|
Monday That's an order Dear Yariz, I admire your courage to take the time to share your views with the intention of helping the rest of us in this era of apathy and indifference ["Embrace"]. The more I looked through your letter to find more praise for you the less I found. Your recommendation of "stop brainwashing your children by telling them they are iranians" hurt me to the core. Denial of truth is a sign of sickness, be it from an individual or a nation. Although I could answer you better if I knew your gender, your age and your background, but I will take a shot at it anyway. You strike me as a person who is far younger than the number of years I have been in America. I suffered from such illusions a very little when I was in my twenties. In that case, I hope you have an open mind and consider my comments as constructive criticism. I am writing this in the spirit of helping you to do your homework better and avoid hasty conclusions before writing and passing judgement on anyone or any nation. You also strike me as a person descending from some of our Persian poets or writers who unconditionally praised the kings, thus promoting corruption. I, too, embrace America but in an entirely different context than you do. I love America and a lot of Americans enough that I consider it a loyalty to restrict my praise only where praise is due and never try to compromise my principles which have come to be the same ones upon which this nation was founded. If I praise them for what they do wrong and call myself their friend, then with a friend like me they would not need an enemy, as the saying goes. Here are my suggestions with regard to your article: I strongly object to your tone of command to "embrace America" which lingers from the title to the end of your article. You should realize that ordering people to do something no longer flies anywhere including in Iran of which you are so critical. People all over the world, more than ever believe in making free choices. In fact, for your information, America was the first nation that made the freedom of choice a reality in large scale. Prior to that, and since the dawn of history the idea, although ingrained in every living creature, was expressed cautiously by great writers and philosophers who did what they could to promote it but never succeeded in a scale that American founders did. America's nickname is "A nation of immigrants"and its strength is mainly due to its diversity. What would America be without St. Patrick's Day, October Fest, Cinco de Mayo, Kwanza, Greek Festival, Indian Dances and many other reminders of diversity of colors on the American spectrum? In fact, Iranian Americans are among the ethnic groups who go far less out of their way to celebrate their traditional festivities than other ethnic groups for good reasons. One reason for this, contrary to what you describe as "narrow confines of Iranianism" is that Iranians are among the most flexible people in the world. Just in the Middle East, compare Iranians with, say Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis, Turks, etc. Doing this, you will find out that Iranians are among the least recognizable in a crowd. We owe this to many factors, one of which is our long history of being in the confluence of a multitude of cultures which were interested in our endless resources and our strategic location. We have had some four hundred rulers and miraculously maintained our integrity. What is miraculous is that we are quite capable of switching choices if we desire or we have to and at the same time remain intact.. I love Americans though I love the informed ones far more. If exposed to truth, Americans are among the best judges in the world. I also know for fact that in spite of their intelligence, are not as flexible as we are in accepting change and becoming part of another culture not because of any fault of their own but due to lack of experience. Your examples, exceptional people like Marshall, Schwarzkopfs , Napoleon etc. who had other motives, cannot be used to extrapolate to the American public at large. In the case of William Shakespeare, you are contradicting yourself. If he based his plays on English, Italian and Swedish characters then he had a universal outlook and not provincial as you suggest. The condition for preservation of this free nation was eternal vigilance and informed and educated citizenry. Unfortunately America is more threatened from within than from without for taking its blessings for granted and letting its infrastructure crumble in exchange for money and excessive greed. If you embrace America for its Elvis and Michael Jackson, I embrace it for its Thomas Jeffersons. Jefferson said "Those who expect to be ignorant and free, expect what there never was and never will be." He also said "Educate people and tyranny of body and mind will disappear like evil spirit in the dawn of a day." This universal genius was, in addition to being the intellectual engine of the American Revolution; he was the "Author of Declaration Independence"and "Father of Public Education." That energized freedom loving people all over the world. America, as you know capitalized on these principles and accomplished a lot of tasks that seemed impossible to other nations. Unfortunately run-away hypocrisy and greed have been contributing to public ignorance, apathy and complacency for quite some time and unless this tide is reversed more erosion of democracy and freedom is imminent. In fact many other nations who copied the American system are doing a better job of proliferating education and democracy because they have the blessing of learning from the mistakes made in America. On the roller