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=> Re: Shamiram Sculpture

Re: Shamiram Sculpture
Posted by Qasrani (Guest) - Wednesday, June 30 2004, 2:09:53 (CEST)
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Thank you, Fred.

Can I give you my take on this? I'll tell you this from my perspective as a kid living in San Francisco without any Assyrian influences other than my parents (who I hold in deeper and greater respect and understanding the more I see other Assyrians).

My mom would take us to the public library to check out books on the weekend and somehow (from the direction that we took the Muni) we never stumbled upon this statue of Ashurbanipal...or so I thought, until you explained. Now that you say that it was installed in 1988, it explains why I didn't see it all those other times, over the years. I can't really explain the feeling that I had stumbling upon this statue. I started reading the inscription and all these obviously Assyrian names, I was filled with joy and hope and that's a lot for a kid that walked around having to explain what they were (no, no, I'm not a "Syrian," I'm "Assyrian"). So, after that whenever I made it out there (somehow I outgrew the public library) I would make a short stop at the Ashurbanipal statue and just get reinvigorated with the joy and hope that I recalled from the first time I saw it. For a kid, seeing Assyrians make a statue sprout out of downtown San Francisco seemed like a miracle... cultural preservation could not be far behind. But I was 12. I'm older now.

I'm sorry about the Shamiram statue. For what it is worth, I thought it was beautiful and forceful and I remember standing at the unveiling and Linda George was singing that song about Malekta Shamiran (that, by the way, Peter Jasim wrote, weird how that happens) and standing with my fists clenched at my sides because I wasn't going to cry--not at an Assyrian party where we were going to be hopping and bopping come 5 minutes. So, this whole story that you gave saddens me deeply. There's a kid in San Jose or Chicago that is very well experiencing what I experienced as a kid, but they've been forsaken that little tinge of glimmer.

As I read what you wrote about the state of the statue today, I realized something. This statute does not belong here, khona. By "here," I mean the U.S. And I would absolutely love to see it dedicated in Iraq. That's my own personal wish, I hope you don't get offended. But I believe in kismet and all that you described tells me that there is no appreciation for it's symbolism here. I wish I can finish the commission and negotiate its installation somewhere... Alas, the dreamers must cultivate their dreams into reality and this inspiration only came to me today. Would you be open to the idea? I'm just curious.

B'shayna, Qasrani



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