He was sincere. I was sincere.
Now that I think about it, Emmy did look a lot like Bernie Sanders.
But also Einstein.
From February 7, 1990. – JDW
What was the point of last week’s column, the one about Ahmad Masoumpanah’s childhood? https://www.jackdogwelch.com/?p=14895
I am glad you asked. Call it…. deep background.
“Emmy,” as he’s known by his friends, family and anybody else who doesn’t have a bizarre vowel fetish, is a wise man.
More sagacious than your average grandpa.
He’s also my friend and pretty much your basic naturalized citizen with a thick accent who has bills to pay. He forgets names.
He’s honest, hard-working and possesses a heart as big as all federal lands. He has his flaws, just like the rest of us.
Emmy also has a dream, a large dream. He still sees himself in space, packing the planet on his shoulders.
And so he dreams about saving the world and everyone on it.
He thinks he knows how to get the job done.
“I’ve traveled many different countries, lived with peoples of many different cultures,” Emmy explains, dark eyes brightening as he begins to share his ideas.
“Everywhere I went, I found people were the same. They ARE the same.
“And everywhere I went, I found that most people lacked a common purpose, a common goal.”
Emmy believes every problem we have – personal, social, political – arises from this absence of a common goal.
As Emmy describes it, this common goal unites people in changing themselves by caring, so they can provide the basic needs for all to fulfill their desires. He hasn’t figured out a simpler way to say it. It’s easy enough really.
Caring is the beginning. “The practice of caring brings the joy of life,” notes Emmy. “Caring brings with it: a) love, b) trust, and c) respect.
“Life is as simple as a-b-c.”
By truly caring for ourselves and others, by loving, we are changed. After we provide for our basic needs (health, food, shelter), we are then free to fulfill our desires – to become someone, to be free, to be happy. By becoming someone, Emmy means the role you choose to adopt, such as mother, or the job you choose to perform, like tugboat captain. Indian Chief.
And, obviously, it is difficult to fulfill these desires, if all your energies are devoted to providing for your most basic needs.
It’s tough to grow in darkness.
It should be difficult for you to enjoy a fulfilled life, Emmy believes, when other humans are a step back, living their lives in search of adequate medical care, or food for their children, or a roof over their heads or a warm bed in winter.
Because it is our personal and environmental responsibility.
“The purpose of the individual is his faith and belief,” Emmy affirms. It’s not enough to promise, one must deliver. Talk is cheap.
There is no room for hypocrisy in Emmy’s world.
And clarity begins at home.
“Our forefathers got us to where we are today. They created the country and gave us a system of laws. Democracy. Of the people, by the people, for the people.” Emmy is rolling now. “What I’m saying is that it’s time for us to build anew, to grow, to go forward. That should be our common goal.
“I’ve always felt that, if the successful future of this planet was to be assured, the answer was to be found in the United States. The Land of Plenty. The Good Guy of the Globe.
“When I was a boy in Iran, the United States was looked upon as the nation of dreams and possibilities, of great things and great people doing them.
“I still feel that way.”
Emmy thinks, however, it’s time for some serious self-examination. “Some generations have bridges uniting their communities, and they take them for granted,” Emmy is perplexed something so precious should be so overlooked.
“All over the world – just as we’re talking – men, women, even children, lay down their lives for the same freedoms most Americans never give a second thought to.
“They’re fighting and we’re forgetting. It’s time we built some new bridges of our own.”
We must reach out to one another, the man says. Once we’ve provided for our own basic needs, we must see that those around us are taken care of.
“I don’t think it’s unAmerican to suggest those with more than they need share with those who don’t have enough,” Emmy states.
“And I don’t know how people can truly enjoy their blessings when so many others have so little.”
I was eating a $5.95 [recall this is 1990 – ed. note.] cheeseburger at Jake’s recently, watching a Native American panhandling outside in the rain, and I have to admit the same thought crossed my mind. Between juicy bites.
“That’s where all the unhappiness comes from,” Emmy suggests. “That’s why people all over the world are so unfulfilled. They’ve forgotten the common goal of man is to ensure all of us are well taken care of. Not just the lucky few. Happiness is the reward for caring.
“Who represents America? Donald Trump or the beggar?,” Emmy asks. “I’ll tell you the answer. They both do. They both do. We are only as great as the least among us, and we do ourselves a great disservice as a people to do otherwise.”
I interrupt him. Tell him he is preaching to the choir here, that we’ve come to the end of the column and, besides, a whole lot of people out in Readerland are going to say his philosophy is just a crock of pie-in-the-sky thinking.
“Just ask them how they’d like to be known,” offers Ahmad “Emmy” Masoumpanah, proud American citizen.
“As a person who builds bridges or one who destroys them? As a person who cares about others or one who could care less?
“Ask them that.”