Bazooka

For nearly seven years, Melina Salazar was the only waitress at a Texas diner willing to serve grumpy 89-year-old WWII veteran Walter "Buck" Swords. He complained constantly, never smiled or tipped, and drove others away—but Melina always greeted him with patience and kindness. When Walter suddenly stopped coming in, Melina wondered what happened. Then she received a call from his lawyer: he had passed away and left her $50,000 cash plus his 2000 Buick in his will. The note revealed her consistent warmth had meant the world to him. A quiet reminder that kindness, even to the difficult, can change lives.

On this day 31 years ago, a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed while riding a bicycle with his cousins in a village near Lahore, Pakistan. His name was Iqbal Masih. At four years old, his family sold him to a carpet factory owner to repay a debt of 600 rupees, less than $12. For the next six years, he was chained to a loom. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for a few cents. He was beaten with a carpet fork when he slowed down. The factory owners deliberately underfed the children so their fingers would stay small enough for the intricate weaving. By the time he was 10, he stood just four feet tall, 12 inches shorter than the average boy his age. One morning, he escaped. He jumped on the back of a tractor heading to a meeting about bonded labour. He heard a man explain that what the factory owners were doing was illegal under Pakistani law. When the man asked if anyone wanted to speak, Iqbal stepped up to the microphone. He never stopped. He helped free over 3,000 children from bonded labour in carpet factories across Pakistan. He completed five years of schoolwork in three. He spoke at international conferences in Sweden and the United States. He told a room full of adults in Boston that he wanted to become a lawyer so he could free every enslaved child in Pakistan. He was 12 years old. Brandeis University offered him a full scholarship and said they would be waiting for him. When asked why he would return to Pakistan when he knew his life was in danger, he said his mission was more important than his life. On Easter Sunday 1995, he was shot in the back while cycling home. He was hit by over 120 shotgun pellets. His cousins were barely touched. He was the target. His funeral was attended by 800 people. In the days that followed, 3,000 people marched through Lahore. Half of them were under the age of 12. After his death, a group of seventh-graders from a school in Massachusetts where Iqbal had once spoken raised $25,000 and built a school in his name in Pakistan. April 16 is now recognised as the International Day Against Child Slavery. The United States Congress created the Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labour in his honour. It is still given out every year.

祖母が97歳で、スマホを買った。 理由を聞いたら一言だった。 「死ぬ前にやりたいことがあるから。」 何をするつもりか聞いたら、黙って画面を見せてきた。 インスタグラムのアカウントだった。 「インスタやるの。」 「やる。」 「何を投稿するの。」 「庭の花。」 祖母の庭には、60年育て続けた花があった。 毎朝水をやっていた。 その花を、インスタに上げるつもりだった。 「フォロワーとか気にするの。」 「気にしない。」 「じゃあ何のためにやるの。」 少し間があった。 「私がﾀﾋんだ後も、花が残るから。」 スマホの設定を手伝いながら、何も言えなかった。 3ヶ月後、祖母のアカウントに変化があった。

On 6 August 1945, a 29-year-old ship engineer was walking to work in Hiroshima, Japan when he saw a plane drop something attached to two parachutes. Then the sky turned white. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was just 3 km from the centre of the first atomic bomb ever used in war. The blast ruptured his eardrums, temporarily blinded him, and burned the entire left side of his upper body. He crawled to a shelter and found his two colleagues alive. They spent the night in an air-raid shelter. The next day, still badly burned, he boarded a train home. To cross a destroyed river with no bridge, he had to swim through floating bodies. He arrived in Nagasaki on 8 August and went straight to the hospital. The doctor who treated him was a former school classmate. The burns on Yamaguchi’s face were so severe the man didn’t even recognise him. On 9 August, still wrapped in bandages, Yamaguchi went to work at the Mitsubishi shipyard. His supervisor asked him to describe what had happened in Hiroshima. As he was speaking, the room filled with white light again. The second atomic bomb had just been dropped on his own city. He was 3 km from the centre of that one too. His wife and infant son survived. He lost hearing in his left ear permanently. His wife later developed radiation-related cancer, and his son suffered health problems throughout his life before passing away in 2005. Yamaguchi said nothing publicly for decades. Then in his eighties he wrote a memoir and a book of poetry. At 90 he travelled to New York and addressed the United Nations, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The Japanese government didn’t officially recognise him as a survivor of both bombings until 2009. He passed away in January 2010, aged 93. He is the only person in history officially recognised as having survived both atomic bombs.

ผู้หญิงคนนี้เคยโดนข่มขืนเพราะไปเดินคนเดียว ผ่านมา 18 ปี ทุกปีวันที่เคยเกิดเรื่อง เธอจะไปเดินเล่นคนเดียว เพื่อให้จำได้ว่ายังมีสิ่งสวยงามบนโลกใบนี้ ชีวิตไม่ถูกจำกัดตลอดไปด้วยความทรงจำแย่ๆ แต่พอกดอ่านมีผชมาโควทเหี้ยๆ เยอะมาก บอกว่าแหมชอบล่ะสิไม่งั้นถึงนึกถึงทุกปี แล้วเลยนึกอีกเคส เรื่องของผญชื่อลิซ่า เคยถูกผชลักพาตัวไปตอนเด็ก ผชเป็นฆาตกรต่อเนื่องฆ่าผญไป 10+ คน จับลิซ่าข่มขืน แต่ลิซ่าทำเป็นดีด้วยกับผช จนรอดมาได้และผชถูกจับ โตมาลิซ่าเลยมาทำงานเป็นตำรวจ หน่วยที่เคยช่วยเธอจากเหตุการณ์นี้ คอยช่วยคนอื่นต่อไป ผชคิดว่าผญทำอะไรเพราะนึกถึงผช แต่ความเป็นจริงแล้วมันคือความกล้าหาญที่ผญกล้าเผชิญหน้ากับความทรงจำที่เลวร้ายที่สุด แล้วเปลี่ยนมันเป็นสิ่งที่ดีกว่า ไม่ติดอยู่กับอดีตและไม่ยอมใช้ชีวิตที่เหลือด้วยความกลัว ในขณะที่ผชบางคนความคิดยังไม่พ้นค*ยตัวเอง