They say I am retarded
My IQ is 65.
I’m only 9.
But I can read newspapers and watch news on TV.

I want to be somebody, make a contribution,
not live in a warehouse with no hopes
surrounded by others with no hopes,
receiving so-called help and education from people with no hopes.

A man talked to me in the playground yesterday.
“We need you!” he said.
“You can be a hero, even a martyr in the fight for freedom and justice.”

I want to be a hero. I’m not sure what a ‘martyr’ is.
I want freedom and justice for everyone, not just myself.

“Come with me,” he said.

I went with him.

What did I have to lose?

Headline:
‘In Europe, IS recruits retarded, disabled and people as young as 7 and as old as 68.’

Headline:
‘In the battle for Ramadi, IS used 50 suicide truck bombs.’

Headline I’d like to see:
‘People and governments in wealthy nations begin to see their self interest differently, rethink most fundamental economic, moral and political assumptions, find more, better non-bureaucratic ways to enable meaningful lives for discarded and warehoused human beings.’