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People
to People
Local
woman returns from two weeks in Iran trying to foster understanding
Priscilla Fairbanks had just stepped off the plane. She handed
the customs officer her passport. “What were you doing in
Iran?” he demanded. “I told him I was a part of a peace delegation,”
said Fairbanks. “He replied belligerently, sarcastically,
‘I don’t know who you think you are kidding.’ ” Fairbanks
said that during her two-week trip to visit Iran, the country
the Bush administration paints as America’s latest No. 1 enemy,
the only negative reaction she encountered was from a uniformed
officer of the U.S. government. Not once was Fairbanks greeted
with disdain or contempt in Iran.
Traveling as part of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a group
that organizes peace trips around the globe in hopes of fostering
bonds between citizens of countries that are at odds with
each other, Fairbanks, a resident of Poestenkill, got to meet
with Iranian citizens in five cities, including Tehran. However,
unlike past trips put together by FOR, Fairbanks’ group was
not allowed to meet with scholars or civil-rights groups because
of limitations set by the Iranian government. “There was a
last-minute stipulation with our visas that we could not meet
with groups. I think the government is worried about a velvet
revolution.”
Fairbanks said that the Iranians she met smiled when she informed
them she was an American. They would tell her, “We love Americans;
we just don’t like Mr. Bush.” Banks said that her group attended
a prayer vigil where the Iranians around her chanted, “Death
to America! Death to Israel!” but Fairbanks said she was not
concerned. “I saw a few women do some strong arm gestures
while saying that, but with the rest of them I saw absolutely
no commitment in it at all, and at the same time they would
turn around and smile to us the whole time. It was clear they
were doing it because they have to, not because they believe
it.”
Fairbanks also met with groups that are dedicated to helping
victims of chemical weapons from the Iran-Iraq war—a war that
Fairbanks said Iran is still reeling from. Fairbanks said
that America’s influence on the Iran-Iraq war is not lost
on Iranians. “They lost so many people to that war. There
is a whole population that has been maimed. There are victims
of chemical warfare, and they know that we supplied those
chemicals to Saddam Hussein and now our economic sanctions
against Iran prevent them from getting medicines that would
help these victims.” But Fairbanks said groups representing
these victims were eager to meet with Americans to talk about
how to move forward.
The most striking event of her trip was the release of the
National Intelligence Estimate report that stated that Iran
had been working on nuclear weapons program but stopped in
2003. “For Iranians I got the sense the NIE was a sigh of
relief. They seemed to be saying, ‘Now will you believe what
we are telling you?’ I brought back a newspaper from Tehran
that has a picture of Bush on front with a very pouty face.
I can’t read Farsi but the picture says a lot.”
Fairbanks said that, despite the NIE report, she is worried
about Bush’s motivations and intentions towards Iran. “I don’t
think the coast is clear. But we have to take this opportunity,
this moment, we have to keep pushing our decision-makers that
diplomacy is a must.”
—David
King
dking@metroland.net
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| What
a Week |
|
Beat
it, Just Beat it!
U.S.
Justice Department statistics show a dramatic
25-percent increase in incidents of police violating
the civil rights of citizens frome 2001 to 2007.
The sharp increase in police brutality and civil-rights
violations has been attributed by some to a shortage
of quality law-enforcement candidates, as the
candidate pool has been drained by the desperate
need for military personnel.
Down
Boy! Or I’ll Shoot!
The
professional mercenaries of Blackwater used by
the U.S. government for “protection” in Iraq have
a funny way of making friends everywhere they
go. According to employees of The New
York Times Baghdad bureau, Blackwater guards
shot their office dog, Hentish, to death. Blackwater
personnel were securing the Times office
in preparation for the arrival of a U.S. diplomat,
when Hentish allegedly attacked one of Blackwater’s
bomb-sniffing dogs. A Blackwater spokesperson
told Reuters that the shooting was unfortunate
but necessary. “The K-9 handler made several unsuccessful
attempts to get the dog to retreat, including
placing himself between the dogs,” Blackwater
spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell told Reuters by
e-mail. “When those efforts failed, the K-9 handler
unfortunately was forced to use a pistol to protect
the company’s K-9 and himself.”
joementum
Sen.
Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut
who caucuses with the Democrats, made another
forceful move in his staunch support of the war
in Iraq this week: He endorsed Republican warhound
candidate John McCain. McCain once captured the
imagination of some Republicans and Democrats
as a candidate with enough integrity to actually
work with both parties, but that was a long time
ago, and fewer Republicans these days take his
candidacy seriously as he continues to align himself
with the flailing Bush administration. But Lieberman
framed his endorsement as a daring bipartisan
move and said that McCain—who also picked up some
key newspaper endorsements this week—could “create
a new unity in America.” Lieberman lost the Democratic
nomination for Senate last year due in large part
to his support of the Iraq war, but he won reelection
as an Independent. Lieberman staffers reportedly
have told the press his endorsement of McCain
is the “hangover” from the 2006 elections.
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Wrong
Aid?
Plans
to build another pharmacy on Troy’s Hoosick Street have some
people upset
Nothing gets a small but determined group of Trojans more
upset than the proposal of a national chain store setting
up shop in their neighborhood. Especially when that store
will be razing a historic building and pouring down a parking
lot in its place.
A new battle is brewing over the ever-more-congested Hoosick
Street in Troy, where Rite Aid Pharmacy has proposed building
a new store at 272-282. Critics of the proposal have started
an online petition, which has drawn more than 350 signatures.
At the top of their list of complaints about the proposal
is the redundancy of another pharmacy on Hoosick—Rite Aid
already has two stores within a half-mile stretch.
The petition reads: “There will be a new Walgreen’s at the
top of Hoosick St. There are an abundance of box store pharmacies
locally, including CVS, Walmart, Walgreen’s, Rite Aid, Price
Chopper pharmacy, etc.
“We
believe that these new Rite Aids will detract from the aesthetic
appearance of the city and will increase traffic substantially.”
Another cause of outcry is that a half-dozen historic homes
currently are located on the proposed building site. One building,
a former fraternity house, is believed to have been a stop
on the Underground Railroad.
Last Thursday (Dec. 13), the Planning Board heard the proposal,
but did not vote.
Representatives of Rite Aid and the petition could not be
reached by press time.
—Chet
Hardin
chardin@metroland.net
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PHOTO: Joe Putrock |
If
Doughnuts Could Float
If
you were in downtown Albany on Tuesday, there was a good chance
you saw them: 3-foot-tall doughnut balloons, tossed around
the tops of parking meters or being carried away by state
workers. It was a publicity stunt to hype the release of the
Simpsons movie on DVD. The balloons were tied to the
parking meters, indicating that the parking fees for that
particular meter had been picked up for the day by the production
company. But a couple of things no one seemed to consider:
One, people steal balloons. And two, helium doesn’t float
in the cold.
| Loose
Ends |
|
-no
loose ends this week-
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