Guilak, M.D.
Like any other immigrants, the story of my life is unique. Is it an enigma? I feel entangled in a precarious position. Loving both my countries and at the same time having significant issues with each. However, I don’t believe that I stand alone in such a web of confusion. It is my firm conviction that I am, either, seeking something much higher in social, ethical and moral values than any of my two countries can provide, or I am needlessly critical and idealistic.
The rationals for immigration are as diverse as are the immigrants. They emigrate from their homeland in search of a better life, or looking for freedom from persecutions, and or seeking to enjoy the deserving spirit of humanity.
After spending almost two-thirds of my life in the United States, I am haunted by the thoughts if I made the right decision to emigrate from my birthplace. Correct, I moved to a much better environment for raising my children, having the ability to live freely, and not being afraid to express my beliefs. Most importantly, I wanted to get away from dishonest, corrupt and unpatriotic politicians who for their own gain were conniving with foreign powers.
Did I get what I was pursuing? The clear answer to that question is both yes and no. Much better in some ways, and nothing to exult about, in others. I discovered, long ago, that people are the same and crossing the ocean would not make them any different. Many of the politicians are just as dishonest as those in my birth state.
Holding on to the power overrides their duties to the nation and the country. They are more of a servant to their party than a subject to the motherland (Fatherland). I came to realize that the more they scream of patriotism, the less patriotic they are. They very well resemble those pilfers, carrying the stolen goods while screaming “Catch that Thief.”
I was bitterly surprised to note that in the field of education, contrary to my beliefs, the elementary and secondary schooling in my country of birth was far superior to what I have seen in my adopted country. In the former, much emphasis was made on literature, science, math, history, and geography. For my children, who had their education in our adopted country, I saw very little acceptable basic training to my satisfaction, in the elementary and secondary schools.
However, to an astonishing surprise, there was more emphasis on football, baseball, basketball. Stretching Karl Marx’s Remark, “the opiate of the masses.” I am an ardent supporter of sports programs in schools, but for the students’ health benefit only. In other words, they should constitute hor d’oeuvre or a dessert and not replacing the main course, where the outcome will be the severest form of abdominal colic.
On the political ground, and in my view, I saw in the U.S., a variant of the despicable situation of my birth country. While growing up, for us, reading newspapers was a must. In our household, we subscribed to two major daily papers, mornings and afternoons editions. We were getting weekly publications of a different sort. Discussions of regular events were welcomed and encouraged. Our journals were deprived of funny pages and thanks to God we did not have to deal with sports sections.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and in our neck of the wood, the Americans were considered a neutral party. Based on their prior performances, a number of those early Americans became our favorites. Due to their diligence and to their sacrifices in Iran, they were our idols. The respect for the Americans reached to the point that during the Nationalization of the Iranian Oil in the early 1950s, every one of us, firmly believed, that if the British ever decide to attack our country, the United States will support our cause. A dream which was shattered by Eisenhower coup d’état in 1953. He blasted our fragile democracy to pieces, screaming that the US wanted to bring freedom to Iran!
During my childhood, I have witnessed the love and concerns of the American healthcare professionals in my hometown of Rasht, in northern Iran. I was taken many times to the American Presbyterian Hospital. Locally, better known as the Frame Hospital, in honor of its first and most distinguished physician, Dr. John Frame, a real physician who helped the native for over fifty years, and who died and is buried among those that he served and loved and who loved him.
The story of these people was recounted to us by our parents. When I was older and could read and write, I was given the writings about Americans like Howard C. Baskerville, who was sent as a Presbyterian teacher to Tabriz (northwest of the country). During the siege of the city by the forces of the central government, instigated by the Russians, he joined his students who were fighting the Shah’s army. He was killed on his first attempt defending the city and its inhabitants.
I read about individuals like William Shuster who tried hard to rectify the disastrous financial system of my country, created by the Anglo-Russians cooperation or their animosity toward each other.
Shuster had met all kind of obstructions, including the accusation of being a Baha’i, an idea fomented by the British. The government forced his resignation through an internal coup d’état.
