A Land to Live

By Hessam Alsharifi / Winter 2020

Most of the people all around the world can tell at least a story about greed and monopolization of greedy people against them. The unjustified characteristic of human beings like greed made a separation between people that they were like a chain connected to each other. Greedy people disturb all of the equations and order of our universe that is based on unity; they want to make a pyramid of power by separating people at a different level and then they stand at the top of a mountain of power. Many parts of this world because of many pure resources such as natural resources and wealth have been good places for greedy people to apply their unjustified wishes by the plunder of those resources for their own benefits. Middle Eastern countries always have been a desirable target for that due to having so many resources. Avaricious people inside and outside of the middle eastern countries for taking advantage of the situation have been made miserable situations for many peaceful people inside of those countries. By looking at history we can find out many crises such as wars and unfavorable conditions that have been part of daily life in the Middle East.

Middle Eastern countries have been victims of imperialism ideology and intervention of other countries for decades. All of those things made so much trouble to separate people and destroyed many families’s connection. Many people due to the situation decided to leave their own land, their own houses and everything that made their own identity.  They left so many people behind such as love, parents, friends and the place they call it home and hope to find a sense of peace somewhere else to start a new life. Now the question is, can they find a real home to have a peaceful life or not!

I was born and raised in one of the Middle Eastern countries. Iran is the country that I was born and since I remember the things my country was in a war with one of the neighbor countries (Iraq). As long as I know, Saddam Hussein, one of the former presidents in Iraq by supporting many western developed countries attacked Iran after the revolution of Iran. Saddam Hussein was looking for taking over Iran since after the revolution he felt the military of Iran has no power to stand against his power. The other countries supported the man to achieve this will; the countries fed him with modernized missiles to attacking people and the land. I was a little boy when I lost my dad. My dad passed away because of a heart attack but a regular heart attack was not the main reason since he was healthy. My dad was a businessman who lost all of his assets due to the war and he was under so much pressure during that time; that was the main reason that his heart stopped beating and I lost him forever. When my dad passed away, my mom took care of me that I was three years old and my older sister who was a teenager at the time. Most of my families and relatives like my aunties and uncles left the country one after another due to the war. I was not really sure why we didn’t leave Iran and I have never asked but I can guess it was because of our economic hardship and my mom’s job at the time. I was a witness of daily fear of the family, relatives, and neighbors for the bombardment of our city by fighters for years. Also, I can tell many sad stories of separation of people who lost their family member’s lives or lost their houses every time we have been attacked. For a kid like me at under school age, it was too much to be a witness of that much disaster of war and many other related things. Losing my dad and fear of missing another part of my family like my mom or sister was my main childhood nightmare. During that time I hoped I was big enough, to save my family and I could take them to other countries to live in peace but it has remained a dream.

The parts of our family who moved to other developed countries were coming back and forth often to visit the family after the war. I was a teenager at the time and really inspired by what they were explaining about their routine life and also social services and welfare amenities of the countries. It was interesting to me to listen to their conversation about their lives outside of Iran especially when many basics living needs could not find in Iran after the war. They were bringing many high-quality gifts such as toys and clothes from there for me and for my sister; we were enjoying the gifts since those made us different at school and among peers and friends.

I always fantasized about my future and living in one of those modernizes countries like the U.S in my childhood. I watched many movies about how immigrants from different parts of this world made a better quality of life for themselves. Every time I was watching Hollywood movies I was thinking the U.S is always a favorite place to live since the country built by immigrants. The term “Land of opportunity” is the term that I have been familiar with it since that time. As an example, the movie series like Rocky Balboa which was one of my favorite movies ever have content about a successful immigrant; an unknown Italian boxer who received a chance to have a contest with a U.S champion boxer for winning boxing championship belt. Any time my friends and I had a conversation about the movie like Rocky, one part of the conversation was about the U.S as a land of opportunity and equity for everyone. In our childhood world, we all agreed if we were lived in the U.S we could have more opportunities to be successful people. The U.S was a world of our dreams during childhood and after; a world that all immigrants treated well and they have an equal chance and respect the same as people who born in the U.S.

My childhood dream finally came true when I could get a visa for moving to the U.S. It was really hard to get a U.S visa since the political relationship between Iran and the U.S changed and became hostile after the revolution of Iran. Getting a visa to come to the U.S as an immigrant or even a tourist visa was not impossible at the time I took the visa but it had a very low possibility and long process. It was so exciting for me to experience a new life inside of the country built by immigrants and had a good reputation for hospitality. My first impression of the U.S was watching people from different backgrounds that live together. It was totally different experiences especially when you are coming from a country the majority of people inside of the country have the same nationality background. It was so interesting to know how people look at each other or what thinking about a new immigrant. Do they really accept me as a resident or not? All of those questions and being amazed by a new culture and new life in the U.S made the beginning of my journey.

