In 2006, after completing his high-school education, 18 year old Peter Kassig from Indianapolis joined US Military and was deployed in Iraq. He came back to the States when his service was over, joined an university to study Political Science, and like many other veterans, he was supposed to earn a bachelors degree and get a good life. Only not. He left university and returned to the Middle East as a humanitarian worker. In Beirut, at first he spent considerable time trying to help Palestinians in the camps. Anyone who had any doubts about his seriousness soon lost them because it was clear that Peter was hardcore. He’s the kind of guy who burns with passion and wasn’t just talk. Some of his best friends in Beirut were Palestinians because of his efforts. At this time, the Syrian conflict had been increasingly boiling over into Lebanon. It wasn’t uncommon to meet Syrians who had escaped the turmoil. No one who knew Peter in Beirut was surprised when he turned his focus to helping Syrians. He started his relief group, called Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA), in the fall of that year (2012). It was small scale and very risky. Peter and a small group of volunteers would buy supplies and smuggle them into Syria for refugees, communities in need and hospitals. Eventually he moved to the Turkish border with Syria because there was more to do there. ... it ran on a shoestring budget would have been an overstatement. A small trickle of donations from friends and family, handled by a church in Indiana, was his main source of funding. ......... The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, released a video this week claiming to have beheaded Peter Kassig. ......... In a letter Kassig wrote to his parents last June said: I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all. I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need. .......... And that was all.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 22:45:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015