I became aware of men like Dr. Samuel Jordan, nicknamed Mr. Chips of Tehran, and learned of his efforts in modernizing our educational system. Dr. Arthur Upham Pope, Dr. Phyllis Ackerman and Dr. Jay Gluck who tried to educate the Europeans and the Americans of the unmatched Iranian civilization, and unfortunately to no avail. I had the chance to correspond and talk with Dr. Gluck, a few years before his death. He gave me valuable suggestions about my book.
The action of these people and the likes of them reminded me what John Quincy Adams said on the Independence Day of July 4, 1821: “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
She is the well-wisher to the freedom and the independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice and the benignant sympathy of her example…. Her glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of mind. She has a spear and a shield; but the motto upon her shield is Freedom, Independence, Peace….”
Alas, we have forgotten what those great early Americans thought us! Our policies have rotated one hundred and eighty degrees. We made our name odious to the world populace. We bring the people needing us nothing but disaster and misery. Our lack of foresight in international affairs overcomes our good intention.
In the mid-1950s when I arrived in the US as a young man, I was seeking the Americans that I had read about. I met a lovely lady, Ms. Lou Nora Spiller, who adopted me as her son, (sort of). She was an immortal living soul of love and humanity. Her devotion and her benevolence to mankind were unparalleled, and her understanding and compassion of the underprivileged were indisputable. Through her, I made the acquaintance of Senator Ralph Yarborough and many of his staff. The senator was a man of unblemished integrity that we don’t have the likes of him these days.
While I was in Charlottesville, during my fellowship at the University of Virginia, I had the chance to visit him on many occasions. He was unique in his understanding of the world’s problems, specifically those of the Middle East. What a treasure he was.
While at Baylor, I met and received substantial assistance and help from so many people that I am not able to name them all. They were members of the Faculty as well as my colleagues in training. Most of them are gone now. However, I have the memories to remind me of their superior moral and ethics. Returning to Houston, as an immigrant in 1970, I sensed a horrifying change in the horizon.
I became worried about the future of my adopted country. One of the striking differences that I saw was, at least and in part, due to the loss of the family values, apparent even in the highly-educated class.
I remember vividly, a discussion that I had at lunchtime in the Spring Branch Memorial Hospital.
One of the well-known and respected internists, Dr. D. L., could not believe and agree that we were helping our son with his car’s payment.
He addressed Nahid and said, “Nahid, is he telling us the truth, or is just pulling our leg?”
“He is telling you the whole truth,” Nahid replied.
“Why should you pay for your children’s extra expenses?” He asked.
“Why not? You are a well to do practitioner, you make good money. You most likely have accumulated substantial monetary reserve for the future. Where can you go wrong if you help your children at the start of their lives? Why we should act like some animals, and kick our offspring out of their nests as soon as they become of age? Furthermore, aren’t they the beneficiaries of your wealth?
When you leave this world, would n’t they inherit your accumulated worth? Help them to enjoy their youth and relish their enjoyments. Life is too short, Dr. D.”
We have lost, in my view, our strength, “Our Family Ties, the basic pillar of any society.” Grandly we tried hard to mimic the decadence of the Europeans, unreservedly different from our way life, our thinking, our moral and our ethics. Permissiveness became our standard for education. Like a pendulum, we went from one extreme to the other without evaluating the feasibility of our action.
Money became our ultimate goal. Reaching that objective justified any means, legal or illegal; ethical, and or immoral.
I am a firm believer in a capitalist society. Not because it is without flaws, but there are none better. Its greatest strength lies in the creation of a competitive environment. However, on this road, with our exploitation, we went too far and created a state of “Runaway Capitalism” the most dangerous of all.
These are a few of the problems that as an immigrant, I am concerned, and which do not bring a feeling of wellbeing, satisfaction, and security, a reminder of my country of birth.
All said, our country, the United States of America, by far, is the best in the world. Reaching such a position was not easy, but maintaining it, is the hardest, requiring intelligence, sacrifices and true patriotism, a rare commodity.