He told Americans, “I am an American”,
by
presenting a poem
to
show his hearty concern.
Haisadiam wrote his first flag poem for the American people in late November of
1979--during the first and most distressed days of the Teheran hostages crisis.
[
Excerpted--“The Flag Is Still There, Wavering”: ]
Let the Stars and Stripes
be not burned,
Let free and innocent
Americans be not prisoned;
Let the courage and wisdom
of the United States
be not shortened,
And our leadership in the
free world be not scorned;
Let the spirit of America
be not mourned,
And America be not
shamed--
Not by ourselves,
Not by others!
… …
…
Pray that all those
Americans will be saved;
Either rescued brilliantly
or released painstakingly,
But all alive,
And safe and sound.
Pray that these we have
just prayed
Be fulfilled according to
God’s will--
For those our clutched
brethren are innocent indeed
In this breaking in and
kidnapping and armed occupying
By Iranians;
… …
…
If our resistless fellow
countrymen should be killed
In Iran by Iranians,
From tormenting grief and
blazing fury
To punch out straight and
right,
Punishing only those who
should be responsible
For the murder,
But not at all
Iran’s men, women and
children in general;
… …
…
Finally , as a new start
After all the sorrow and
anger,
We should try to ponder:
If the 33,600 American
soldiers,
Who should be smiling or snoring grandpas now,
But were long ago killed in Korea’s smokes and snow;
And the 46,400 American
youngsters,
Who should be dear husbands and proud fathers today,
But already buried their youth and future
In a heart-breaking Vietnam ten thousand miles away;
Did not make us and have
not made us
Learn the lesson that
As there are evil and
ruthless persons in personal lives,
There are evil and
ruthless regimes in international politics,
… … … (Twenty years later, in 1999: ethnical cleansing in Kosovo.)
Epilogue:
Berliners in one of their hardest times, and as a
tribute to their courage
and will to remain as free people, President John F.
Kennedy of the
United States of America told the people of West
Berlin during his state
trip to that besieged and blockaded city: “I am a Berliner.”
In a similar sense, and also out of hearty concern, a
person who has
been taking a journey of
life in the Far East says, by presenting the poem
“The Flag Is Still There,
Wavering”, to the American people:
“I am an
American.”
And I hope that,
next time at a great international meeting such as
the Olympic Games, when
hundred millions of peoples around the world
merrily observe national
flags flounce and rattle in the air, occasionally it
might make them reflect
that we are many kinds but one species—we are
a family in the house of
God.