery”. That is to say, if you enjoy baking bread, you should just work as a baker for someone else, as opposed to owning a bakery. Because, if you own a bakery, you will spend most of your time dealing with things like inventory, sales, staff management, cleaning and balancing the accounting that you will not have enough time to actually bake bread.

I find elevating positive stimuli from the exchange of ideas, from hearing people speak about something so well, so insightful, beyond anything I could imagined was possible to articulate a message. But when they do, it makes perfect sense and I am left feeling, this person gets me at least on this specific topic, like you are both floating on the same wave length. It is not tangible, it is not something you can prove or show as evidence. It is a sense of connection, a feeling deep in the mind. Tangible things though can be touched and felt, don't seem to produce as strong stimuli. I imagine this is obviously different for different people. But, the finite nature of tangible things is what makes it so. A man worth $1 billion for example, has more of the exact same things in comparison to a man worth $10. What I realized stimulates me was the idea of unreachable ends, thoughts and feelings. A deeply philosophical point of discussion for instance, especially when two honest and independent minds have completely different views of the same issue, but have the at most respect and value for the dissenting view of their opponent.

The meaning and weight of the quote by Tolstoy’s above for instance, would be valued and understood very differently from person to person. One might find it to be very simple and straight forward statement; while to another, it might be the most profound wisdom he or she might have ever heard.  

Consider you and your friend read the quote together, and then you ask your friend what he/she thought of the quote? Now picture if you will, the clarity of your friend's thought inside his/her own mind, the emotions the quote might have sparked, the meaning it bears and the images it might have brought him/her?

But, most importantly, think of the patterns and flow of the thought inside your friend's mind...? Does it disperse and roam everywhere like a cloud in the open sky?

Or does it rise and fall, like a cascading mountain range?

Or is it a forward motion along a winding path?

Or does it spiral counterclockwise, deeper and deeper into the center? There, pause for a second…the word is counterclockwise, why is it easier for you to imagine clockwise spiral as opposed to counterclockwise spiral?? J Do you ever think about not only what the person you are talking to is thinking, but also the movement or the process of thought formation inside their mind?

Your friend might respond with a one short sentence response, but, deep inside, your mind knows, there is just so much more than what your friend uttered. Now, you can’t even focus on this previous sentence, because your mind is stuck at the previous paragraphs, wondering, if you had to transform it into an image, what does the process of thought processing actually look like?? You have read thus far, but your focus is actually way behind still on the above paragraph isn’t it? 

We don't know how and to what extent another person understands something that we do understand, hear or interpret. But often, we are overly confident in assuming so effortlessly about how others understand us. The meaning and depth constructed into one sentence is impossible to be received with an equal meaning and depth by another individual. Yet, we all walk around believing we fully understand others and that we are fully understood.

What I am intrigued by is,

1.       How did we come to build that kind of full-fledged confidence on believing/assuming we understand others and vice versa, as though we can see through someone else’s head and read their thoughts and feelings?

2.       Is our overconfidence actually a sign of us resorting to our self-serving biases – believing we understand and are understood, because we often don’t give ourselves enough time for solitude and self-reflection to realize we might be way off?

3.       Or is this the byproduct of millions of years of human evolution and body language reading at the subconscious level?

4.       Or is it rather just the grace of God…he can do all things and no explanation is needed?  

~

Cheers,

Daniel

P.S Though we haven’t spoke for few months at the very least, I loved how the text didn’t start with hi, hello, how are you…its because we both get it:: 

To be a Refugee is to Live a Suspended Life Indefinitely

I have worked with refugees for four years. It might not be long, but I learned a lot about resiliency, optimism, hope and what really matters in life. One of the refugees that I had the privilege of working with had lived in a refugee camp for over 22 years. He would wake up everyday hoping for good news, praying this would be the day he would hear of being resettled somewhere in the world. Hours turn into days and days into years, just waiting and waiting ..and waiting  and waiting some more to start his life. For the millions of refugees across the globe, their goals, plans, dreams; everything is put on hold. Boredom takes over, the days are long and the nights even worse.

This client of mine was blessed with two babies while living his temporary life at the refugee camp. As if life wasn't hard enough already, his wife died. Now, he had two children that he must take care of, love, make them laugh and be strong for. After going through years of extreme vetting, he was finally coming to America to start his life anew.

I am sure you can imagine his joy, because for the first time in over 20 years, he was sure he was going somewhere to establish some stability and daily routine. Enjoy the luxury of having a permanent mailing address, where he could receive letters, a key to a room, his own space to be alone, to reflect, mourn his loses and yes be grateful for his blessings.

Imagine for a moment trading places with this refugee and his children, finally arriving at an American airport and being told you are not welcomed here? The same country that vetted you for years and granted you the opportunity to come and be part of its family? It is a rape in broad daylight of whatever dignity one might have had left as a human being.

The US has been the favorite destination for millions around the world. Sure many come for the economic opportunities, but above all else, people wish to immigrate to the US to live in peace and breathe freedom. It is the mindset that, in America, we are free to think, speak and be as we please that makes this country so desirable.

It is the belief that, once you become a citizen of the US, we are all equals. Because, the color of our skin, the god we pray to or the origins of our roots were never the measures of our American pride. It's the idea that, we all play a role in perfecting this unfinished project that we call America by always mending and amending its flaws.

It is our faith in our rule of law to be just, and the freedom to aspire to be whatever we wish that makes us Americans. People don't come here to steal anyone's job. In fact, often times, it's actually the brightest, most educated, imaginative and most resilient who manage to find ways to arrive in America "land of the free".

It is unAmerican to grant the the most vulnerable an opportunity to be part of our family to only deny them upon arrival. That is not my America and it should not be yours. Resist the hate. It had served no one.

#PoliticsMatters

#RefugeesWelcome


~ Daniel

Most Memorable #Obama Moments

These are some of the Most Memorable #ObamaMoments for Me.

1. In 2008 as a college student, I knocked on one college mate’s dorm room and asked if he had registered to vote and if he has not if he would like to register? He said He has already registered. Then I asked if he had made up his mind about his choice for president? Besides asking people to register, we (with the College Democrats) were also trying to do some survey…

                  He said, “Yes. I am going to vote for the tall one.”

I said, Obama?

He said, "No. The White guy.” 

By that time, there already have been few presidential debates I believe, and it was obvious that then Sen. Obama was way taller than his opponent Sen. McCain. Why this college mate perceived the “White guy” to be the taller candidate never left my curious mind. 

2. Attending Obama’s 2008 inauguration in DC and separating from my roommate; despite our well thought-out strategy to stick together…and then sustaining some minor pain in my leg that lasted at least three months from the freezing cold temperature of that day.

3. Obama’s Presidential speeches...

 

#CampaignSpeech. It would been acceptable to hear a mediocre speech after losing the New Hampshire Primary in 2008, but Obama’s Concession Speech was one of the best one. It was so good that I thought, wow this guy plans to go all the way.

#GunViolence. Tearful and visibly angry Obama speaking after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting Newtown, Connecticut

#OnRace. Obama singing "Amazing Grace" during his eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney were some of his most moving moments for me. 

#Family. Obama speaking about his wife Michele and his children at his Farewell Speech and when Sasha reminded her dad to wave at his supporters who were seated behind him during his 2012 Victory speech in Chicago. 

4. This quote from the New Yorker Magazine, stating how “[Obama] sought to persuade by explaining and reasoning, not by simplifying or dramatizing—a form of respect that the citizenry didn’t always deserve."

5. My biggest disappointment with Obama will always be for choosing not to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for his the presidency.  He would have won and built on Obama’s legacy. In Sanders, with all his greatness and an admirable man of character, a man so cool, composed and measured, I saw the Promised Land in Bernie more than I ever saw in candidate Obama. Honest politician a genuine candidate who stood on the right side of history for justice and equal rights for all. As lofty as some of his goals might have been, I believe in them. Resetting our course in the right direction was important enough in itself regardless of how much was achievable. 

Now it’s Trump, and our work to right his wrongs by speaking and writing his wrongs has to be unrelenting. 

If you understand Tigrigna, here is my view on Obama Presidency, its a short few minutes interview with Betre SilTan of VOA Tigrigna. 

http://tigrigna.voanews.com/a/3683765.html

#PoliticsMatters

#DanielEthiopia

Ethiopia’s Problem #1: Inflexible Leadership

Source: bottom of the image

Ethiopia is such a beautiful country. It's a rare contrast of people and nature. I don't say this just as a

proud Ethiopian, I would say this just as a logical loving global citizen.  That beauty has always been there, though from time to time disintegrating from within. We are one proud people, partly due to our ignorance; partly due to the remarkable legacy our forefathers left us. Unfortunately for over half a century, we have been in a very dark era. Now what is certain is that, we are at a crossroad once again. On one side there seems to be a tangible and economically strong foundation to jump over our deeply rooted economic problems. On the other, we seem to be disintegrating at an alarming rate.

