The fog of work: What happened to Fremont mechanic Hamid Sayadi after 9/11?

[babylonsister]

Where Did My Country Go? I want her back! :mad:


ON THE JOB
The fog of work: What happened to Fremont mechanic Hamid Sayadi after 9/11?

By Chris Colin, Special to SF Gate

Monday, October 29, 2007

In the beginning, 9/11 was a local story — it was the intimate grief and shock and incomprehension that so profoundly shook us those first days and weeks. Over time it morphed into something political, and we came to see the tragedy through the wide-angle lenses of foreign policy and law and the other spasms of governance it inspired.

But even as the specific event blurred into unspecific politics and symbolism over the years, it continued to affect individuals in concrete ways — ways that Fremont resident Hamid Sayadi claims he paid a price for.

His story is one of the many that have both nothing and everything to do with 9/11. A witty and eloquent Kurdish-American in his 50s, Sayadi waved the flag of his adopted country and cheered its military for three decades — all to end up stripped to his underwear one day, in the boiler room of his workplace, he says, a ragged and sobbing husk of his former self.

snip//

The worst had yet to come, he says. It was in spring of 2003 that President Bush had his famous "Mission Accomplished" moment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, and Sayadi reports that NUMMI hosted its own celebration. He estimates that between 500 and 1,000 workers gathered in the plant's cafeteria for a rally over the seeming victory in Iraq — he himself had purchased a special American flag hat just for the occasion. A marching band played, various speakers gave remarks and in general "it was a very intense rally," he recalls. "But I didn't see more than five minutes of it."

Sayadi had just arrived when two security guards approached him. One put a finger on Sayadi's mouth, he remembers, the other held his hands behind his back; together they escorted him from the cafeteria.

"They took me to the boiler room just outside, and left me alone with this one big guy, big like a mountain. Very intimidating, very sadistic-looking with this toothpick in his mouth. I remember that look. It was like he'd eaten my meat and was now cleaning his teeth out."

The man ordered Sayadi to take his coveralls off. As Sayadi tells it, something finally snapped in him. He broke down and wept.

"I was crying like a woman. I was sitting on a chair, sobbing," he says. "They broke me down. I was done. I didn't have any defense besides my crying."

more...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/10/29/onthejob.DTL

[BridgeTheGap]

1. It's criminal to treat people this way

Our government is making things far worse through these actions.

[truedelphi]

2. Pre-9/11 -- The official government sponsored CIA web site had up

On one of its pages that it was of special importance that a way be figured out that could bring
the National Guard, the military and others to turn on ordinary citizens.

Demonizing any ethnic group works well - once the government has selected sections of the population that are willing to bully a certain ethnic group, they can simply indoctrinate this group to expand the population of those to be bullied.

"First they came for the Communists, but I wasn't a Communist, then they came for the union leaders, but I wasn't a union leader, then they came for the Jews," etc

Except this time around you can substitute "Muslim" for "Jew"

[Lisa]

3. a kick, since the recommendation time has elapsed

I'm afraid to show this article to my parents (who have Japanese ancestry and were interned during WWII). It would sadden them terribly, to see that people haven't changed.