Dear President Bush,

    Please don’t veto my letter the way you have vetoed my right to exist. You refused to condemn Israeli crimes against me in Gaza, so at least please listen to my side of the story. 

    I was told that all I would hear at night was my mother’s voice telling me bed-time stories with happy endings. But it seems like all I will hear are the sounds of rockets demolishing my neighbors’ homes, the voice of my mother screaming, and the sound of footsteps hurrying around the house. I was told that all I would smell is the sweet fragrance of my mother or Johnson & Johnson’s; instead all I smell is gun powder and toxic gases.

    I’m angry with my mother, because instead of spending her whole time planning for my future by choosing schools for me and thinking of what I could be, she spends all her time talking about politics, people getting killed, and who said this and did that.

    By the way, this is how I first heard of you, and what made me want to write you! I always heard you speaking of peace on TV, people living happily together, and bright futures. I always heard my mother saying how you know all the reasons and the way to solve all my problems. This is why I decided to ask you for a favor in hopes that you will help me.

    You see… I don’t understand why none of what I was told before is going to come true. The thing that frightens me the most is when I hear my father speak of something called a “checkpoint”. He says it might not let my mother get to the hospital and she will probably have to give birth to me there!

    Please Mr. Bush, I don’t want to arrive in this world at a checkpoint, and I really want to smell Johnson & Johnson’s.

    I also heard you are giving birth to a new Middle East, but I wonder why this new baby is getting all the attention with everyone planning for its birth while no one cares where I will see the light. Why is this baby more important than me? Can you at least be fair enough to care about both of us? Please don’t be the cause of my unhappy future. I’m afraid to see it.

                                                                                              Sincerely,

                                                                                                        A New Born to Be