The 4Star-9Rattan Blog

  Story this Wednesday!-The 'Desert Flower' Waris Dirie -Somali -meaning- Desert Flower                             She was born in the Somali desert in 1965.One of twelve children in a nomadic family  that herded goats across some of the harshest landscape on earth.By age six, Waris Dirie  was responsible for sixty goats and sheep.She walked them into the desert each day to  graze.Water was scarce. Food was scarce. Everything was about survival. Her name means "desert flower." At five years old, an old woman came for her. She used a broken, bloodied razor blade. No anesthesia. No sterilization.Waris was blindfolded. Given a tree root to bite down on. Held down by her mother while her aunt helped restrain her.Then the cutting began.Female  genital mutilation.Type III,the most extreme form. Everything removed.Everything stitched shut with acacia thorns and white thread, leaving an opening the s...

  Sunday Special-An undaunted 'Moose Bull'   Theodore Roosevelt was climbing into his car outside the Gilpatrick Hotel, headed to give a campaign speech, when a man pushed through the crowd and fired a .38 caliber revolver directly at his chest. https://www.history.com/videos/teddy-roosevelt-shot The shot rang out. Roosevelt staggered but didn't fall.His aides tackled the gunman a  man named John Schrank who believed the ghost of President McKinley had told him to kill Roosevelt. The crowd surged forward, ready to lynch the assassin on the spot.Roosevelt, bleeding, shouted at them to stop."Don't hurt him. Bring him here. I want to see him." They brought Schrank forward. Roosevelt looked at the man who had just shot him and said calmly, "What did you do that for?" Then he ordered his men to take Schrank to the police, unharmed. Roosevelt's aides insisted he go immediately to the hospital. He refused.Instead, he did something that seemed impossible...