Posted by tiny pancho from customer-148-233-78-77.uninet.net.mx (148.233.78.77) on Monday, December 23, 2002 at 5:33PM :
People ask you, "well, what should we do...nothing?" Meaning as long as the United States is bombing the country, we could at least send some Kool-Aid...after all, donīt they deserve to drink something sweet?
This comes of not doing anything when there is peace and relative prosperity...feeling a good dose of guilt when itīs too late...then jerking the knee.
If we were at all concerned about this Heritage we would have been working steadily and quietly on it for many years now. Who or what was there to stop us? Even now our patriots and ardent Assyrians arenīt interested in doing anything here where there is some good chance of building something lasting...No...they want Saddam to do something for them in Iraq. Go figure.
If you care about the people, then all the more reason to get the United States to back off...to re-tool our system of government that allows elections to be bought by corporations who then decide policy...who get us into wars because wars are the most profitable things going...not for the national treasury...screw that...but for profits made from government contracts to "protect us".
Sending a monthly allowance to Iraq under these circumstances is obscene...it isnīt an act of charity at all but one of personal soul-cleansing. If Iraq was some deserted island where the naked savages had no aspirin it would be one thing. But to live in the same country, and pay taxes to be used by that country in the decimation of Iraq...of an Iraq that was wealthy just twenty years ago and was in a better position to send aid to Americans than need any handouts from of us...to have participated and stood by while this was done in our names...and now come raising funds and begging donations for shrouds to bury the people in, or candy and clothing, as if a natural disaster struck the cuountry and not a contrived American disaster...is just too stupid to be credited any longer. Are Assyrians supposed to be consummate fools into the bargain?
The Assyrians in Iraq, Christian and Muslim, talkative or not, are masters of their own fate...just as soon as America stops playing schoolyard god. They donīt need a dime from us.
If those of us outside in our Diapers wanted to do anything for this Heritage, if we believe we are the legitimate heirs because we talk a lot about being proud Assyrians..there was and is much we could have done. We would have smashed Nimrod and tossed Golani and Bejan onto a dustheap somewhere along the way...anyone presuming to send one of these assinine letters and declarations would know his effort would be followed by one ours...and so much better expressed and sarcastic and to the point that he or she would never dare such a thing again. Nimrod speaks in his own name...we all know that, yet because of our apathy weīve become the laughingstock of World Leaders dumb enough to actually open his letters..same holds for Dadeesho and Sarguis and any number of fools who use this name to fluff up their own puny selves.
We could have found a hundred ways to honor the Heritage and preserve it besides talk a lot about it. We could have built schools here...NOT in Iraq. We could have a cultural center NOT run by a Bejan or an Odishoo...presided over by a Golani. We could have learned to be civilized and cultured and not just eaten and drank and bought our way into greatness.
Our greatest Assyrians would NOT be doctors and the owners of German cars...we would not strive to be "as good as"...but would be ourselves...appreciating what is uniquely ours...if we had an inkling of what that was besides something hanging from a crucifix.
There is much, in short, that could have been done to back up this claim of being Assyrians and PROUD of it! But there hasnīt been. On the contrary, there has been much to be ashamed of, and itīs only getting worse by the minute.
-- tiny pancho
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