I was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1957. I came to
understand the
critical aspect of having a sound and stable government at a very early
age. My father would tell me that I was actually born during a military
conflict within the country and one of the
conflicting parties was attacking hospitals. Because of my fathers work
I was able to be born in the American Hospital the only one that was
not being attacked at the time.
My parents had met each other through written
correspondence in
the early 1950s. My father worked for the American embassy in Baghdad,
Iraq. My mother worked for the American embassy in Tehran, Iran.
When I was a candidate for Congress between December
1988 and June 1992 my wife Gail and I came up with the term
Mediterranean Mut
because it perfectly described my family background and genealogy. On
my dad's side there is Indian from the country of
India but further back we have Portugal. There is also
Chaldean
Assyrian, the ancient people group in the Bible.
The family oral history goes like this: My dad's
father while considering the catholic priesthood made a tour of the
holy land, while there he was encouraged to visit the cathedral in
Baghdad Iraq because it was renown. He did just that and while there
experienced something that change his life and mine. He heard a women
sing with a voice that was the most wonderful he had ever heard. It is
said in our family that he fell in love with that voice. He asked for
her hand in marriage and as I said it changed his life and mine. His
wife, my grandmother was the one of Chaldean
Assyrian decent.
On my mother's side there is Greek and Armenian. In
fact my grandmother's first husband decided to take her and my mother
who was a
young child at the time to voluntarily go to the Soviet Union to start
a business under Stalin. My grandmother would
tell the family how she stood in bread lines in the freezing cold for
hours and hours to only get bread that had glass in it as a filler to
make the bread last farther.
After enduring the Soviet Union's abusive and
horrible
government she decided to flee the country with her daughter, my
mother, through a river that bordered the Soviet Union and the country
of Iran.
My grandmother told us of how she put my mother in
what she
described as a tire (we call them inter tubes) and she started to swim
across this incredibly cold river. She managed to get to the middle of
it where there was a small island with tall plants
like corn stocks.
She then saw military personnel coming up and seeing the footsteps of
the other side of the river that they had walked on
to begin swimming across this river. Those military personnel obtained
a boat and made their way to the island.
Those same military personnel came onto that island
started searching for them with their bayonets.
My grandmother would tell us that those military
personnel
literally stood directly above my grandmother and my mother who was a
small child and as she prayed, they did not see them or hear them.
My grandmother would thank God for the incredible
miracle that
those military personnel did not see them or hear them. She also would
thank God that they did not drown which they almost did.
My grandmother crossed the rest of the river and got
into Iran.
With help from a local farmer whom she had knocked on the door of, she
eventually ended up at her embassy in Tehran, Iran.
My parents because of their work in American
Embassies in both
Iraq and Iran and other such work were under constant surveillance. My
father would tell us that our mail was read, our phone was tapped, and
our house was under surveillance.
My father decided after the 1967 war between Israel
and its Arab
neighbors which lasted just six days that he would legally immigrate
our family to the United States of America.
He did that because the Iraqi government was one of
the Arab
neighbors that was involved in the conflict. The Iraqi government with
a kangaroo court convicted men of spying for Israel and the USA. They
publicly hanged those men in the central park
in Baghdad like Central Park in New York City. As if that was not
enough they also showed these public hangings on every television
station in the country.
My father would also tell us that employment
applications
required that you reveal your religion and that the correct answer was
that you were a Muslim. My father was not a Muslim.
My mother, my brother and I immigrated legally to
the United
States of America and arrived in Los Angeles California during Labor
Day weekend in 1969.
I chose to become a U.S. citizen in 1976 also known
as (AKA) a naturalized American Citizen in 1976 during the
200th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.
I decided to run as a candidate for the United
States house of
representatives in December 1988 and later begin Citizens For
A
Better America(R) (CFABA.ORG) on October 15, 1992.
I am extremely passionate about the United States of
America not
becoming one of those horrible countries that I, my parents, and my
grandparents escaped from.
This biography is shared by enormous numbers of
legal immigrants
to the United States of America. And yes I did say "legal immigrants",
because it is my strong belief that those coming to the United States
of America should come with the mentality
they are coming to stay. As a result they do all they can to invest in
their newfound country.
We asked Congressman Bill Dannemeyer to become our
honorary
national chairman in June of 1994 after his attempt to become a United
States Senator. During the next presidential election in 1996 he said
to me during a phone call while we were
independently as an organization following Pat Buchanan to support him
for his run for President, "I know why you work so hard as a volunteer
in politics, because you do not want to see America become like Iraq."
Will you support my passion "Working To Make America
A Better
America(TM) through the work of Citizens For A Better America(R)
(CFABA.ORG)?
I hope your answer is - Yes!.
Please make a contribution today by clicking on the
following webpage.
DONATE ONLINE
CFABA.ORG has also posted an audio message from the
Founder of
CFABA.ORG. By listening to this message that is less than six (6)
minutes long you will get to know the the story of Citizens For A
Better America® (CFABA.ORG) . Please click on the
following link:
AUDIO_MSG_FRM_FOUNDER.WMA
Below you can find links to pages that will give you
more information
as to 'who we are' and 'what we are
all about'.
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