A Letter from a Flemish Mother

Gates of Vienna posted the following earlier, and I thought it was worth reproducing here.

In its way it does more to sum up the collective mental condition that has gripped the Western world than a thousand posts on blogs such as this one.

This letter was forwarded to a blogger on a Dutch news site. It was written by a woman in Antwerp to the mother of an imprisoned Moroccan criminal. The woman wrote the letter after seeing the criminal’s mother on a Flemish television news program.

Many thanks to Timo of the Dutch Defence League for the translation:

Dear Madam,

I saw your vehement protests in front of the TV cameras against the transfer of your son from a prison in Aarlen to a prison in Leuven. I heard your complaints about the distance that separates you from your son and the difficulties you have in visiting him.

I also noticed the media attention from journalists and reporters about other mothers in similar situations: they are defended by several organization for human rights and such.

I am also a mother, and I completely understand your protests and discontents. I want to join you in your battle because, as you will see, there is also a large distance between me and my son.

I work hard, earn less, and have the same financial difficulties in visiting my son. With a lot of effort I can reach him on Sundays, because I work all the other days, even Saturdays, and besides that I have my family duties towards my other children.

In case you didn’t understand it yet: I am the mother of the boy that was brutally slaughtered by your son, in the gas station he used to work for at night to pay for his studies and support his family.

I will visit him again next Sunday. While you hold your son in your arms and cuddle him, I shall only lay some flowers on his modest grave at the city cemetery.

Oh, and I almost forgot: you don’t have to worry, the state keeps a part of my lousy wage to pay for a new bed for your son, because he burned the two previous ones in his cell where he is doing time for the brutal crime he committed.

Finally, also as mothers, maybe we can contribute something to stop the inversion of human values. Human rights should only be there for the rightfully deserving.

So much for a letter from a grieving mother. Maybe this is something that we, in these dark days, should think about more often!