My roommate is from Iraq (long)

[JohnnyCougar]

His family is in Baghdad right now. He has no way of getting ahold of them. He has to call his aunt and uncle in France to find out if they're still alive, and he doesn't find out much. He won't talk about where he's from to others. He doesn't want to face the prejudice in this country. He covers up the country of origin when using his passport as an ID. He says life under Saddam was much better than not knowing whether his family will live or die.

This is truly fucking sad what the fascists have turned this country into. I feel bad for all those oppressed here and in Iraq. But I feel the worst for those who have fallen victim to this vile propaganda Rove and Co spews out. Their ideas are so far from reality, and their minds are so clouded with hate and lies. How can anyone live a good life with that kind of shit in their head. They have been programmed so hard, that when truth hits them in the face, it is easier to deny it than admit they were duped. It's almost like they were programmed with a sickness. My mom was always a liberal, but she got to watching Fox News over the years. Her concept of reality was obviously being skewed, and it turned her into a person who she wasn't, and strained our relationship. I have never seen her so unhappy with herself in her entire life. She went on and on about how Kerry had no backbone, and she could never vote for him. I had to do something, so I made her promise to watch "Outfoxed." She cried during most of it. She felt embarrassed and ashamed that she had been duped so bad. It is mentally hard to deprogram and admit that you have been deceived for so long.

These are the kinds of things I read about in grade school in the history books. I read about the abuse of propaganda in Nazi Germany. I read about racial profiling during WWII. I never dreamed that it could ever happen here so fast. When I went overseas this winter, I was ashamed to admit I was American. I met some people from South Africa on a beach in India, and I told them I was from Canada. I didn't want to admit that I was from a country that would savagely invade another based on lies. I felt ashamed for myself for not being able to muster the courage to say I was from America.

It is time that people wake up. It is time that everyone wakes up. If we can't rise and take this country back in this election, than we are in for another four years of hate and lies and government sponsored genocide. Someone once said that democracies don't start wars. That is as true today as it has ever been. But the fact is: This hasn't been a democracy for the last three years. The public has been grossly misinformed as to what is really going on. How can the people govern if they are being deceived?

This is a battle between love and hate, not left and right. America has always prided itself as being a country that accepts love. Let's turn this country back into the America we once knew.

JohnnyCougar

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. You speak of an America many people never knew

Millions of people in the US live as your roomate lives. Millions more lived that way even before the 911 events.

[Robbien]

2. Yes, if Kerry does not win, we the people will lose a voice

The BushCo mainstream media will continue to follow right-wing propaganda no matter who wins the WH. If Kerry does win at least an alternative voice will be occasionally allowed into the right-wing propaganda media mill. If not, we lose any alternative voice.

Control of media is a fight which does not end on November 2nd. It is something we need to organize against.

[Lisa]

3. my Iranian friends started telling everyone they were "Persians"

... when the Iranian hostage crisis started, years ago. And in my own case, I have to admit that there have been times when people have asked me what country I'm from (my parents and I were born in North America) and I've been tempted to say I'm Inuit or even Portugese, rather than Japanese, after having been teased in school so much about kamikaze pilots! I had a roommate too, whose parents were German refugees, and people would throw garbage at her house and chase her down the street calling her a "dirty Kraut". (I was lucky that the bullies were scared that I might know martial arts, and didn't hurt me as much.) Even in Canada -- I am tremendously flattered that you would choose our country as one to identify with -- we have these problems. A lot of people don't think that "bad" history should be studied in school, and act like learning about the internment of innocent citizens during the war somehow detracts from the bravery of the Canadian troops, or something. They just don't get it.

Kids can be particularly cruel. I don't know what's worse, having to listen to ethnic slurs from those too young to be polite, or being among grownups who are thinking those things even if they don't say them out loud. And after all, the children don't just make up such hurtful things -- they learn from their elders.

At times I have to take out this quote from the woman who's Canada's acting head of state now, Adrienne Clarkson -- just so I don't feel like giving up.

"There seem to be two kinds of societies in the world today. Perhaps there have always been only two kinds – punishing societies and forgiving societies.... We try – we must try – to forgive what is past. The punishing society never forgets the wrongs of the past. The forgiving society works towards the actions of the future. The forgiving society enables people to behave well toward one another, to begin again, to build a society in hope and with love."

http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=1379


Please tell your roommate that I am thinking about him, and wish him well. One of the people active in the peace movement in my city had a terrible time during the invasion last spring, because his daughter was still in Baghdad and was supposed to give birth around that time. The family had no communication for months. Luckily she and the baby were okay. I hope that his family will get through this too.

I would like to believe that being American is much deeper than just living in a particular location or obeying what the government of the time wants you to think. I think that you and others who are worried about what's happening right now and want to follow your ideals are more truly patriotic than those who are spouting about "supporting the President". Certainly you're the ones I admire the most, and it would be really sad if your part of America is silenced by the bigots.

[Ariana Celeste]

4. So true... and so many people don't think about that...

:cry: