Thursday
January 18, 2001
They never made it back home
I like self-criticism. It is really constructive sometimes. And every
now and then (when I have criticized others enough) I put my own deeds
and acts into my judgement to see where I am.
So I liked the self-critical tone of the letter "Time
to take responsibility" by Mr. Ali Noshirvani. As much as I
like to be fair in my judgements about others, I would like to be fair
when we judge even our biggest mistakes. While I hate to bring up old disputes
in a new century when all the world is looking forward to peace and a humane
co-existence but when I see that Mr. Noshirvani goes back 20 years to find
us guilty of the hostage crisis and sponsoring terrorism I can hardly stop
myself from mentioning that those hostages walked back home in good health
but the 300 passengers of that Airbus never made it back home.
And I do call this and all that happened to our whole nation during
the past 50 years "terrorism"! So we are not the only ones who
should regret for the past!
And I think Mr. Noshirvani was a little harsh to himself and his country
when he thought he "should sit back, shut-up and smile" when
he (or any other fellow Iranian) was escorted to the secondary to be fingerprinted,
etc. I am not saying that we can do any better in the position we are in
right now but we can at least support any act that may help better the
situation or improve our image which fairly or unfairly has been a target
for the media around the world for the past 20 years.
I believe we all (Iranians and Americans) should try hard to pave the
way to a sustainable reconciliation free from the hard feelings that we
both may still carry with us. And while the good people of Iran are making
all efforts to do so we, Iranians living abroad, can be specially influential!
And one essential step toward our reconciliation, is our rights which
we must claim with absolute self-confidence!
Ardalan Vahidi
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