May 21, 1981

You are only a few hours old--your eyes don't see, your ears hear little, your mouth makes only the most basic sounds. Yet, some things need to be explained to you.
If you were able to reason and speak, you would be excused for asking why it was you were brought here. As you took your first breath, men were starving themselves to death in Northern Ireland, children were starving to death in Asia and Africa, and people were starved for attention the world over. Why would people allow this to happen? Well, that's just the way we do things in this world.
As the doctor was checking your vital signs, the Pope lay near death in a Rome hospital, the victim of a gunshot wound. Our own President is still not fully recovered from the attack on his life. Why are we so intent on snuffing out life, the very thing which you are fighting so hard to maintain? Well, that's just the way we do things here. Someday, maybe you will understand.
We have recently changed the course of our nation. (That's right. You are officially a citizen of the United States.) We have decided to reduce funding of school lunches at the same time we escalate our military budget. That was we can produce even more sophisticated implements of destruction. In fact, only a few miles from where you were pulled into this world, an atomic missile is poised beneath the ground, pointed toward our communist enemies. Yes, there are babies in that country too. But that's the way we do things here.
Is this any place to bring a baby?
Well, maybe not. And yet maybe it's because things are not perfect that we need you. Because you hate no one, because you are dumb to the distinction between communist and capitalist, because a Catholic looks the same as a Protestant, and a Black the same as an Oriental, you are an example of what we yearn to be. You are free of malice, greed, discrimination, and hate. You are the perfection we all so eagerly seek.
You give us hope. In return, we wish you a long and peaceful life.
Welcome to our flawed world, Carly. It is already nicer for your being in it.... ~T.Stucky