Letters

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Wednesday
April 25, 2001

* Apologetic

I would be glad if you could stop sending me these apologetic texts on the Pahlavi-taaquti connection ["The Iranian Napoleon"].

If Reza Shah, the so-called "broken Napoleon", had not been so stupid (helped by the foreign states which recently achieved something even better in terms of destruction in Afghanistan), the situation might have been quite different today.

I think the difficult re-birth of Iran in terms of democracy (which never occurred except during the short Mossadegh era) and culture, is not in any way synonymous with a despot who had no other legitimacy than his ferocity, and obedience to foreign states.

F.R.

* If...

Could you please publish this poem by Rudyard Kipling on my behalf (Amir Sheibany) in response to Ms Sabeti and Kerman01 and their bickering ["Taste of your own medicine" , "Nothing to hide"]?

IF...

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and buil 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose,and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-- Rudyard Kipling

* Why so excited?

Why are we all so excited about finding a village in Iowa named "Persia"?["Found it"] What does it have to do with us "Eye-ranians"? Who, except us, knows what the word Persia means anymore? Even people in the village believed that the railroad man was from Persia with no mental connection to "Eye-ran".

Why are we still fascinated by a dead ancient name and try to dig it out of the grave? Is it the same mentality of worshiping the dead? And above all , this fascination in a journal published in English called "The Iranian"?

I understand publishing a journal in Persian and calling it Iranian. But in English? What was wrong with calling it "The Persians"? Or you thought probably we Persians wouldn't understand the meaning of the word?

The point is that Persia is a dead word which does not mean much any more unless we start calling ourselves Persians again and be proud of it. Then everybody else will know the meaning of the word again and will start respecting us again.

Until then let's not fool ourselves and not get excited with a remote name that nobody understands or uses anymore.

Firooz Beheshti

* Deft style

I loved your article about Persia ["Found it"]. You have such a deft understated style.

Mahmoud Sadri

* Twilight Zone

I loved your article ["Found it"]; it was like one of the Twilight Zone's episodes.

I am exactly like you, amazed by seeing any sign of my country, Iran, in this side of the world. I wanted to let you know that there is a small town named Kerman between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Have you passed that too? It was in the Interstate Highway 405 (I guess).

Parisa Houshangi

* Iraan, Texas

Your article about Persia, Iowa reminded me of my cross country trip in1998. Driving across 980 miles of Texas, I saw an exit for "Iraan". I stopped and took a picture of the sign, Iraan, Texas. I didn't have time to drive to the town but checked the AAA map and yes, there it was also. Maybe you can check out that town the next time you cross the country.

* Cherished memories

Thank you for a moving article on Persia, Iowa ["Found it"]. Reading the report and seeing the pictures revived old and cherished memories of my college years in Iowa. You and your daughter have done an excellent job in capturing the spirit of the state and the culture of its good people. Congratulations.

Khosrow Vafa

* Drove by Persia

I would like to thank you and Mahdiyeh jaan for your wonderful story and pictures of Persia and Persians in Iowa -- enjoyed it very much ["Found it"].

You might be interested to know that I received my AA degree in communications from Marshalltown Community College in Iowa nearly three decades ago and in fact drove by Persia once!

Yahya Kamalipour

* College essay

Betcha five bucks that "Persian spirit" was Mana's college application essay. :-)

H.

* Wonderful summers

Thanks for an invigorating our reading with all the great articles written with such articulate thoughts and sincerity.

I really liked "Oh, sweet home: Revisiting Abadan"; my memories came flooding back to me after many years. Oh to be back at house # 316 and having my parents alive. I will never forget the twelve wonderful summers we spent with them, and the sorrow of having to leave them and Abadan at the end of our holidays.

Rizi Shamkhal

* Fragile community in U.S.

Hi Niki,

Just read your "Top Ten" in The Iranian. I did find some of them funny, but I also found some of them parochial, if not stereotypical; things like "football", which made me drop these lines.

The sport is called football in most countries, even if the Yanks or Aussies decide to call it soccer, but the rest of the world doesn't! (Have you heard of an organization called FIFA? The acronym is not even English)

What you call football is called American Football elsewhere. And when an American guy asks Iranian girls about Ayatollahs as an icebreaker?! Or the Italian obsession thing?! Gee, life must be very tough for Iranians in the U.S.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing your article; I think it just shows, unfortunately, how dominating American culture has become not to mention how insulated, confused and fragile the Iranian community in the U.S. is.

And one wish: I hope one day Iranian.com, for the sake of it's own readers, would realize that not every Iranian living overseas is automatically an American resident.

Passer-by

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