Cultural Glimpse

July 21, 2013

Stories that Hurt Our Hearts

A week ago today three children rode a tube behind their father as he towed them with his jet ski on Sylvan Lake. Another man, 56, driving a boat did not see the kids and hit them. The 11 year old boy died shortly afterwards, his six year old sister died the next day, and their 10 year old sister is still in critical condition.

I first heard this story on Monday night, one day late of everyone else. I was washing dishes and talking on the phone with my friend when she asked, “Haven’t you heard what happened to this one Chaldean family yesterday? It’s all over the news!”

I had heard nothing. I’d spent a nice quiet Sunday reading and writing – half the day alone, since my kids were at their cousins’. My friend filled me on the details and ever since then, I and the majority of the Chaldean community – given we are all somehow or another related – cannot get them off our minds. Whether we’re at a gathering, a birthday party, we bring them up, unable to imagine the horror of a nice Sunday afternoon having turned into a nightmare.

A vigil at St. Thomas Church in West Bloomfield was held for them. Over 1200 people showed up to pray. Other vigils were held in other churches, one even in San Diego. The lake, which used to have a marine patrol that was stopped due to budget cuts, will soon reinstate a marine patrol.

I spoke to another friend, told her that my heart keeps aching for this family, that I can’t help but wonder, again and again, why such a tragedy would occur.

She said, “In the Bible, it is written that there’s a time to laugh and a time to cry. There’s a time to live and there’s a time to die.”

She told me a story of when her cousin whom she was very close to had cancer. She prayed for Jesus to save her. Her cousin ended up dying and she asked Jesus, “Why didn’t you save her?”

He responded to her, “I saved all these other people you read about in the Bible, yet are they still here today?”

Death is inevitable, and some things, like the way in which death comes, are just way beyond our grasp. We can only pray that here on earth, God take care of the 10 year old girl, and her mom and dad. And from heaven, the loving and pure energy of the two beautiful children forever fill and guide their parents’ and sister’s hearts.

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July 16, 2013

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Protesters in some of America’s largest cities continued demonstrating their anger Sunday night at the acquittal of George Zimmerman. But here’s the thing – it is required that the jurors only hand a guilty verdict if the prosecutors showed evidence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed.

The evidence in the Zimmerman case did not prove that. That does not mean he did not act in haste and could have prevented the death of a young man (especially had he not been carrying a gun). But at the same time, everyday we watch television programs showing that if one man or woman in jail were to behave a little out of control, they are considered a threat and a team of 5 or more police officers approach them. These officers are decked from head to toe with armor and use strict methods to sedate one unarmed person.

It would be more worth the protestors’ time to focus on a crime which does show evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, such as the case of Robert Leone. Leone was stopped by Pennsylvania State Police after a low-speed chase for a traffic violation that apparently he did not commit. While Robert was attained he was nearly killed by the police. He suffered through 11 hours of multiple beatings. He was hog-tied and tasered at least 10 times. He was also chemically maced. He spent more than 2 ½ years in jail. Robert was charged with felony assault on a police officer because the officer broke his hand when he punched Robert in the head with his fist while he was being detained.

The dash cam video of the assault went viral and you can hear the state trooper saying, “Do you know who you’re messing with? This is the Pennsylvania State Police!”

Robert is heard screaming in pain and anguish. The trooper verbally abuses him and then angrily accuses him of spitting on him. Robert, who has been compliant and submissive, cries, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t spit on you, sir.” But the trooper thinks otherwise so Robert continues to be beaten.

When the ambulance came to take Robert to the hospital, the trooper with the broken hand took the ride instead and left Robert hog-tied in the back of the police car. Robert was carried into the hospital, where he begged the nurse, in a whisper, to save him from the cops’ brutality. One of the cops overheard him snitching on them, and he and his buddies returned into the room, kicked everyone out, and continued to beat and taser Robert, which was all caught on video. Neither in the video of the assault nor in the hospital reports was there any evidence that Robert did not cooperate.

The cops eventually lost their jobs, and someone in a post thread wondered why they were not prosecuted, but was glad that at least they didn’t get a promotion. Of course, no protests were held for this obvious crime which had mounds of evidence for a guilty verdict.

You can watch the video of the graphic beating in this website: http://www.theluzernecountyrailroad.com/police-brutality.php

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July 13, 2013

Peeing in the Pool

The summer has been stressful enough as it is – hopping from the beach to the pool and back again – when my son decided today to add a little touch to it. The fitness club I belong to has a beautiful outdoor pool area in the summertime that really, I have not found the equivalence of.

