Child Poet Shares His 'December Prayer'
Dec. 25, 2006 — -- Mattie Stepanek, the young poet and peacemaker whose voice has reached millions, passed away much too soon.
In 2004, Stepanek died from a rare form of muscular dystrophy at age 13. Yet his words -- simple yet forceful and poignant -- continue to ring with a message of hope and peace, a message that resonates now more then ever.
Over the years, Stepanek shared his hope for the future and his poem, "December Prayer."
Cuomo: What is the job of a peacemaker? How do you do that exactly?
Mattie: You teach people how fighting is not the answer and to see our differences as our inner beauties.
Cuomo: What do you think the ugly reality is Mattie? You think people can get along, or do you think people will always fight about something?
Mattie: I think that people can get along. They are perfectly capable of it. They are failing to see the inner beauty; they are failing to know we're all the same. We can't hate our differences. We need to work together to a better world.
We should appreciate our time on Earth before we go to heaven because heaven is forever. And even though it's great, our time on heaven, what we do in heaven, is kind of judged by what we do on Earth.
Cuomo: You used to talk to me about angels, that there are angels out there who help spread love, who help spread peace. Where are the angels?
Mattie: I think we're ignoring them. But if we open our eyes, they'll be right there saying, tapping us on the shoulder, saying, "Excuse me, excuse me, stop saying war and start saying peace."
Children are the future, and it's what we teach them. If we teach our kids don't like the other countries who are different than you that's not going to be a good future ... we need to put together the mosaic of gifts that we are and to treasure our differences.
You have to choose peace. We have to look back at our history and see people have always thrived with peace. In the great stories, there's been some message that they want some form of peace. And, it's really, it's really sad how we're forgetting to choose that.
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