I have met many other immigrants such as Indians, Mexicans and Iranians and many other ethnicities from different parts of the world in this journey. Most of the immigrants that I have met picked the U.S for a new home a long time ago and now a day they know themselves as an American; they love the U.S and they want to keep the U.S as a safe place as possible. Iranian- American same as other people who live in the U.S know themselves belong to here. Next generations of Iranian-American Immigrants, who were born in the U.S have never been in Iran; many of them also can barely speak Farsi and their lifestyle is totally Americanized. Some of them have so many non-Iranian friends and relatives. Many Iranian-American hanging the U.S flags above their houses and as a part of the society, they are committed to their own country. 

Although the U.S has a reputation for the land of opportunity as a shiny side of a coin we can see many contradictions that show to us another side of the coin. Many U.S citizens including Iranian-Americans have been experienced an unfair situation in social systems in the U.S; as an example after 9/11 and the terrorist attack to the U.S in 2001, the Middle Eastern populations in the U.S were under attack of the most hostile attitude from other groups of people. Many Middle Eastern background immigrants due to provocative policy against them after 9/11 have experienced a different life in the U.S; they were confronted with a fear of being attacked by other groups of people at the beginning. Many could not leave their own houses for going to work for a while. Next-generations of Middle Eastern also had so much trouble at school and in the public after 9/11.

            One of my relatives (Mary) explained to me about the situation of Middle Eastern people after 9/11 one day. Mary was born and raised in Iran and moved to the U.S after her marriage. Now it is almost 39 years that Mary and his family have been living in the U.S. In 2001 she was an assistant manager in one of the Bank of America’s branches in California. Mary said so many friendly customers were changing their attitude toward her after 9/11. Some of the customers who knew she came from one of the Middle Eastern countries called her terrorist a couple of times. Although she was trying to talk and convince many of them that her background and her ethnicity had nothing related to the attack but they harassed her for a while. She said it was really painful to see people who call them compatriots recognize you as an alien or a country that she knew it as a home categorized her as an enemy.

In the history of the U.S, we can find many similar stories like what happened to Middle Eastern after 9/11 but for other groups of people. As an example, Japanese-American after attacking the Japanese’s army in 1941 to Pearl Harbor had experienced a similar story. According to Ronald Takaki, the second generation of Japanese immigrants in the U.S explains in his book that many Japanese-American regardless of their residency status, accused as an enemy after the attack. Takaki in his book “A Different Mirror” mentions after the attack of Japanese to Pearl Harbor, many Japanese- Americans including citizens and even U.S born Japanese had been forced to live in military camps for a while (TAKAKI 1993). Political systems including the president of the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), who supposed to protect all citizens of the U.S, isolate Japanese- Americans from other groups by signing Executive Order 9066. Takaki claims the removal of the Japanese Americans could disrupt the economy of the U.S and defense of Hawaii but the Japanese Americans were one the most successful people finally forced to live in the camps. The political system made an enemy perspective from Japanese Americans inside people’s minds by detaining them and holding them inside of a concentration campus.

Hidden facts or in better words what people have seen as evidence in society vs. reality makes everyone distract and paralyze to solve some social problems. Based on the simple rule many politicians and people in power due to their own will and benefits hide some facts about a group of people and show an opposite way to society. The evidences could blind many of us and lead our society to have a misjudged about the specific group of people based on the perspective that had been showed to us by the politicians. As an example, in Japanese-American story, they had been target of hostile attitude by the U.S communities for a while although many of them were loyal to the country. Contradiction about what some politician showed about Japanese American to the society and what the politicians acted after that explain how people deceived by them. In 1942, FDR signed Executive Order 9066 to make the Japanese-Americans separate from the rest of the society. At the moments the government had not know any rights for them because they were told to sell all of their assets such as home and many other things or deposited to neighbors or friends. Japanese Americans also had no right to take their own pets and they had to leave all of them behind and leave their own houses. Two years later, FDR talked about all American’s right. His famous speech about The Second Bill of Rights for all Americans regardless of the race and creed showed change of his government status about people’s right but he had signed one of the racist executive orders in the U.S history against Japanese-Americans and people could not forget that (Systemic Analysis for Everyday Life97).

After the terrorist attack in September 2011, organizations called Transportation Security Administration (TSA) created for purpose of preventing a similar attack and protect people in the U.S from a terrorist in the future. Many residents joined the organization and now thousands of passengers check by TSA daily at 460 airports in the U.S.  Promise and goal of the organization for protecting the whole nationwide for all citizens is admirable but the question of what groups of people should counts as a threat for this country? After many years of blaming other groups of people in the history of the U.S as a threat by the politician, now it is time for Middle Eastern people and Muslims to be known as a threat. TSA and people who supposed to protect all Americans, they are the executive team to harass the Muslims and middle eastern at the first line.

The travel ban signed by Donald Trump in 2017 against people in eight countries such as Iran, Syria, Yemen, and two African countries made life harder for people who has a background from those countries; so based on the decision, a family of legal citizens such as Iranian-Americans is not allowed to come to the U.S anymore. Many scholars believe that after the sinning the travel ban by Donald Trump’s violence against the Muslim people increased more than what those people have experienced after 9/11 (Lichtblau2016). Couple of weeks ago other countries who are Muslims from Africa added to this list. The travel ban law keeps many families away from each other and destroyed many people’s futures. According to the guardian, 20 students who had student’s visas and many of them were graduate students in the University of California stopped at the airports in different airports (Tuquero2019). Plus many U.S citizens from those countries on the list normally get selected by TSA at the airports; they should answer so many questions about their own background and also reasons for traveling and many other questions that are against people’s rights. Random selection of people at airports for investigation by TSA because of their appearance is humiliating. Passengers that their look representing of the people belong to those countries regardless of their citizenship status are the main target of the selection. Muslims after 9/11 were not the only people who have been the target of prejudice by TSA at the airport. Other people with a similar look and reflecting the same perspective as Muslims also have been picked in front of many eyes for checking their baggage and identity at the airports.

A multicultural country like the U.S keeps all people from different parts of the world under a flag as an Americans. The U.S is a great country since many people from different parts brought different cultures to the country. Democracy that has been created by ancestors after much resilience against tyranny brought many people here to live in peace. Still many people standing together for something that believes it is right and fairness. Equity for everyone that promised by land of opportunity needs to be protected against greedy people that try to make a hierarchy and divide people in society. The people who like to make another war, act like a racist and would like to have power try to block people’s sight about many truths. Looking deeply into many problems and understanding the situation from a different perspective prevent the greedy people to make us separate. Many tools like media help greedy people to reach their own goals. When people in a country become a unit and speak up for each other nobody from any race can be victimized in monopoly of a specific group. Martin Luther King Jr. in his book The World House pointed out a very important matter. He mentioned we should stay awake these days and our survival depends on the ability to keep ourselves awake. He added the U.S demands of metamorphosing from neighborhood into a world war brotherhood. (Systemic Analysis for Everyday Life 243)

We all heard about 23 years old student whose name was George Winne Jr. and his self-immolation with gasoline for his goal which was anti-Vietnam War; an absolute tragedy for all activists and people who were standing for stopping the Vietnam War. The protest against the Vietnam War started from college campuses and students who wanted to be heard but the majority of the U.S population supported the administrative support in Vietnam. Students like George Winne Jr. could wake the other population who were silent against the war after a while by standing together.  Richard Nixon, the U.S president at the time, in his famous speech in 1969 mentioned that minority protestors should not be allowed to drown out the vast majority who are silent in America (History.com Editors 2010). Finally, in response to a very strong anti-war protest, he commanded to end of the war and intervention of the U.S in Vietnam. History of the U.S is full of many similar examples that show companionship of people and standing for each other same as the example that I have been mentioned about Anti Vietnam war protests. Students also had a protest against the Travel ban in different places such as University of California, San Diego in 2017. These activities bring hope to many of us that show we all are together and side by side.

We all are connected to this world. The recent crisis about the corona virus showed to all of us if we want to survive and pass along any problems we should care about each other. So if we let any groups of people be a victim of tyranny in any circumstances, we encourage injustice in our society indirectly; then one day one of us will be the next victim. After 9 years of living with this hope that I can be close to my family and my dream about making a safe and quiet life for them due to the Travel ban law demolished. The graduate students could not finish their education and their investment and hope for the future have been destroyed because of the same law. Mary who spent 39 years in this country felt she has never been accepted when she confronts with the hostile attitude after 9/11. This can be terminated in the future if we never let a political system and powerful people control us and our thinking. We can stop them to steal our active thinking and deep looking at different problems by covering our eyes with justifications. Any type of law that makes people separate from each other in our society should be denied by our sober mind. Then all of us can feel a real home in the U.S because our brothers and sisters in our neighbors know here as a real home as well.

 Works Cited

Lichtblau, Eric. “Hate Crimes Against American Muslims Most Since Post-9/11 Era.” The New      York Times, The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2016.

Systemic Analysis for Everyday Life, wcwp 100, 2020.

Takaki, Ronald. Different Mirror A History of Multicultural America. Little Brown, 1993.

Tuquero, Troy. “Two UC San Diego Students from Iran Denied Entry into the United States.” UCSD Guardian, 29 Oct. 2019.

History.com Editors. “Vietnam War Protests.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 22 Feb. 2010.