REUTERS:
Suspected Taliban guerillas dragged from a classroom of teenagers in southern Afghnaistan and executed him at the school after he ignored their orders to stop teaching girls, police said Friday.
"He had received many warning letters from the Taliban to stop teaching, but he continued to do so happily and honestly - he liked to teach boys and girls," [Helmand police chief Abdul Rahman] Samir said.
He identified the teacher by a single name, Laghmani.
Besides my family, I count a few teachers as the most important influences on my life - they challenging me, inspiring me and setting me on a path into the world with my eyes wide open.
That's what Laghmani was doing for those students. And for that he was killed.
While the focus of most news is on Iraq, Afghanistan still struggles. The Taliban still terrorizes the people for religious reasons, and yet, as far as most of the U.S. public knows, we've won over there.
Laghmani's death rated page A14 in the Seattle Times. I wonder how many other papers even bothered to run the story.
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted." - Plutarch