Last year during my 18-month stay in Ethiopia, I had the chance to travel to as many parts of the country as I could. I was able to cover 6 out of the 9 regional states. What I learned the most is that, no blanket statements define the problems. The possible solutions for one area are not the solutions for the other. From South Omo Valley to Konso, from Raya to Illibabur, from Harar to Dire to Afar.  There are a lot of problems, all with their own root causes. As a country, Ethiopia has a very long journey to travel and I hope we will get there together. 

When you are on the ground in Ethiopia absorbing everything through your senses, you realize (at least this was my personal experience) people's priorities and concerns vary tremendously from place to place. It might be freedom and democracy in bigger cities, in others, it's about the basic human needs, water and food.  

The path to solving Ethiopia’s problems isn’t as simple as those of us in the Diaspora make it sound to be. Ask the Ethiopians who live and breath in its abyss. Ask a lot of the Ethiopian Diasporas who either travel to the motherland frequently or have completely relocated there. Many of them will tell you, the process of democratizing and developing will take time. We need steady and stable forward motion. The need for a policy that is inclusive of all Ethiopians home and abroad to get involved is a must. The fastest and safest route will be when enough Ethiopians have a stake in the stability and continuity of their country. Then, for their own self-interest they will fend of external forces that do not have their best interest at heart.

So What Are The Solutions and How Do We Get There?

The short answer is slowly but surely, one step at a time. The challenge is bringing millions to work together and develop a working relationship and eventually build a trust bond among very different groups including those in the Diaspora? Let us put everything on the table for discussion. The winner-take all mentality and sacrificing our own fellow citizens to negotiate from a position of strength is unacceptable.  

What Should Our Step #1 Be?

For starters, you look up to your leaders to set an agenda, to bring you together and lead their followers. Unfortunately right now, we don't have that. Almost every year we hear about Gimgema and how this one is different than the previous one. Yet, when it really comes down to it, it is a mere recycled previous memo of issues and priorities discussed, with almost no one to be held accountable for their shortcomings.

So, relieve many of the old guards from their duties and replace them with younger and dynamic technocrats. The old guards have been in power for so long there shouldn’t be much of new idea left that they haven’t shared by now. Stop reshuffling them from one ministerial or advisory post to the other. If that is meant to provide them with a source of income to support them and their families, just give them a great retirement benefits and bid them farewell with respect.   

The country needs leaders who are not only able to react quickly to current events, but are able to read the mood of the people they lead. The current leaders’ old school mindset of resistance to change is incompetent and stubbornly inflexible to address the problems people are continuing to raise. I will give one specific example. When so many university students were killed by security forces at the outset of the #OromoProtest against the Addis Ababa City expansion plan, almost a year a go, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn did not even speak about it for days. Such tragic events require just and assertive address from the proper authority timely. Unfortunately to our surprise, the course of action the Prime Minister followed seemed as though ignoring the problem would make it go away.    

What is your step #1 action point to address Ethiopia’s ongoing problems?

Soon I will share what I believe step #2 should be. Until then, I will leave you with the following two quotes from President Theodore Roosevelt and author Dean Koontz respectively.   

“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” 

“Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy.” 

Having a stake in Ethiopia’s well being is taking ownership of its problems.

#DanielEthiopia

Do All Lives Matter?

Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer

Before attempting to answer the question, lets just agree that, as a society, there is absolutely something wrong with us. In 2016, for the first time, we have built a spacecraft that reached Jupiter’s orbit. That is 1.7 billion miles away. Our moon is only about 239K miles away from Earth if that gives you any helpful visual. The unbound human ingenuity is unfathomable to most of us. Yet, in a shamefully disheartening way, we continue to kills our fellow humans callously; as though, it carries no value. All the while we cheerfully invest our time, our labor of love and ultimately our life for decades on end to search the vast unknown universe in hopes of finding anything of a value.

One morning last week, my coworker, looked at me and said, “Daniel, are you alright?” I replied, yeah why wouldn’t I? He responded, “You look sad…” Right away I turned around to say something, but I couldn’t formulate sentences to explain my thoughts and feelings. What I wanted to say was something along the lines of, yes I am sad, I am angry, I am disturbed, I am discouraged and so many other different feelings in between. Is it is not obvious, that we as a country are reaching a tipping point? Haven’t we reached a collective breaking point?

I feel insecure, like I am walking on a field of landmine forced to be cognizant of what lays on my periphery. I feel fearful like I am walking on a shaky ground that’s shifting beneath my feet, way faster than I am able to cope with. Don’t you feel that? Don’t you feel the same?

Before I uttered these words, I realized of course he doesn’t. He is not Black, he does not know what it is like to be a young black man. I contemplated for a bit, but realizing the time and the environment does not suit the kind of conversation I would like to have with him, I took the easy way out. I responded to him saying, hhmm nah I am doing just fine and walked away. For me, this was a sudden realization that the unsettling feeling inside has managed to manifest itself involuntarily into my body language and my daily interaction as a consequence.     

We all have different perspective on life, take the following for instance…

You are looking down at the street from a third floor window and see a police officer approach a young man. The officer says something to the young man and an altercation ensues...you can see everything, but you can't hear the exchange. Unfortunately things escalate and the young man is shot and falls to the ground. 

Now, without having any more information about this incident, it is not hard to imagine the conclusion the individual watching this from the third floor would reach. That conclusion is greatly influenced by the individual’s previous experience and existing internal biases. A Black person and a White person are most likely to differ in their interpretation of the reason for the escalation in this situation. Blames will be attributed ranging from disobedience to use of excessive force.  

No matter who you are, we all have built-in implicit biases to a varying degree. That degree depends on a lot of factors including our experience, upbringing and exposure to diversity (in a deep and indispensable connection to people who are different from us). For example, in the incident described above, you visualized the altercation between the young man and the police officer right? Was the officer wearing uniform? What did he look like? How about the young man? Where did you get these images? What is the information that led you to create these images? 

We have a huge trust gap in this country between races, especially between Blacks and White police officers that stems from decades of perpetual systemic injustice. As such it will take decades to understand, admit and solve the stigma and animosity. 

Reducing racism and other complex issues require long-term policy and intentional efforts on all sides to address the roots of the problem. White peoples' internal bias and perceptions of Black people and vice versa, need to be dissected and explained in a psychological and sociological way. 

So, do all lives matter? Well, we know for sure, White lives matter. As Jesse Williams put it, "We have been looking at the data and we know, somehow police manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill White people everyday!" Now can we say black people are treated the same way by the police? Or is it time to admit, "Some are more equal than others"? (Quote from Animal Farm, by George Orwell).

For those people who say all lives matter, I invite you to watch the video 23 Ways You Could be Killed While Being Black and then try to learn more in detail how each of them lost their lives. Then ask yourself, does this happen to White people at the same rate by police officers? You should find the answer to be unequivocally no. Hence why people have found the need to state and remind people, dark skin people’s lives matter too.    

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/07/these-celebrities-powerfully-described-23-ways-you-could-be-killed-while-black

Hopeful,

Daniel

Love

A woman carrying a heavy load in Konso, Ethiopia

LOVE at its core is strength, courage and sacrifice. 

 > Strength is not only the presence of unwavering loyalty, unflinching grip and steady pace at the crossroads, or impermeable and stubbornly sturdy physique, but of unconditional love against all odds.  

 > Courage is to be vulnerable at the hills of mountainous pride and at the trough waves of norms. 

 > Sacrifice is to be of service to others before self, the yearning to give, to please and nurture; the ultimate definition of a woman. 

Women, you are love.

I sat in front of a great woman last year, with a table full of food between us in a fairly remote place. Right next to us, a man in his 50s sitting in the next table with another man. Boastfully he started expressing his interest and waving hundred dollar bills at a young lady. He was trying to convince her to go with him for the night. The young gal seemed as though trapped between two hard rocks. For her, the distance between yes and no, seemed light years away.

In that moment, helpless shiver took over me, as the great woman in front of me, started to choke in her own words. Indignant at what was happening. Her solidarity in sisterhood, her love burning inside, her sympathy rolled up in tears, her courage to stay still and allow the young woman to decide for herself, while her empathy raced down her tender cheeks…its magnetic force so strong, impossible to resist it pulled me in.

Women, you are love everyday.

We celebrate you on this International Women Day and everyday.

Daniel: March 8th, 2016