Posted by parhad (63.183.8.60) on October 06, 2001 at 12:12:17:
When you warn Assyrians, especially the darker ones, that they shouldn't get so happy and be so eager to help when this country moves farther to the Right...because the removal of the guarantees to "Due Process" and a host of other laws...completely foreign to our organizations and Hajjars...might eventually mean that Assyrians who are "mistaken for Arabs" might have their rights trampled upon...they laugh at you and delete you and ban you, so absurd and ridiculous do you seem to be. They especially resent how you "insult" this Grat country, THEIR Grat country...for aren't they kissing and kissing ass and buying into every iota of Pop culture, no matter how wrong they "get it".
It may seem comforting to think of yourself as allied to those delicious Blonde people with the pig/pug noses...to be flattered when they allow you in the front door to pick up the crumbs from the table, or when they allow you "full" citizenship and when your childrern born here are "true goddamned Americans AT BIRTH"!!
But, things can change. You will NEVER be safe, never be accepted for trying to deny what you really are. We ARE different...and that's exactly our strength...and it is by getting White America to understand and accept us as being who we are that our greatest security will eventually come.
Right now it seems safer and better to say..."Hey, Mon, eye yam veeth you American too and I hat Moslems jost as like you too do." But white America KNOWS who is which...and not only white America...Blacks and Hispanics and Asians who are obviously "different", are making their differences an accepted part of what we call AMERICA. Addmittedly the case of Wen Ho Lee, the AMERICAN scientist jailed in solitary for nine months was a set-back...but it will become a shining step on the road to full acceptance of Asians as REAL Americans...that is if the Right doesn't get its way.
And irony of ironies, the Muslims and Christian Arabs will benefit in the long run from this countries shock and anger for the thoughtful who always begin changes in commonly held attitudes, are now eager and interested in understanding Islam and other MidEast related issues...and this will eventually make Arabs and Islam better known and accepted here.
So....Oh Ye Assyrians, Chaldeans, Aramaens, Turyoyos, Suryoyos, Othuryoyos, Athuryoyos etc...which is it going to be? Do we continue to paint our faces white, or deny who we are...opting instead to shake our jewelry and arses every so often in secret in the basements of hotels...or will we finally seize the initiative and take our Heritage OUT THERE where it belongs...not only because it is most worthy, but because its continued health and well being, as our own, demands it.