Little Melissa comes home from first
grade and tells her father that
they learned about the history of Valentine's Day. "Since Valentine's Day
is
for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," she asks,"will God get mad
at me
for giving someone a valentine.Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says
"No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a valentine
to?"
"Osama Bin Laden," she says. "Why Osama Bin Laden," her
father asks in
shock. "Well," she says, I thought that if a little American Jewish
girl could have enough love to give Osama a valentine, he might start to
think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little
bit.
And if other kids saw what I did and sent valentines to Osama, he'd
love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell
everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore."
Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with newfound pride.
"Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard." "I
know,"
Melissa says, "and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines
could blow the shit out of him."