Reply #17: OMG, what a nightmare poor Zeyad is living now! [View All]

[vickitulsa]

Thanks for sending me back to read his latest update -- I know how he feels about his brother and all of his family, and I guess I didn't catch it if he has mentioned that any of his family were returning to their neighborhood.

I understood he was the only one coming to the U.S., but I suppose I was just hoping against hope that the rest of his family would be allowed to remain in Amman or somewhere else in Jordan ... or ANYWHERE else besides going back to where they lived in Baghdad!

Now he's learning that people he knew who lived on his street are being killed almost daily ... how scary can it get for him, worrying constantly about his family? I rather think that he won't be able to remain here for long if his family ends up in such a threatening situation.

It seems to me he is not getting enough support from the folks who brought him to our shores and got him started in school -- or maybe I'm just wanting more for him than anyone can give. I would very much like to see him permitted to bring at least his own little family here so he wouldn't be so distraught and unable to work or study!

I remember in one of Zeyad's now-archived posts when he talked about sending his daughter off to school one morning as he was getting ready for work. She was on the sidewalk just outside his house when he heard flurries of gunfire erupting right in front of his house! He said he didn't even think, just ran outside to get her back in. Fortunately he managed to do that with both of them getting back in safely, but he said the gunfire continued for a few more minutes and then faded away ... and people pretty much went on about their day like nothing had happened.

That's what life was like for him well over a year ago, and I doubt then that he ever dreamed it would get as bad in his neighborhood as it has now. Since he is Sunni (but not really a practicing one) and also a medical professional (dentist), I have worried all along that the Shi'a militias might target him for death or kidnapping.

I'm sure it's been very hard for many Iraqis to really believe just how much WORSE their lives could get -- and all with the American troops there! Like the doctors that Zeyad wrote about in that last update to his blog, the ones who try to stay instead of abandoning their countrymen and families are often paying for it with their lives. I get so angry about all this I just want to scream at somebody.

As for Zeyad being my friend ... well, I'm not sure he would remember me as well as I do him, since he corresponds with a lot of people he has never met -- largely through his blog but also in emails. Back when I first discovered his Healing Iraq site in 2003, he didn't have so many comments or contacts from others coming in yet and he could respond to them more often. I can't remember now if I actually received emails from him or if we had exchanges in the comments sections, but because I've been reading his blog and following his story and the news he provides us for so long now, I do feel like he's a friend. I'm not sure he would say that I'm a friend of his in so casual a way. :)

But I care about him so much -- and I've been concerned about his wellbeing so much for so long, he just feels almost like family to me!

I was so relieved when he finally made it to NY, but now I'm worried all over again because I know he just might pack up and go back to Iraq to try to protect his family.... :cry: