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Most of what I have to confront on a day-to-day basis is simple ignorance, confidently masked as knowing better than I.
What Mr. Simon faced chills to the bone. And frighteningly is the result of strongly held beliefs that require religious fervour to maintain. The kind of forces that encourages an end to contract law. Private ownership. Making your own choices. To the worrying about man's existence as he is a cancer on this world.
When do intentions morph into monsters? I know from an Iranian friend of our family who lived with us in the early '60's that there was significant opposition to the rule of the Shah. (This man was a gifted musician and became a friend of our family after studying under my dad at Portland State.)
Our modest Westside home was an unthinkable result of our amazing American prosperity. To think that a middle-class high school and part-time college teacher could afford such a house. And a seven-year old Cadillac! He was a great conversationalist--and a great cook--who would talk about the conflicts between the way he was raised and the world of the West. He talked about the energy of freedom while musing about the people who lived in the villages that his family owned. That is, the people of the villages his family owned. They owned the people.
How to achieve a leap forward?
The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was an accident of French anti-Americanism and coincident disaster by the American voter. To think people don't hold grudges is immature. There was still a bit of payback for a former Suez adventure to administer. That they found the unthinking and unblinking in President Jimmy Carter was a trifecta of opportunity that they couldn't pass up. And the reign of terror in the Middle East began.
To see a return to those days in our currently stated foreign policy is cloaked within penumbras and emanations that I find frightening. To see the monster face to face must be galvanizing.
It was to Mr. Roger L. Simon.
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