(Newark Star-Ledger) Maida Averbach - The phone call came at 6 a.m. from my son Steve's wife, Julie, speaking very calmly and slowly from Jerusalem. "There has been a bombing on the bus that Steve was on," she said. "He is alive but hurt." Steve's spinal cord was injured, and he had had surgery to remove a ball bearing that entered his neck. I cannot understand the mentality of a culture in which parents raise a child to want to die in such a fashion - bombs strapped to his waist, that teaches its young to hate with such a passion that instead of wanting to grow up to serve others in a productive way, they kill innocent people while dying themselves, in the belief that they will attain a place in heaven with wonderful rewards. Steve is finally out of immediate danger of death, but he remains paralyzed from the shoulders down.
2003-09-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive