All About Iranians

1. Iranians are human beings. I’ve recently watched a number of videos on YouTube made by people walking along the streets of Tehran filming the scenes appearing before them. I recommend this one in which you will see hundreds of people of all ages who look and act very much like… wait for it… modern Americans.

2. Most Iranians are Muslim. The five highest-ranking prophets and messengers of Islam are Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus? Aren’t those the same prophets revered by Jews and Christians? I think they are. So that means…

3. Iran did not start the current war or any war in this century. America and Israel started the war and bombed Iran for forty days and killed thousands of Iranian people, human beings, including many children and women and old people. Why did America do that?

4. When I lived in Berkeley I bought flowers from a couple, a man and a woman, who had a small flower stand at an intersection near my house. The woman was petite and very beautiful, the man big and strong and handsome. The woman was an international stewardess for a major airline. The man was an actor and director of plays. They both had PhDs.

Credentials aside, they were two of the nicest people I’ve ever known. Over the years of walking by their flower stand and buying flowers from them, I had many wonderful conversations with both of them. They were Iranian, but because there was such fierce anti-Iranian sentiment in America at that time, when I asked where they were from the man said, “We are Persian.”

Then he looked at me and waited for my response.

“Wonderful,” I said, smiling. “Are all Persians as handsome and beautiful as you and your wife?”

“Yes, we are all gorgeous,” he said, laughing. “And you? Where are you from?”

“I am a fourth generation Californian,” I replied. “Born in San Francisco.”

“That’s quite rare,” he said, selecting a gladiolus to give me as a gift. “I rarely meet people who were born here.”

5. Almost nothing in mainstream American media about Iran and the people who live there is true. This is intentional so the American people will tacitly condone America’s senseless and violent policies regarding Iran.

6. Iranians are indistinguishable from you and me.

Fin

Gaza from Todd’s album Hip Salon.