One Book Sacramento Essay Contest
Teen category 1st place winner:Nolan Wong
McClatchy High School
Sacramento
After reading Three Cups of Tea this summer, I had to think to myself "Why is Greg the only guy over in Pakistan trying to make things better?" Why isn't the United States government doing anything to solve this problem? Where is our money really going? Why don't more people in the U.S. know about this? Why' aren't we as a country trying to improve the education of kids worldwide? I told my friends about what "Dr. Greg" was doing overseas and asked them if it would be good if schools were built for underprivileged kids in Pakistan. The obvious answer was "Sure that sounds good". I know that they probably would never actually get themselves together, pack up, and go to a foreign country where they could not speak the language or get around. Even if teenagers won't, why don't we send some aid workers that could? All we can do is fight the ultimate root of the insurgents. The root of our problem now with terrorists is "ignorance".
The Greg Mortensons of the world are the ones that are fighting terrorism and ignorance. The mainstream media does a halfhearted job of getting people's attention and informing them that killing terrorists does us no good. There will be a continuous flow of them unless we stop letting the youth of the Middle East slip into the hands of radicals through a lack of a worldly education. We need more people who are actually doing something about the problem, either making it known to the public, or contributing to solving it. Greg Mortenson did and still does both. I think that it may be in the country's best interest to start sending more troops to build schools and send fewer to shoot people. In building the schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Greg Mortenson has probably stopped the creation of more terrorists than a standard GI can shoot.
Knowing this alone, why is the U.S. government so idle in its attempt to stop terrorism at its roots? The only reason that kids are being educated radically is for the lack of a better option than the Wahhabi madrassas. Madrassas only work because the kids that attend them are poor, isolated, and frustrated. If they had access to a better kind of education, one that was less radical and more moderate, they would be less likely to turn to terrorism. This is, in essence, the entire message that Greg Mortenson is trying to convey. Not only can he make the difference, but we as the public, and especially my generation, (endowed now with the special responsibility of saving the world) need to take the necessary steps to improve education everywhere and for everyone. If that means that we have to make a donation or contribute some time, so be it. The world is an ignorant place; we have one chance to educate it. We must act now as a nation and save the world.