Malala - A True Role Model

At 16 years of age Malala Yousafzai is more of an adult than most in the public eye.  She has had a rough go of it having been shot and nearly killed by the Taliban but she is strong and focused.  She wants an education.  She understands the importance of it.  She will be a mighty force as she matures.  She's one now.

After watching her speech at the UN I browsed the channels and got my daily dose of the crowds gathering in anticipation of the George Zimmerman verdict and listened as they told of plans to minimize violence should it not go the way the mob wants.

I listened to Eliot Spitzer defend his proclivity for prostitutes and thought of how proud we should be to have leaders with the moral fiber of not only Spitzer, but Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner to name just a couple.

I heard the Janet Napolitano is going to leave Homeland Security to become President of the University of California.  They want a name, obviously, in lieu of academic experience.

I wondered if any one of them has the depth of understanding that young Malala shows. I think not.  For she is thinking about the future of not only herself but millions like her who are currently being deprived of an education and a multitude of basic freedoms.  She realizes how bleak their future will be without at least a rudimentary education. Somehow I can't imagine her ever embarrassing herself, hurting her family or whining for forgiveness.  It's not the fiber from which she is made.

You see, she "gets it".  She has lived her short life among those who have to fight for every step forward they get.  Not among those who indulge themselves yet haven't the good grace to go away.  Not those who are entrusted by their fellow countrymen yet are paralyzed by ideology and mean spiritedness.  Her life and her future don't have the time for such petty indulgences.

Sixteen years old and she has this to say,"Let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, and let us pick up our books and pens.   They are our most powerful weapons."

Not an administration who denies terrorism and refuses to carry the torch for the rest.

"One child, one teacher, one pen, one book can change the world. Education is the only solution.  Education first."

Malala is both child and teacher.  She has her pen and uses it well.  Her 'book' tells volumes about who and what she is and will be.

She's not an American. Unfortunately it would seem we're no longer made of such stern stuff.  But if she were, I'd wait for her to be the first female president.  She has something our leaders are lacking.  Wisdom, substance and a very real awareness of reality.