saviors

Christmas is more than a simple holiday to me, it’s a day that changed my life. 

When I was 11 years old, I didn’t wake up to presents; I woke to a freezing trailer, some screaming in the next room, followed by my stepdad pealing out of the driveway. My 6 year old little brother and I knew to stay in our room until it was safe to come out. Finally, my mom came in, tears streaming down her bruised face, and told us to dress in layers - and do it quickly. 

I didn’t know what was happening; where were we going? We were stuck back in the woods - far from any neighbors. We didn’t have another car, we didn’t have a phone. It was below freezing outside, with about a foot of snow on the ground.

Still, I did what I was told without question, eager to get away - anywhere would be better. Once I was dressed in 3 layers of clothes and a coat, I helped get my brothers ready as my mom packed a plastic shopping bag full of diapers and powdered baby milk for my youngest brother, who was only a year old.

Then, we were off to the woods. 

Mom said we’d just keep walking until we found a light from a neighbor’s house. She knew the general direction we were going in, but we had to stay far away from the main road so my stepdad wouldn’t find us. We walked all day, freezing, tired, and aching, my little brothers crying most of the way. Our clothes were soaked from the snow. Northern Missouri is hilly, and when we’d reach the bottom of one, it was so cold it felt like bathing in freezing water. Each time, my mom would tell us ‘Just look up at the sun at the top of the hill! We’ll get there and it’ll be so warm!” And she was right; once we’d reach the top of the hill, in comparison to the gullies, it felt like a warm spring day.

We could hear my stepdad’s truck speeding up and down the main gravel road, his angry screams echoing all around us. And though we knew he couldn’t see us, we’d still fall to the ground until the sounds faded out and he was further away. 

Once, my 7-month pregnant mom, holding my baby brother, lost her footing at the top of a hill, and they both tumbled down a steep embankment about 20 feet. The plastic bag that held my brother’s powdered milk ripped open, disappearing into the snow. I thought we were all going to die in that instant. We were in the middle of the woods, no one knew we were there, and I’d never be able to find my way out - or find my way back. If they were injured (or dead), we were stuck there. Lost. We’d freeze to death before we’d starve.

Luckily, by some miracle, they were both okay. 

We continued our trek.

The sun was nearly setting when we reached the top of our final hill.

In the distance stood a big white house, covered in yellow Christmas lights. These distant neighbors had just moved in about a month prior. We knew this because my stepdad would always call them ‘rich city slickers who needed to go back where they came from’. We’d never talked to them before, though.

I don’t think I’ve ever ran as fast as I did that day - we all ran. We had to get to their house quickly before my stepdad could come back up the road and spot us.

The lady, seeing our state of distress, quickly let us in the house - not even asking a question. The warmth stung my frozen, numb skin as she brought out blankets. Her teenage daughter quickly got some of her clothes for me and my mom to change into. My little brothers warmed up in oversized t-shirts. And then they gave us leftovers to eat of their Christmas dinner. I watched cable tv for the first time - cartoons on Nickelodeon - as my mom explained our situation. We had no where else to go. She was desperate; our extended family was just as abusive and didn’t care. 

We’d tried getting away by car what felt like hundreds of other times - one time, of which, my stepdad had climbed on the car as we were trying to get away and stomped his foot through the windshield, shattering glass all over us. When we reached my grandparents like that, it was only a few hours before he found us and they told my mom she should go back. It was her husband. It was the ‘right’ thing to do.

He came to the neighbor’s house once, crazed, looking for us, and we hid in a room as she told him she hadn’t seen us.

At midnight that night, once we didn’t hear my stepdad on the road anymore, the neighbor lady and her daughter drove us to a safehouse in St. Louis - an easy 100 miles away. On Christmas night, these complete strangers took us in and drove us to safety - and they did it with a smile. It still astounds me today.

It was a new beginning, a seed of hope, and a beautiful example of the kindness and generosity that can be found in complete strangers. 

