Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

An Open Letter to Zubeidat Tsarnaeva

Dear Mrs. Tsarnaeva:

If you and your family would allow me a moment of your time, I believe that I know my fellow Americans well enough by now to tell you that we offer our sincere condolences for the pain which you and your family are suffering at this moment in time, and that we do not hold you responsible for any other person’s actions. I must tell you, also, however, that America did not take your kids away.

You and your husband, their father, brought them here to secure for them a better life than that they’d have lived (if they’d have lived) in a war zone made so through no fault of your own. And it was a terrific decision. By all accounts, your sons were happy here and were even thriving in their educational and sporting endeavors. You might have even had an American Olympian on your hands. If not for religious extremists-turned-terrorist who played into a vulnerable young mind searching for answers to questions which most of us have asked from time to time in our lives, especially in our youth, but are usually allowed to find the answers to on our own and/or in conjunction with secular, social and/or moderate (or at least, not murderous) religious organizations and movements without the interference and the influence of zealots seeking conscripts. And for that, as well, believe me, we are all very sorry.

But America didn’t take your kids away. Religious extremists took your kids away, just as they’ve been taking kids away from parents and families and friends for thousands of years. And they didn’t do it to you, alone. They did it to us, too, by taking away from all of us two young men who might have otherwise done something terrific (or even “merely” decent) during their lives for their families and friends and their nations and peoples, but who instead were convinced by religious extremists that they should bring further death and destruction (thus far, at any rate) to a world that already has far too much of both. [I say “thus far” because it’s still possible for 19 yr old Dzhokhar to do something meaningful with his life if he would use it to share with others (especially young people around the world) what is his clearly unique experience with and understanding of and perspective as to how a teenager described by a high school friend as “a walking angel” can possibly turn murderous in such a short period of time -- a matter of merely months -- under the influence of someone who was, himself, so recently so “normal” in outlook and disposition, yet who both fell under the spell of religious extremists and “turned terrorist” after having started out in moderate, modest and humble surroundings.]

And so, again, America did not take those kids away from you. Or from us. Nor did Islam. Nor did religion. Those kids and their minds and their spirits and their lives and the minds and the spirits and the health and the lives of the victims of the bombings and the shootings were taken away by religious extremists who, unless and until we all face that fact and try to do something about that, specifically, will (whatever the religion) continue to do what they've been doing since the first religious extremist hooked his first victim: get some soul-searcher somewhere to do something horrific just often enough to continue to spread their gospels of fear and anger and hatred as vendetta against those who believe neither exactly nor as rigidly as they do.

And while we can never vanquish every extremist or wipe out extremism itself in its myriad forms, I do believe that, together, we can, by listening and learning and teaching and talking and watching and listening and learning and teaching and talking and watching as much as we can, fight the REAL enemy in this regard -- religious extremism -- and I further believe that, if we do, we WILL save some kids somewhere from likewise being taken away by them, and we WILL save their lives as well as the lives of those who would otherwise fall victim to the bullets and the bombs which, in reality, are all the extremists have to offer their followers and to give to the world at large.

We will never identify whom we’ve saved or what we’ve prevented, because of course we can’t see who didn’t do what they otherwise would have done today if not for preventive steps we took yesterday; but we do know, don’t we, that if we listen and learn and teach and talk and watch and listen and learn and teach, etc., as much as we can as often as we can from here on in, insofar as religious extremism and extremists are concerned, we do know that we will prevent them from taking at least some of the other contented-yet-questioning kids out there (and here) in order to make terrorists out of them, and we will prevent other mothers and fathers and families and nations from enduring the grief with which so many suffer today as a result of religious and other extremists and their influence -- don’t we?

I close, Mrs. Tsarnaeva, by stating with all sincerity and with genuine sadness that I honestly and truly regret the losses which you and your family have suffered at the hands of religious extremists as I regret so very deeply the losses of those who fell victim directly to the bombs and the bullets. I hope with all my heart that those who are in need of and who search and who yearn for comfort and for healing and for peace, will find it; and I hope that you and the members of your family will come to accept the truth of the matter as it is, as painful as it is, and that, by doing so, you will find not merely a necessary acceptance but a genuine measure of peace with what has transpired. And I invite you and your family, and most especially your son, Dzhokhar, to join and to work with the rest of us who likewise believe, as I'm comfortable suggesting you do, that there is and will always be suffering aplenty in the world without the further measure of it which is inflicted upon us by religious extremists and their nationalistic and political brethren; and that we can, and that we should, and that we must -- not only for ourselves but for those who will one day be the grandchildren of people such as yourself and your husband -- work together and share our knowledge and our strength in order to limit, as much as possible, the damage done to our youth and to our health and our lives and our nations and our world by extremists who care nothing for our youth or our health or our lives or our nations or our world, but care only for their own self-aggrandizement, and who are, even at this very moment in time as I write this and again at that moment in time as you read it, leaving us to clean up the blood while they simply move on to find somebody else to do their dirty deeds.

Please, Mrs. Tsarnaeva, don't join them. Join and work with us.

