Love Letters From Iran

Have you ever stepped into a sticky wad of bubble gum that has been baking in the southern Alabama summer sun for a few hours? Then you will understand when I say that no matter how you scrape at the stuff you can't get it off your shoe, and every step you subsequently take is tainted by its presence. That is how I feel about my life. Many years ago, I managed to step firmly into such a wad of goo - otherwise known as the judicial and political system of a backwards southern state. It seems some two-bit attorney and his bevy of asocial children had a number of dark secrets to hide, and that they were ultimately to be protected at my expense. But after perpetuating this initial fraud, the acts of collusion spread from the local court system, to law firms, to judicial circuits, to employers, to law schools, to the State Bar, and ultimately the upper reaches of government. The list of connections between these players reads like a who's who of Dixieland.

I was sitting in front of my computer one night, typing in the source code for a spreadsheet program, and the next morning was tossed into a nightmare world of criminal acts of arson, collusion, fraud, witness tampering, witness intimidation, interference with courts and employers, and apparently, an interstate conspiracy to commit homicide - the list goes on and on. Added to this mix were the conjecture, finger pointing, backhanded innuendo and outright threats which emanated from complete strangers. Suddenly under scrutiny by people I had never met for reasons which would not become known until years after the fact. Events which have negatively effected my life ever since - like that gum stuck to my shoe. Seems the good folks that wrote the Constitution apparently failed to send a copy Down South.

Consider the incredulity of watching this lawyer on television state that the law could not support two sets of rules when it concerned a high school football player, while simultaneously engaging in an outrageous, immoral smear campaign and double-standard cover-up of his own. Arrogant, self-absorbed wealth and power are apparently also rich in hypocricy. When meddling in other's lives, and claiming that it is in the best interests of those involved - they mean their own interests, not yours.

Even after moving to another state their bizarre interest in my life, and a desire to protect their unseemly reputations, apparently continued - to the point that people across the country were more familiar with the inside-story than I. Firemen across the nation, wives of national insurance company managers, the US Navy, newspapers, librarians in the midwest, cops, and even politicians in Wisconsin for cripes sake. All because I caught the eye of some stupid woman while trying to eke out a meager living, and allowed her pathetic pleas for intervention to influence my survival. Imagine my consternation when the names behind this web of deceit were ultimately discovered.

There are three curses of increasing severity, reputedly of Chinese origin, which go something like this:

May you live in interesting times.
May you attract the attention of the powerful.
May you find what you seek.

And to paraphrase my least favorite president, I hit the trifecta.

What does this have to do with anything, you might ask? In a world littered with the broken bodies and souls caused by war, pestilence, and poverty - why should I be exempt from worldly suffering? That is a question you will first have to get my eerily silent, yet repugnant, denouncers to answer.

But aside from explaining my unrelenting revulsion and mistrust of southern politicos, it is representative of the behavior being exhibited by the current administration - which, incidentally, was ushered in by several of the names on my aforementioned list.

The approach being adopted by the Bush Administration towards Iran is exactly the same arrogant, scrutinize and manipulate while refusing to communicate sort of attitude that resulted in the outrageous story mentioned above. Mudslinging and vehement refusals to negotiate while concurrently attempting to cover one's own ass - instead of honorably addressing a situation before it escalates out of control. This strategy, however, proved to be flawed then - as they subsequently scattered into dark recesses like the cockroaches they are - and I would expect it to be just as flawed now when dealing with Iran. This approach is guaranteed to escalate hostilities - which the current cabal of zealots and warmongering xenophobes seem to desire.

But the point and ultimate irony of this whole comparison is that during my entire ordeal, the only person involved who exhibited the slightest trace of up-front, honorable behavior was an Iranian.

It is time to scrape the gum off of the shoes of the Middle East and SW Asia and deal with its people in an upright fashion for a change. And while you're at it...