Letters to the Editor
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Blog
Please continue blogging wherever you finally go. Your readers will continue to support you.
Good luck Riverbend.
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River....
...I'm so sad for you having to leave your country, but glad for the country that finally receives you.
Are you able to mail large parcels? That might be one option.
OTOH, you've managed to stay fairly well hidden so far...I'd hate to think you'd blow it and send one of Negroponte's many death squads in your direction.
This is one of those underground railroad escapes that really requires someone on the other side whom you can trust to pull strings until you make it to Europe. I wouldn't even trust Jordan at this point.
Good luck and Alah's blessings on you and your family!
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Congratulations you're an American now
Many millions of people came here 1881-1910 for the usual reasons. Poverty, war, pogroms, etc.
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Sorry
As an American, I'm sorry what my government has done to you and all the other Iraqis.
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Dear Riverbend,
Your words are so eloquent and true and personal I find I must respond in same.
I feel a great sorrow for you and your family, and for all the people in such suffering and chaos; words of apology are shallow yet I as a simple person extend those.
I was in Damascus when the June War of 1967 began. Upon reaching the Beruit Airport and working through the huge crowds, I stood beside a couple with three young children. In conversation, he said he owned land in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, and all that made it unsafe for him to stay. They had five small bags. I asked what did they pack, and what would they do? His eyes filled with tears, and he said "I packed my wife and my children. They packed treasures. We will live." Forty years ago, and I remember his face.
Pack your family, take a small bag for each, and live. Many prayers will follow towards you and yours.
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Prayers to follow...
Riverbend,
I have been following your blog for some little while now, and with a bit anxiety, as the posts have been farther and farther apart. Checking for a new post, every few days, or once a week... highlighting your posts on my own blogs.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's as if knowing that you and your family are still safe somehow made it possible not to feel as if were all the way down the rabbit hole yet. How is that you can seem like a lifeline for those of us who read you? The world is indeed upside-down.
There is no way can we imagine which of your choices is more frightening. Sitting here, enraged that this has been done in our names... we can only hope that you and your entire family arrive somewhere safely, and that eventually you'll be able to regain some normalcy. Will that even be possible, under the circumstances?
All best wishes for a safe journey-- where ever it takes you.
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The Hitler Gambit
It only took the author 100 or so words to compare the United States to Nazi Germany -- kudos.
You're right though, there should be no doubt that America is definitely trying to perpetrate a holocaust on the Iraqi people. There is nothing we love more than bad press and villifying ourselves to the world audience.
Give me a break. Salon's current events/politics articles are mostly unreadable due to the ridiculously over-the-top rhetoric contained in each and every one. It's an America-bashing echo chamber that singes my fucking eyebrows.
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iraq
George Bush is holding our troops hostage in Iraq. The ransom he demands from the American people is enough money to secure the oil fields long enough to divide them among his friends.
Someone better send out for pizza and cigarettes before he kills them all.
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ashamed
i've never been so ashamed to be an american in my life. what these people have done to iraq is criminal.
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Godwin's Law?
It only took the author 100 or so words to compare the United States to Nazi Germany -- kudos.
If the jackboot fits . . .
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Riverbend: I meet you at the bend in the road to express my sorrow also.
You will be the beautful spirited one living in exile, not a terrible expat who hung with the uncouth and backward bush's killer loyalist.
I wanted to say I felt your sadness. I also know you can't possibly forget your tooth brush and that radiant bright inner Spirit. I feel sad and sorrowful for what this neocon regime has done that spreads so far and wide...my heart overflows with sadness and sorrow. Blessings.
I meet you at the bend...may peace and providential blessing follow you and your family wherever...a gentle peace, somehow, in spite...
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Riverbend , I don't know what to say...
I cannot help but cry when I think of your perilous journey. May God watch over you and your family.
May the monsters who brought your people this war rot in hell!
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sending hugs
Hi, some thoughts....take the things that can never ever be replaced. the rest is just stuff. i tell you this from experience. your family photos, your first teddy bear. new clothes and things will show up as you settle, i promise. the rest is all just replaceable anyway. i don't mean to seem callous at all, but i've just been through something similar where i had to leave everything behind. keep the things that are near to your heart and one of a kind. everything else doesn't matter. hold onto your good memories, and mostly the people around you that love you.
i am so sorry that words cannot convey the sadness i feel every day at what this horrible, unfounded war has done to your homeland. i'm ashamed of our president and his ignorance.
not long ago, i left the U.S. for 5 years, but this time i won't ex-pat again, because as much as i'd like to just leave, i have to stay and try to change things for the better. as frustrating as it is, this can't go on any longer. i can't leave a world like this for my son. or anyone else.
i wish you all the best in life. Be well and safe. Peace, Leslie
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I read your blog originally and in the 2 collections
One of my favorites. Updates could be rare but they would then be rare in the other sense.
Syria and Jordan have been pretty good about refugees. People in America don't get that the Palestinian refugees didn't want to be absorbed, that that wasn't just an issue of Arabs not being generous. Oh well.
To go against the grain, let me suggest you NOT end up in America. IF at all possible. In the 40s and 50s we had a category "premature anti-fascist" meaning you were too unfriendly to Hitler and hence could be assumed to be a Communist sympathizer, before it became official policy to be anti-Hitler. It's no better now. Those of us who said everything you experienced would happen, before the invasion, aren't given any credit, believe me. We're as suspect as ever. And tax money in the US goes to offshore accounts of military contractors, not services or infrastructure. Would you enjoy working a job in the US, knowing you're helping defray the costs of the Iraq aggression?
And even your gift of expression would maybe be overcome because our media would say, she bad-mouths America but here she is!