Lynnwood couple sees similarities between Iran and America

KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don received the following letter from a local couple (he’s from America, she’s from Iran) worried about President Trump’s travel ban.

Related: Trump’s next executive order could hit local tech companies hard

Dear Ron and Don

I listen to your show daily coming home from work. I appreciate all you do to heighten awareness of what’s happening in our communities.

I have always been a proud American, but over the last several months my heart has grown heavy due to what is happening in our great nation.

Today, my wife awoke me with news of Donald Trump’s executive order suspending visas.

My wife is Iranian. She and her friends are in fear — and in tears about what this means. Many, like us, were waiting for family to visit from Iran, or were planning to visit family there — and are now in fear of returning should we not be allowed back into the US.

Such executive orders are cementing bricks in the walls that are dividing our nation from the rest of the world — and tearing families apart.

From Iran to America

Mark is 61 years old — a substance abuse counselor. Linda, 41, teaches Persian cooking.

They met online about six years ago. A love blossomed and they were married, beginning their lives together in Lynnwood.

When Mark decided to marry Linda, he converted to Islam — a religion he says he’s discovered profound respect for. He’s also a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War era. Under Trump’s stated policies, that leaves him in an odd situation.

“Ya know, when Trump was talking about having all Muslims register, we kind of jokingly said, ‘Well, Mark, now you got to register,'” Mark said. “A natural-born American citizen … and then we’d have to move to Iran because your own country won’t accept you. That kind of joking is fearful because things like that could happen.”

Linda notes that the way she has been treated in America has noticeably changed since the last presidential campaign season began. Mark shared this story from just the other day.

“We like to go to these estate sales, and the cashier was an older lady and she said to my wife, ‘You’re pretty,'” Mark explained. “(My wife) said, ‘Well, thank you.’

Mark’s wife and the cashier got to talking, and it came up that his wife was from Iran.

“And (the cashier) said, ‘Oh … Iran,'” Mark said. “And she goes on to talk and says it’s a really good thing that they are restricting Muslims from coming into the U.S. because they did it to the Japanese during WWII and they didn’t have it so bad.”

Mark’s generation has firsthand accounts of what those internment camps were like. They remember times when fear drove Americans to lock up their neighbors and friends.

“I had friends whose fathers and mothers were in those camps, and it was no Hilton,” Mark said. “I had a friend in high school and the first thing her father said to me, he set me down and he said, ‘Ya know, I’m an American, too. But this is what you did to me.’ And he went on to tell me about his family being in one of those camps in the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.”

Mark and Linda also remember a time when the United States and Iran weren’t adversaries. Linda and her family actually visited the US, more than 40 years ago. They were hoping to show her parents what the US is like now that it’s different than what they hear on their news. It’s a conversation they have with friends in Iran all the time — what are things really like in America?

Mark and Linda hear a different side of the news than we do in America. In Iran, they hear about American tyranny and Muslim civilians killed by drone bombings.

In the U.S., we hear about state-sponsored terrorism, support for Hezbollah, and watch propaganda videos of American flags burning in the streets of Tehran to the chants of “Death to America.” What we don’t hear about are the people that share a common bond — not just in family ties, but in our shared humanity.

And their family in Iran also doesn’t believe their government defines who they are.

“They don’t represent the people’s voice,” Mark said. “They represent their own voice. Unfortunately, they’ve also made jokes about likening our present government, with this election, with being very similar to their own. That (Trump) represents oppression and the denial of rights.”

If Trump’s travel ban extends, Mark and Linda worry they may not be able to see their family again.