An American may be proud of the US Army, the US Air Force, the US Navy and all the other military forces but what about my mom and me as non-Americans? It was the Oregon International Air Show. Many people were there to visit the "strength" of the US. Almost all of them seemed to be Americans. Mom and I were probably the only Iranians there; from the Middle East, a region full of foreign interferences and wars, one after another during its long long history. Sometimes I think this part of the world is a "war zone" for ever.
It was the time for the
Air Force Thunderbirds show. I think it was a F-16 Falcon or maybe a F-14. I don't know exactly. A plane was approaching the croud. We could just hear a regular sound as other planes. Then it became closer and closer and its sound became louder and louder. The Falcon passed the croud and that was the time when people were holding their ears while smiling but my mom was holding her ears and crying. I saw tears in her eyes. Our burnt memories were lightened up after many years. My heart started beating faster and mom's tears began falling.
It was April 1988 in Tehran when an Iraqi war plane, a Falcon or a Phantom, dropped a bomb on our back street. Both the plane and the bomb were made in USA. The sound of the plane and the explosion wave broke all our windows. We hided in our underground basement. It was our shelter when we were attacked. Lightless and fearful. I was only 3 and my brother was 7 years old. He was just about to go to school and I was a little kid. We were held by mom's arms in darkness. Her arms were full of love and worriness. Dad was out at work. Phones were dead. After the red alarm went down, we ran out to the street. Mom just took a bag of my "baby supplies" and we were trying to get to a relative's house. People in the street were shouting at mom that why she is out with two kids at this time. We should find a safe place. Less than a month after that, we moved to Mashhad.
This time it was August 2009 in the US. I ask you Americans. Please stop your country exporting weapons, bombs, war planes, tanks, war ships and etc to all around the world. Please stop it, please. You may like your strength. You may smile at the sound of your war planes in a happy show in the US but we don't like them. We couldn't smile at them when they were dropping bombs on us. Please stop it. No one can bring peace to our world with war. Thank you.
I was visiting the Rose Garden a few weeks ago when I saw two "good looking" old ladies. This is always amazing to me that some people, even when they are old, care much about how they look like and they try to wear as nice as possible. In our culture back home, wearing nice clothes is not that important specially when you are old. Of course young people wherever in the world care but not always old people. This is another good lesson from America for me. If you look good, you make other people around seeing you by chance feel good and happy. I hope I will care about this when I get old.
Mount Jefferson is the second highest mountain in Oregon. It was named in honor of US President Thomas Jefferson by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
I was visiting Seattle with mom in the last few days. This is a photo I took from Seattle's sky. Not very related to 9/11 but it may remind the "looking up at the sky and seeing a skyscraper in fire and ash." I say "Rest in Peace" for all the victims of this tragedy and I hope we will never see any other mass killing in any place in the world.