Well, a few minutes after we arrived, my sister-in-law exclaimed, “Your son is peeing in the pool!”

I looked and there was my son, his swimsuit pulled down and a tiny water fountain crossing into the lap pool. I guess we had watched Parental Guidance one too many times last week (4 times to be exact, not counting when we first saw it in a movie theater). For those who have not seen it, the movie stars Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. They’re assigned to babysit their three grandchildren when the youngest one decides to pull down his pants and pees onto a half-pipe.

Of course, I scolded my son and the lifeguard who witnessed the incident had the pool shut down. I must say, the employees were so gracious about it!

Later on, we met with some friends at Burger King and when I told them what had happened, a fourteen year old friend said to my son, “You’re supposed to pee inside the pool, not outside of it.”
It wasn’t exactly the advice I was looking for, but what the heck! I still have a month and a half of summer to go.

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July 11, 2013

Five year old arrested in Israel

I was eating dinner when a story on Al Arabia channel caught my attention. An Israeli soldier decided to arrest a five year old for throwing rocks. The little boy was sobbing and frightened as he tried to pull away from the soldier who forced him away from his playmates and into a military vehicle. It didn’t matter that the camera was rolling. The arrest had to be made.

I instantly remembered a youtube video I watched not long ago. An Israeli woman wrote a letter to Obama, pleading for him to take away the pains in her stomach that were caused by the injustices done towards the Palestinians. She was a mother, and so her heart went out to all of life, given she was a bearer of life. I wondered if she’d heard about the arrest of this five year old, and if so, how much pain that caused her stomach. I wondered if this little boy would be from this point on too frightened to stand up for anything (otherwise, oppressed) or if he would turn out to want revenge (otherwise, a terrorist).

And we wonder how tyrants and terrorists are made. I mean, imagine how different things would turn out if that soldier went and bought the little boy an ice cream and explained to him that he was not there to harm him or his family, but to protect his own people, that throwing rocks was not going to change anything to the better. Or are my ideas too uncivilized for that type of solution? Or is it that difficult to maneuver a 5 year old to behave differently?

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July 6, 2013

The Cost of Picking Grape Leaves

One day years ago I discovered outside of a Barnes & Noble bookstore a fence covered with grape leaves. I hurriedly got into my vehicle and informed my mother and sisters of my finding. That same day, we all squeezed into my minivan, empty plastic grocery bags in our hands, and drove to the back of the store. My daughter sat in a stroller and watched – she must have been a year or so – as we excitedly picked the grape leaves.

We were plucking away when a tall man dressed in professional clothing suddenly appeared from around the corner. He was the manager of the bookstore and he hesitantly approached us and asked what we were doing. He looked a little nervous. We had all been dressed in black because my aunt had recently passed away and we were in mourning for forty days. Obviously the sight of us frightened the store manager, so we explained that during summer we picked grape leaves, enough to last throughout the winter, to make an Iraqi dish called dolma (a pot of stuffed vegetables). He said that was fine, but if we could just inform someone in the store next time we decide to pick grape leaves so that they wouldn’t be surprised by our sudden presence.

Last year I asked my Iraqi-American neighbor, who was throwing away his perfectly good grape leave into a garbage bin, if I could pick them. He said, “They’re all dead.” They were not, but I let it go and since then have been buying jars of grape leaves.

Today I was at my friend’s home. She told me of a man who shot a woman picking grape leaves somewhere near his house. Another man was picked up by a police officer who asked him, “What are you doing?”

The Iraqi man did not speak English and motioning with his hands towards his mouth he said, “Food! Food!”

The police officer, feeling sorry for this man, took him into his car and drove to his house where he gave the Iraqi man ten dollars, thinking he did not have money to buy food and thus was eating leaves.

People – if you see someone picking grape leaves, it is okay! God created everything in this world to be used, not be wasted or just sit there and look pretty.

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July 2, 2013

Chucke’s Anthem

Okay, so where did my son want to have his birthday this year? The same place his sister had it at, Chuck E Cheese. Some of the highlights were that Chuck E Cheese had a makeover, and now has a “younger look.” He’s still the same cool guy on the inside.

Chuck E. Cheese’s was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. The first location opened in San Jose, California in 1977 and was labeled as the first family restaurant to integrate food, cheap animated entertainment, and an indoor arcade. As the restaurant became increasingly successful, he began to franchise. As of May 2009, Chuck E Cheese operates 542 restaurants.

The birthday took place a few weeks ago, during which time I thought, I’m not coming back to this place for a long long while. Then yesterday I ended up there once again, with my cousin and her kids. By the time I came home, I was going to barf – from the hours of noise, noise, noise!

