Our saviours

Our saviors
We were in awe of their lectures at UC Berkeley; they were mainly Iranian student graduates of Berkeley or other major universities who had made it out alive out of Iran after 1982 coup. Similar to our own predicament they had fled Iran thru Turkey or Pakistan borders.
Their situation was a bit different than ours they were accepted in academic circles therefore steady job was provided them once they made it back to US. Their interpretation of events political, literary, economic life significantly affected our small community of exiles.
Their take on our demise considerably mattered to many of us who had become disoriented, depressed and disillusioned, any voice of reason which tried to make sense of it all was welcomed. Among them Ali's thought was refreshing and inspiring. Simply by moving our attention from the miserable state we were in his lectures on love, psychological interpretation of one thousand one night discussions of recent literary works by current authors in Iran were all wonderful playful ploy crafted to move us to a different realm of magic and playful childish enchantment. His lectures returned us to a world that was familiar the world many of us had lost in our early teens to lofty ideals which we had sheepishly accepted as eternal universal truth. For a group that had been shocked to their core, who had lost their precious dear comrades some in front of their own eyes either in the war with Iraq or in battles with the reactionaries in power.
We were suffering from PTSD just the humiliating journey which took many of us thru turkey and Pakistan. Life for a few years under guise UNCHR and scraps of aid they provided refugees was enough to leave deep emotional scars on your soul. Add to this pressure from a holier than thou group among us who were pushing this notion that we had become soft and that we must go back regroup and continue resistance. They'd attack others as westernized, passive or worse resort to other derogatory slurs and innuendos found in their artillery of demeaning terminology. When asked seriously what their plans were they'd put a real serious face on and talk security and importance of keeping plans secret. They lacked any originality like most of us lost without a clue on what had really happened in the past few years. In light of such experiences many of us were brought back to life by these lectures. It was life reaffirming process which brought us back from a state of malaise and indifference to one of actually feeling life and yes in some cases joining and continuing the resistance. Their efforts saved lives, our lives.
Only if this community of support could embrace a larger group political exiles many more could have been saved. We lost so many dear friends to depression, suicide, alcoholism… or just giving up and living unhappy lives. We should be grateful to our friends who had clarity of vision in those decisive years to see necessities of our new situation. They made it clear to continue on suicidal path of armed struggle would lead to further annihilation of a generation who had the dedication and commitment to social change. To lose more from this generation was loss of remnants of that period of revolutionary optimism .
Gratitude and thank them for saving my life and life of many more