Okay so you know how in Beauty in the Beast…

This lady can’t afford six eggs, which always struck me as a little odd but I figured maybe that was normal in a poor French village. I mean, look at all the little kids she has; she probably struggles to afford any kind of food that would feed all of them… Right?

But later we discover something interesting about Gaston:

Gaston eats five dozen eggs every day. That’s 60 eggs. SIXTY. Which adds up to 420 eggs per week. No wonder this poor village doesn’t have enough of them to go around!

Gaston, who is very well-respected and successful and probably makes good money from his fabulous hunting skills, is cornering the entire egg market. To feed his addiction, he probably has to constantly go around and buy out every farmer’s supply of eggs, which causes the price on any remaining eggs to skyrocket.

Gaston is singlehandedly destroying the town’s economy.

Client: “Lights and boxes, boxes and lights, just get my e-mail for me.

Me: “My test is showing that you should be able to get online right now. Can you tell me what you’re seeing on your computer screen?” Client: “It’s been the same thing for the last two hours.” Me: “An error message?” Client: “No, just stars. It’s black and moving stars.” Me: “…Do you see your mouse next to your keyboard?” Client: “Yes.”

This is why Trump wouldn’t talk about the soldiers.

Without Muslims you wouldn’t have:

Coffee

Cameras

Experimental Physics

Chess

Soap

Shampoo

Perfume/spirits

Irrigation

Crank-shaft, internal combustion engine, valves, pistons

Combination locks

Architectural innovation (pointed arch -European Gothic cathedrals adopted this technique as it made the building much stronger, rose windows, dome buildings, round towers, etc.)

Surgical instruments

Anesthesia

Windmill

Treatment of Cowpox

Fountain pen

Numbering system

Algebra/Trigonometry

Modern Cryptology

3 course meal (soup, meat/fish, fruit/nuts)

Crystal glasses

Carpets

Checks

Gardens used for beauty and meditation instead of for herbs and kitchen.

University

Optics

Music

Toothbrush

Hospitals

Bathing

Quilting

Mariner’s Compass

Soft drinks

Pendulum

Braille

Cosmetics

Plastic surgery

Calligraphy

Manufacturing of paper and cloth

It was a Muslim who realized that light ENTERS our eyes, unlike the Greeks who thought we EMITTED rays, and so invented a camera from this discovery.

It was a Muslim who first tried to FLY in 852, even though it is the Wright Brothers who have taken the credit.

It was a Muslim by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan who was known as the founder of modern Chemistry. He transformed alchemy into chemistry. He invented: distillation, purification, oxidation, evaporation, and filtration. He also discovered sulfuric and nitric acid.

It is a Muslim, by the name of Al-Jazari who is known as the father of robotics.

It was a Muslim who was the architect for Henry V’s castle.

It was a Muslim who invented hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes, a technique still used today.

It was a Muslim who actually discovered inoculation, not Jenner and Pasteur to treat cowpox. The West just brought it over from Turkey

It was Muslims who contributed much to mathematics like Algebra and Trigonometry, which was imported over to Europe 300 years later to Fibonnaci and the rest.

It was Muslims who discovered that the Earth was round 500 years before Galileo did.

The list goes on………..

Just imagine a world without Muslims. Now I think you probably meant, JUST IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT TERRORISTS. And then I would agree, the world would definitely be a better place without those pieces of filth. But to hold a whole group responsible for the actions of a few is ignorant and racist. No one would ever expect Christians or White people to be held responsible for the acts of Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma bombing) or Anders Breivik (Norway killing), or the gun man that shot Congresswoman Giffords in head, wounded 12 and killed 6 people, and rightly so because they had nothing to do with those incidents! Just like the rest of the 1.5 billion Muslims have nothing to do with this incident!

Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-islamic-inventors-changed-the-world-469452.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-29/world/muslim.inventions_1_hassani-inventions-muslim?_s=PM:WORLD

Women who are beyond done with all of this shit.