All we do is talk
Iran will soon be free?... You know what? I don't believe
it anymore
Lance Raheem
May 3, 2005
iranian.com
As far back as my memory will carry me, I can recall not only my
mother, but just about every other adult Iranian that I have ever
encountered saying the same old things and engaging in the same
old rhetoric about Iran's future liberation. I know that
by expressing my opinion, I will be opening the door to much criticism
by many in the Diaspora, but if I can withstand my mother's
indignation, then I can accept whatever scathing responses that
my opinion's invite from other's in the worldwide
Iranian community.
Before I begin, however, I would like to
make it clear that I am neither an academic nor a geopolitical
expert in way, shape
or fashion. In truth, I'm a teenager who has spent his life
listening to every Iranian adult that he's encountered saying
the same things regarding Iran and its future. If I had a nickel
for every time I've heard someone speak of the about the
next revolution that is just around the corner, yet has never seemed
to materialize, I would be a millionaire. I could count the grains
of sand in a desert more easily than I could count the number of
time I've heard adults say that Iran will "soon be
free", or "next year Iran will be free", or "freedom
for our nation is on the horizon". I have heard these
things my whole life and you know what? I don't believe
it anymore. I refuse to hold my breath waiting for a revolution
that seems to be as improbable as pulling a rabbit from a hat.
I
have watched and listened to the adults in my community "talk"
this problem to death for the entire 13 years of my life and I
know
that my mother has been talking about it for much longer than that
because me elder sister heard the same things growing up. Talk,
talk, talk, talk, talk ... that's all people seem to
want to do. It's as if they believe that talking this problem
to death will solve it. It won't!
Listening to the same tired
old speeches from the same tired old faces day after day after
day from the myriad of southern California
Iranian TV stations has made me weary. It is the same kind of
manure that is being beamed from Iranian satellite stations in
London
as well. When I visit my baba borzorg in Tehran, he watches these
people on his satellite TV and just laughs. He says he's
heard them saying the same old crap everyday for years. He doesn't
believe a word they say and you know what? Neither do I. I don't
believe anything that I see on Iranian television anymore. Moreover,
I don't believe my mother and I don't believe any
other adult who wants to talk about Iran's liberation from
tyranny, while so few seem willing to lift a finger to do anything
to make it happen. Certainly their hearts are in the right place,
but as with all things in life ... actions speak louder than words.
The cold hard truth is that the Iranian Diaspora, especially in
North America, has grown fat and comfortable over the past quarter
of a century.
The Iranian-American community slaps itself
on the back every chance it can because it has become the most
prosperous ethnic minority
in the United States over the past 25 years. I say, whoopti-damn-doo!
Who cares? The majority of Americans could care less about the
achievements of Iranians in America. In fact, the majority
of Americans now consider Iranians in the country to be American.
I have listened to my mother, her friends and the "stars" of
all the pathetic California-based Iranian TV stations beating the
same old drum about Iran's coming liberation until it makes
me sick.
Is it any wonder why more than half of all Iranian
men between the ages of 15 and 29 want to emigrate from Iran as
Masoud Kazemadeh
and Shahla Azizi point out in "Life
and liberty"? Hell, I'd
want to leave too if I heard everyday just how great was to live
as an expatriate. Can anyone blame our countrymen in Iran for being
selfish and looking out only for themselves when we ourselves are
unwilling to live amongst them and endure the hardships that they
face? Do we have the right to point fingers at them for failing
to fight for their freedom when we ourselves are unwilling to risk
life and limb to topple the tyrants who have enslaved our people
and our nation? I think not.
In my humble and inarticulate
opinion, nothing I've seen in my short life is as hypocritical
as the Diaspora asking our
countrymen and women inside Iran to risk all for freedom's
sake when we are prepared to risk nothing. We say our nation
will be free, but we do nothing in real terms to secure its freedom.
We point fingers at our brothers and sisters who have not been
lucky enough to escape tyranny's clutches for not having
given their blood so we can return home.
We sit on the sidelines
in our comfortable homes, counting the money in our fat bank
accounts, talking, talking, talking or writing an endless number
of articles, but doing nothing to break the chains which
hold our nation in bondage. We debate whether or not America
should intervene in our country, we debate whether the United Nations
should impose sanctions on our country, we talk about national
referendums and we talk about uprisings which never materialize.
All we do is talk.
While we are talking, more and more time slips
by and our community's children and grandchildren are being
born in other nations and slowly being assimilated into other
cultures. Many young Iranians today can't speak or read a word
of
Persian and many have never stepped foot in Iran.
Unless we awaken
from our slumber soon, there will be nothing of our country
left worth going back to. Unless we collectively decide that we
are
going to take our country back from the thugs that have scattered
us like leaves in the wind in countless nations around the
world, then we ought to just stop talking and get on about the
business
of leading our lives in North America, Europe, Australia or
wherever in the world today our people call home.
One thing I am convinced
of is that trying to reform the un-reformable or to fix the unfixable
is no longer a viable option. Those people
who today enslave the Iranian nation have nothing in common
with the Iranian people. They are blood thirsty tyrants who in
all
truth are more Arab than Arabs. They will never compromise
or submit
to the will of the people. They are the true believers and
they will fight to the death to keep absolute power in their hands
and
only in their hands. They have nothing to lose by turning the
streets
of Iran into rivers of blood if necessary because they know
that the Iranian nation will exact painful retribution on them
if
they lose their grip on the nation's throat.
The time for talking
ended long ago. Nowadays when we talk about freedom, no one listens.
It's as if we talk about freedom only because we like the
sound of our own voices. We should forget about foreign invasions,
economic sanctions, national referendums and debating or talking
about freedom ... if we are really serious about ever seeing
Iran free from tyranny.
The only thing that is going to free our
people and our nation is to rise up and fight these dirty bastards.
We ought to do unto them as they would do unto us and which they
have already done to so many of our countrymen. Sure people will
die, but isn't it better to die standing on your feet than
to live on your knees. This government must be violently put
to death; for that is the only way to make sure it never raises
its
ugly head again. It is the only way to deal with animals that
stone women to death, rape and hang girls (and boys), beat, torture
and
kill university students, sexually assault and kill middle aged
women photographers, murder members of religious minorities and
just about anyone else they may take a dislike to.
If someone tried
to steal our wallets, we would fight them. If someone tried to
steal our wives or daughters, we would savagely
rip them apart. Should our reaction be any different when we are
talking about our homeland? Have we grown so comfortable over the
past two and a half decades that all we have left are empty words,
broken promises and unfulfilled dreams for our beloved country?
I
have told my mother that if she really believes Iran will be
free someday, then she must stop simply talking about it and be
ready to do her part to make it happen. In a few years, after
I
finish high school, I hope that I have a chance to make some
small contribution to the liberation of the land of my ancestors.
My
mother always tells me that I should be careful about talking
this way, so I will stop here, but I hope the day will come when
I am
given the chance to do more than just talk as so many of the
leaders of our Diaspora have done for twenty-six long years. I
hope some
of you agree with me that there's been enough talk and now
it's time to act.
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