Please.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Christopher Corbett-Fiacco

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Next Article

Best Sports Betting Sites - 10 Online Sportsbooks Ranked for 2024

Best Sports Betting Sites (2024) - Reviews of TOP Online Sportsbooks

Dear Mrs. Tsarnaeva:

If you and your family would allow me a moment of your time, I believe that I know my fellow Americans well enough by now to tell you that we offer our sincere condolences for the pain which you and your family are suffering at this moment in time, and that we do not hold you responsible for any other person’s actions. I must tell you, also, however, that America did not take your kids away.

You and your husband, their father, brought them here to secure for them a better life than that they’d have lived (if they’d have lived) in a war zone made so through no fault of your own. And it was a terrific decision. By all accounts, your sons were happy here and were even thriving in their educational and sporting endeavors. You might have even had an American Olympian on your hands. If not for religious extremists-turned-terrorist who played into a vulnerable young mind searching for answers to questions which most of us have asked from time to time in our lives, especially in our youth, but are usually allowed to find the answers to on our own and/or in conjunction with secular, social and/or moderate (or at least, not murderous) religious organizations and movements without the interference and the influence of zealots seeking conscripts. And for that, as well, believe me, we are all very sorry.

But America didn’t take your kids away. Religious extremists took your kids away, just as they’ve been taking kids away from parents and families and friends for thousands of years. And they didn’t do it to you, alone. They did it to us, too, by taking away from all of us two young men who might have otherwise done something terrific (or even “merely” decent) during their lives for their families and friends and their nations and peoples, but who instead were convinced by religious extremists that they should bring further death and destruction (thus far, at any rate) to a world that already has far too much of both. [I say “thus far” because it’s still possible for 19 yr old Dzhokhar to do something meaningful with his life if he would use it to share with others (especially young people around the world) what is his clearly unique experience with and understanding of and perspective as to how a teenager described by a high school friend as “a walking angel” can possibly turn murderous in such a short period of time -- a matter of merely months -- under the influence of someone who was, himself, so recently so “normal” in outlook and disposition, yet who both fell under the spell of religious extremists and “turned terrorist” after having started out in moderate, modest and humble surroundings.]

And so, again, America did not take those kids away from you. Or from us. Nor did Islam. Nor did religion. Those kids and their minds and their spirits and their lives and the minds and the spirits and the health and the lives of the victims of the bombings and the shootings were taken away by religious extremists who, unless and until we all face that fact and try to do something about that, specifically, will (whatever the religion) continue to do what they've been doing since the first religious extremist hooked his first victim: get some soul-searcher somewhere to do something horrific just often enough to continue to spread their gospels of fear and anger and hatred as vendetta against those who believe neither exactly nor as rigidly as they do.

And while we can never vanquish every extremist or wipe out extremism itself in its myriad forms, I do believe that, together, we can, by listening and learning and teaching and talking and watching and listening and learning and teaching and talking and watching as much as we can, fight the REAL enemy in this regard -- religious extremism -- and I further believe that, if we do, we WILL save some kids somewhere from likewise being taken away by them, and we WILL save their lives as well as the lives of those who would otherwise fall victim to the bullets and the bombs which, in reality, are all the extremists have to offer their followers and to give to the world at large.

We will never identify whom we’ve saved or what we’ve prevented, because of course we can’t see who didn’t do what they otherwise would have done today if not for preventive steps we took yesterday; but we do know, don’t we, that if we listen and learn and teach and talk and watch and listen and learn and teach, etc., as much as we can as often as we can from here on in, insofar as religious extremism and extremists are concerned, we do know that we will prevent them from taking at least some of the other contented-yet-questioning kids out there (and here) in order to make terrorists out of them, and we will prevent other mothers and fathers and families and nations from enduring the grief with which so many suffer today as a result of religious and other extremists and their influence -- don’t we?

I close, Mrs. Tsarnaeva, by stating with all sincerity and with genuine sadness that I honestly and truly regret the losses which you and your family have suffered at the hands of religious extremists as I regret so very deeply the losses of those who fell victim directly to the bombs and the bullets. I hope with all my heart that those who are in need of and who search and who yearn for comfort and for healing and for peace, will find it; and I hope that you and the members of your family will come to accept the truth of the matter as it is, as painful as it is, and that, by doing so, you will find not merely a necessary acceptance but a genuine measure of peace with what has transpired. And I invite you and your family, and most especially your son, Dzhokhar, to join and to work with the rest of us who likewise believe, as I'm comfortable suggesting you do, that there is and will always be suffering aplenty in the world without the further measure of it which is inflicted upon us by religious extremists and their nationalistic and political brethren; and that we can, and that we should, and that we must -- not only for ourselves but for those who will one day be the grandchildren of people such as yourself and your husband -- work together and share our knowledge and our strength in order to limit, as much as possible, the damage done to our youth and to our health and our lives and our nations and our world by extremists who care nothing for our youth or our health or our lives or our nations or our world, but care only for their own self-aggrandizement, and who are, even at this very moment in time as I write this and again at that moment in time as you read it, leaving us to clean up the blood while they simply move on to find somebody else to do their dirty deeds.

Please, Mrs. Tsarnaeva, don't join them. Join and work with us.

Please.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Christopher Corbett-Fiacco

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.