When I was single, I used to think “you’d never catch me in this place.” Yup! The joke is on me.

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June 24, 2013

The Benefits of a Full Moon

One day when I was seven or eight years old, I spent the night at my niece’s house, who is six months older than me. We competed on who would stay up the latest and we had a race with the full moon on the rooftop of their home, where Iraqis slept in the summertime (before the Gulf War and the 2003 war when such endeavors became too dangerous). We ran this way and that way and what we couldn’t understand is how the moon followed me and followed her simultaneously even when we went in totally separate directions.

I’ve learned quite a bit about the moon since those days. According to shamanic teachings, the Full Moon is the strongest energetic phase of the moon, especially so as the night approaches midnight, a time when the masks of life between this world and the other world are most think. At this time magical powers will be at their peak.

This is the time where the universe is aligned for romance, high energy, and releasing things that don’t serve you. If you have missed the midnight deadline, you will not be like Cinderella when she lost her slippers. You still have time to sit down, reflect on what you want to give away, and do a little ceremony when actually giving it away. Then when the new moon comes, you will be empty enough to bring in and begin a new project.

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June 24, 2013

Summer is Here – Oh Goodness!

Just two days into summer and I’m already exhausted! We’ve gone to the pool a number of times and today, it was the start of those fun Sunday beach outings where you stand under the sun for hours keeping an eye on the kids as they build sand castles and swim in the water. Then after hours of catering to their needs, and feeling dizzy in the process, you get someone crying, “I don’t want to leave!” which continues to pound in your head on the drive home.

At home, you have to unpack the coolers, give the kids a bath and remove the sand that clings to the bottom of the bathtub. By the time you have a chance for a breather, or to write a post on your blog, you get “Mom, I’m hungry.”

And that’s just the beginning of summer.

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June 14, 2013

Frankenmuth

Last weekend we stepped, slightly, into the heart of Germany when we visited the small city of Frankenmuth and had dinner at the Bavarian Inn. Frankenmuth’s population is less than 5000, and it the place to go to if you want to stroll through 13 acres of beautiful riverfront, or “Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland” which bills itself as the world’s largest Christmas store, listen to the hoof beats of horse-drawn carriages, and enjoy family-style chicken dinners and authentic German dishes.

The city’s name is a combination of two words. “Franken” represents the Province of Franconia in the Kingdom of Bavaria, home of the Franks, where the original settlers were from. The German word “Mut” means courage; thus, the name Frankenmuth means “courage of the Franconians.” The area was settled and named in 1845 by conservative Lutheran immigrants from Roßtal area of Franconia (now part of Bavaria) in Germany. The group of settlers left Germany on April 20, 1845 and arriving at Castle Garden seven weeks later.

The nearby villages of Frankenlust, Frankentrost, and Frankenhilf illustrate that the area remained a magnet for other Germans from the same region even after it lost its original purpose as a mission post for the spread of Christianity to the Chippewa tribe.

Although we didn’t get to do any beer tasting that day, we ate and ate and ate until we could barely breathe. Then we were served ice cream! Word of advice, do not wear tight jeans if you plan on eating at the Bavarian Inn.

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June 9, 2013

A World Without Prejudice

I heard a knock on my door. My daughter assumed it was her uncle and rushed to open it. It was not her uncle but a lovely well-dressed family of a mother, father and their daughter. Jehovah’s Witnesses have come to my door before, and I am never displeased by their presence. Sometimes it is an elderly woman with her grandchild or two sisters or friends, or whomever. But they are always polite and sensitive and I appreciate that they have taken the time to get up early Saturday mornings, dress as if they are going to church, and pass out literature that one can choose to read or not read. Nothing is forced.

Yesterday’s literature especially caught my attention. It was entitled “A World Without Prejudice: When?” and it talked about how discrimination and prejudice is nonexistent in heaven.
“God is not partial,” said the Christian apostle Peter (Acts 10:34,35) having received a divine vision in which he was told: “You stop calling defiled the things God has cleansed.” Or simply created?

Fifty years ago the work of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., caused over 100 countries to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. Other global initiatives were adopted in the decades that followed. Yet in 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated “Nevertheless, racism continues to cause suffering for millions of people around the world.”

What’s the answer? Attempts to eliminate prejudice must not merely curb discriminatory acts but also change a person’s thoughts and feelings toward people of another group.

Myself, I’ve always thought that the best way to do this is not just by reading about their issues, but to actually spend time with another group of people, invite them to your home, share a meal, visit their place of worship, ask them questions. We do not have to travel overseas to meet a new people and culture. It’s right here in our neighborhood, waiting to be discovered.

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