coaster of history many empires have been born and crumbled for deviating from the principles upon which they were founded. Just read your history and you will find. Seek and you shall find. Your recommendation of unconditional embracing of America conveys a lot of arrogance. There is a beautiful process of exchange of ideas going on in the world and the best way to benefit from that is when one is armed with a solid basic education. You condemn a natural phenomenon called transition time and command people to bypass that stage and become Americanized as soon as they get here! This is indicative of your ignorance of the natural processes and their scientific basis. I cannot go to detail here but you ought to know that human beings as living systems cannot stand drastic shocks, neither can plants and animals. If you take an animal or plant and transplant it to a new location, you must to it carefully to minimize the inevitable transplant shock. You are recommending that such living systems must acclimate immediately because you tell them to! The same idea applies to immigrants. Some ideas will take root immediately, some longer and some never depending how much sense thinking persons make of the new surrounding based on their previous habitat and exposures. Free choice is the name of the game. Many Iranian Americans have a far better sense of what to eat, when to eat and how much far better than many Americans. By totally embracing America, you are suggesting that we should switch to junk food, sugar loaded drinks, fat loaded foods, and abuse alcohol and drugs. Many Americans are not physically mobile, drive around the store several times in search of parking so they can avoid walking one block. Most Americans are overweight, about half are obese and face the adverse effects. You never find this situation in Iran or anywhere regardless of political situation. Why should we embrace these habits? If we really love America we should help them fight such ruinous habits that are aggravated by various exploiters. America is a global power but many Americans do not read the history of their own country, much less the history of the world. They mostly do not vote and are alienated from their political process. Just watch Jay Leno's " Jay Walk" if you like the humorous side of the public ignorance. Are you suggesting that we should copy these? Iranians and many other so called "developing countries" take great interest in civic responsibilities which is an excellent start for self determination. American public schools spend more money and constantly educate less. Are you suggesting that we should do the same? If you visit Iran you will see the parents take far more interest in education of their children than their counterparts in America. Are we to copy that? Definition of sports loving person in America is one who is glued to TV to watch professional sports at the insistence of multi-millionaire owners and players who use sport as a vehicle to make money, abuse drugs and endorse the sale of what people do not need. Such sports lovers often fight and dispute the results of the professional sports with far more fervor than their civic issues. Common conversational subjects are about the weather or the game scores rather than an enlightening book they have read. Your criticism of Iranians doing Baba Karam, etc. is out of place compared to the pass time manners in America. You recommend that we should embrace America because its system produces "good results." What do you have to say about the goodness of the results discussed above? I have nothing against your seemingly idols such as Elvis and Michael Jackson and I don't mind to listen to their songs when I am really frustrated at something and I want to kill a little time. To me, Elvis was an object of making money for some who did not even care about his consuming junk food and his affliction of clogged arteries. As you know the poor man died on the throne for over-exerting himself to respond to his biological urge. How do you expect me to embrace that role model or recommending him to my kids? Similar analogy holds for Michael Jackson. To me, the self-destructing cycle America is going under is leading to an era of slavery that this country once abolished. Only this time around it should be called neo-slavery and not limited to blacks. You should never forget that the country you are rejecting was once part of the "cradle of civilization", it gave the Western world the technology they badly needed and great ideas for social change. Mani and Mazdak., presented the first theory of socialism that was adopted and abused in form of failed Communism in the West. Magna Carta and human rights and equality of people were proposed and practiced in Persian Empire some 2500 years ago. If you, like many others ask me why I am here if America is in this shape, I would say it is because I truly believe in the principles upon which this country was founded and I like to have a part in preserving it. If put on that path, America has the wherewithal to change the world for better again as it once did. If you love America and really want to embrace it, ask yourself what factors contributed to the demise of old civilization in your country of origin and many others like it in other parts of the world. If you search hard you will find the same factors , that is, ignorance that breeds hypocrisy which in turn breeds waste, fraud, abuses, fanaticism, arrogance and war. Trust that the purpose of our being on this earth is the test of our ability to meet the challenges of our time and save ourselves from annihilation.
|
|
 |
Web design by BTC Consultants
Internet server Global Publishing Group