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Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN Special Representative to Iraq. RIP.

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Suzanne

Dear BuzzFlash-

Sergio Vieira de Mello was beautiful and rare, in every way a man can be beautiful and rare. He had movie star looks. Tremendous charm, grace and joie de vivre. The ability to articulate truth with crystalline clarity--in five languages. He tackled Herculean assignments with enthusiasm, in the darkest spots of the world, with immense intelligence and aplomb. Like a magician he created a sense of abundance from scare resources, and amplified the highest in people, in the lowest of circumstances.

Mr. Vieira de Mello was a discrete hero. His vast store of qualities could have been wielded to pile up millions of dollars, if not billions, for himself. Instead, Mr. Vieira de Mello used his 33 years at the UN to tirelessly defend human rights around the globe. Including as the UN's High Commissioner of Human Rights. He worked to bring dignity to savaged situations, where misery upon misery is piled on the poorest of the poor, by the richest of the rich. Mr. Vieira de Mello treated the humblest refugee with the greatest kindness and respect. He believed in the inherent rights and dignity of all people.

He was being groomed as the successor to the UN Secretary General, and would have lit the world with his brilliant spirit in that capacity--had he lived. He had eight days of service left in his emergency four month stint in Iraq, when a bomb buried him alive in the rubble that pinned him in great pain until he died. He'd not wanted to go, but answered the call.

Mr. de Mello would be alive today were it not for Bush's lies to lead the world into a phony, illegal and deplorable war. The world has lost a spiritual giant, and is very much poorer and diminished as a result.

Suzanne, San Francisco

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY