2 aftermath date half life release
Today, Louise tells you what happen after the torture and execution is over with this post. Another two part story because I want you to “take in” every word that she has to share….
We are in new territory with this kind of death. How do you accept such a death? I surely did not know. Every day our emotions are mixed. Do you thank God the torture has ended? Do you think what a waste? Are you even more angry at the executors? Do you feel proud of Behrouz? Or did you choose to be angry at him for bringing his family into this mess? He did not consult us before to see if we wanted to join the cause. We did not know anyone that has had this kind of grief. In Iran, the family had more support because it had become an everyday situation. Iranian people are dressed in black mourning clothes – more than not these days. Here we felt alone and did not understand how we could deal with the aftermath. Of course, as with any death, you learn to live with it and somehow deal with the pain. That was where we were – the somehow part.
Behrouz went into Evin political prison as a boy of seventeen and was executed at the age of twenty seven, but as a brave freedom fighter. It seemed as it was his destiny. His life may have been short but he had a purpose. He made a difference because he lived. Even thought his adult life was in the confines of four walls, he brought comfort to many of his cellmates. Did I mention that each small cell had at least 30-40 prisoners and they had to take turns sleeping? To say that he made the best out of an impossible situation, would be an understatement.
The aftermath for the family is just as tragic as the ten years of torture. It was made clear by the Iranian government that there would be no funeral or wake for him. Mamon and agha-jan’s house was watched in Tehran for signs of such things taking place. No funeral, no mourning, no body. How is it possible to find closure? They were overcome with grief and it seems like they will not survive the shock of it.
Here, we are torn apart. Hooshang wants to go to Tehran but the family knows that it is not safe for him to come. He knows that as well, but he still wants to go home. Immediately after hearing of Behrouz’s execution on Christmas morning, 1988, we had to leave the house, if nothing else just to drive. We ended up at a logical place, the home of the pastor of the Lutheran Church that had prayed all those years for Behrouz. He was a comfort to Hooshang. He just listened to Hooshang’s silence and sobs. Nothing could be done but he had a connection with Behrouz through his Sunday prayers. We struggled. David and Mitch tried to understand what had happened. We realized that our sons would take their clues from us on how to deal with this tragedy. We had to keep this in mind as our family in Iran did about their children. In other words, do not verbalize what actions you would like to take because someone might think that is their cause.
Then the outpouring of love from the community started. As the news spread, we had strangers expressing sorrow from all over the state and beyond. We had people to grieve with us which I found out, grief divided is much easier to bear. The Lutheran Church suggested that we have a memorial service at their church for Behrouz, especially since they would not allow anything in Iran. It was the right place for the service to be. I had played the organ there for many years. Mamon and agha-jan had visited the church and had communion. My brother and Ed Hornig lead the service on December 30, 1988. The little church was filled and my music started, For All the Saints. I felt that I needed to play the organ that day. It was the last thing I could do for Behrouz. The words of the hymn brought comfort to me and I hope this could have been similar to Behrouz’s last vision as he went to his execution.
“For martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky
And seeing it, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia Alleluia”
It was a simple service as Behrouz’s life had been. My brother’s prayer stands out in my mind when he said ‘all is not well in our world’. Nothing was right in our world and in Iran, at least, now. There were readings from the Bible as well as the Koran. Pastor Ed did somewhat of a eulogy – stressing when young people are willing to die for a cause, maybe our world will listen. He could not even say the date of Behrouz’s death because we were not sure. Think it was around December 15, 1988. Without knowing Behrouz, he made it sound as if he had known him for a long time. That meant a lot to us. Most of the words were lost to us as we sit in the deepest grief that I had ever experienced. I was praying that mamon-jan would find some comfort in knowing that her son was not forgotten. There was a proper remembrance and people were mourning his death for her even though it was half way around the world. At least people now knew about the torture and the suffering. Of course, it would not bring Behrouz back, but they did know. When we were able to talk to her later on about the service, the most important to her was that they knew his name and he did exist.
In Tehran, the killings in the prisons are finished. Behrouz’s death came at the end of the six month execution period. And who shows up? Amnesty International, the watchdog group for political prisoners around the world. Remember we were all waiting for them, praying for them to come to Tehran before the executions. They came and the Iranian government had no political prisoners to show them. There were none. Of course not, they were all in the cemetery (Beheshteh Zahra). That is where the Amnesty group should have gone. But one good thing happened. It was admitted that the massacre that went on in Iran’s prisons in those six months of 1988, was crimes against humanity. Believe it not, that was some comfort to hear. Someone else in the world had condemned the actions of a few and verified the grief of millions. Most important to me, someone knew it had happened besides the people in Iran and us.
Between the Iran/Iraq war and the political prisoner executions, the young generation of Iran is wiped out. The government then had to put incentives for people to produce more children to fight in future wars. The baby boom went on for several years until the population was out of control. That is why today there is a gap in the population. Only 35% are considered old and 65% are considered young. It is hard for me to imagine how a generation can be eliminated so easily. But it was.
Agha-jan and mamon-jan along with the whole family, can not accept what has happened. The death was bad enough, but not having the body was too much of an insult especially in the Muslim faith. Mamon-jan just would not accept the fact that Behrouz was dead. She kept looking at the door, waiting. She has seen no body and she believed that he survived and would find his way home. And she was waiting for her health to return and she would look for him. Maybe this is the only way that she could cope with it.
Tomorrow, I will pick up with someone showing up at thei door and this was someone that was able to share some information with them about Behrouz’s final hours in prison.
Louise can alwalys be reached at lmoghani@hotmail.com
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What door would not like this great flower hanging on it? The Market is the place to find these. The Market has so many new goods in that you really just need to go by and check them all out.
Also, don’t forget about The Market’s next potting class will be June 6, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. You could make an arrangement for Father’s Day. They have galvanized Alabama and Auburn buckets you can use as you planter. If your dad likes to be in the garden, you could reserve him a place to make his own arrangement. All you have to do is, call 574-1276 to make a reservation or stop by and put your name on the list. These classes are so much fun and you learn allot too!!
These are Magnetic Signs that The Market has recently got in the store. You may choose from LOTS of magnets to go on the sign. Great Graduation Ideas!!!
Last week, I had another visit to New Image Laser Solutions for the Laser Hair Removal treatment (number 2). All I can say, is that in 4 weeks (which was my first treatment) I can tell a huge difference. It is not too late to make yourself an appointment for a FREE consultation for any of the treatments that New Image offers at their office on Broad Street (across the street from the Scottsboro Police Station).
Summer is just beginning and that means that you have still got time to get your skin ready whether it is Hair Removal, Skin Rejuvenation or Spider Veins….
If you are just not sure if this is something that you are sure of or maybe you are not sure if you can work it into your budget- don’t “wonder” any longer- call Rhonda at 575-0918 and make an appointment to get answers for all your questions. I promise you that you WILL NOT be disappointed. No pressure during the consultation either. Very relaxed and layed back….
I know that you can get flip flops pretty much anywhere but these at Big C Drugs are way too cute to not share with you and would make great gifts! These are here just in time for summer and I can assure you that any kid wearing these will definitely know which “flops” are their shoes. Ha!
Big C Drugs has definitely got any kind of pool, yard, sand, etc. toy that a kid could ask for…. I love these Sun Hats (the blue on the right) that look like an Octopus sitting on your head. Everyone needs to make a stop by Big C before any outdoor outing or beach trip. You will find all kinds of fun treats…
Tomorrow, I will share part 2 of the Aftermath. I know you will be checking back because I don’t know of anyone who does not enjoy reading Louise’s stories.
Nothing in popular culture ages more quickly than carefully calculated outrage.
For the first few years of the new millennium, Eminem undeniably was America's favorite cultural bogeyman--right after Marilyn Manson, and just before Paris Hilton. But the platinum-selling rapper has been hiding out in the Detroit suburbs for nearly five years, which might as well be a century in these hyper-accelerated Twittering times.
"I guess it's time for you to hate me again," the now 36-year-old Marshall Mathers intones in an annoying sing-song midway through "Relapse," his sixth studio album, which arrives in stores on May 19. "Let's begin, now hand me the pen/How should I begin it and where does it all end?/The world is just my medicine ball you're all in."
There's an air of weary resignation in those words and in the rapper's delivery as he returns to venting his frustrations and taking out his boundless anger on any target that's handy: This shtick is well and truly played, and he knows it. And lest you doubt it, realize that much of the rest of the song "Medicine Ball" is devoted to once again mocking paralyzed "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve--who died in 2004.
The precise moment when Eminem jumped the shark can be debated; I'm torn between whether it was the duet with Elton John at the Grammys telecast in 2001--which followed "The Slim Shady LP" in 1999 and "The Marshall Mathers LP" in 2000, both of which sold 9 million copies--or his starring turn in the 2002 film "8 Mile." But the impulse behind both of those projects was the same.
Eminem made his name and a fortune that bought him a 29-room mansion with an unrelenting spew of venom, hiding behind his alter ego Slim Shady while gleefully celebrating his homophobia and repeatedly fantasizing graphic homicidal violence against his ex-wife Kim Scott (whom he married a second time in January 2006, then divorced again that April). Underneath it all was a sensitive soul with the heart of a true romantic, he claimed: He didn't really hate gays, he jammed with Sir Elton! And he may have dreamed of dismembering Kim and his mother, but it was only because they didn't love him the way that he deserved. Remember those heart-wrenching scenes with Kim Bassinger as his mom in "8 Mile"?
Eminem may have had one of the most agile tongues and unique rhyming styles in the history of hip-hop, but that was only half the reason he had such appeal to the hordes of Generation Y teens trying to buy rebellion on credit at the shopping mall. The rest of it was that he shocked and horrified their parents--the audio equivalent of torture porn--but it was time to find a new monster as soon as he started asking America's soccer moms for a loving hug.
On "Relapse," Eminem spends half of the 20 tracks asking for love, understanding and sympathy for the drug problems that derailed his career. "I fall in bed with a bottle of meds and a Heath Ledger bobble head" he rhymes, proceeding to blame his addiction on his mother in "My Mom." He also tries to justify his feelings about homosexuals by rapping about incestuous pedophilic rape in "Insane," and he wraps it all up with the hoariest cliché in the world, actually asking us to "Walk in my shoes, just to see/What it's like to be me."
For the rest of the lengthy album, the star tries to reclaim his old status as the button-pushing bad boy, tweaking Amy Winehouse and her Kim, hubby Blake Fielder-Civil; making not one but two gratuitous references to Kim Kardashian's assets; confessing that he pleasures himself while watching "Hannah Montana" and imagining the ruthless torture and murder of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears in "Same Song and Dance," a title that provides another hint that he's aware of how tired this routine is.
Mostly crafted by his old mentor and producer, Dr. Dre, the music is just as stale and predictable, full of Dre's overrated bubblegum hooks and cheesy gothic ambience. The one exception is the Middle Eastern flavor of "Bagpipes from Baghdad," but Eminem blows the opportunity to offer a sequel/update to the track that remains his finest moment with more throw-away lines about Mariah Carey.
A fierce diatribe against President Bush floated on the Net not long before the release of his last album "Encore" (2004), "Mosh" for once found Eminem focusing his rage at someone who actually deserved it. "Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us/Mosh pits outside the oval office," he rapped as George W. Bush sent his peers rolling through Iraq in un-armored humvees searching for nonexistent WMD. "No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil/No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal."
"Mosh" offered a glimpse of what a potent artist Eminem could be if only he abandoned his snotty teenage obsessions. But alas, it remains an oddity in his catalog, rather than the track that points to a worthy second act in a spectacularly lucrative career. And at the end of the day, commerce is what Eminem has always really been about.
In a particularly bone-headed, slavishly worshipful review, Rolling Stone compares "Relapse" to "a hip-hop version of Richard Pryor's 'Live on the Sunset Strip,' the classic 1982 stand-up flick where Pryor makes the audience squirm through jokes about freebase addiction and setting himself on fire." The only problems with that comparison are that Pryor actually was funny, and that he shared genuinely profound truths with his audience while revealing his inner demons.
That may be Eminem's goal, but he fails miserably.
"Whether I'm someone's favorite rapper or not, whether I'm thought of as one of the best, one of the most half-assed, whatever it is, I am one of the most personal," the rapper contends in The Way I Am, the autobiography he published last October. "That's why people relate to me, because I show so much of myself. That's why random taxi drivers call me 'Marshall.' And the reason I put so much of myself out there in the first place is because I had no idea I was going to be so famous. I had no idea, no f---ing clue. If I had to do it again, I don't know if I would."
Well, that sabbatical was your opportunity to bow out if you really wanted to, Em old pal. Instead, you came back with a hackneyed retread that gives us no better idea of who the "real" Marshall Mathers really is. And I for one don't care to know.
UPDATE: Since this review was posted on the message board of Eminem's Web site, I've heard from many of his fans, and their comments have all been posted below. Many of them share Mr. Mather's, er, adult vocabulary and, um, "edgy" sentiments, so while every effort has been made to truncate offending verbs and adjectives that cannot be printed in the newspaper, these are so plentiful that you read what follows at your own risk. Comments have otherwise not been edited.
