Anxiously, I left the country that I was born in and grew up many years ago. At the beginning of my resettlement in America, I never wanted to return to Iraq and retrieve the dark memories that became nightmares.
When I came to America, I thought that I buried all the memories, including my past regarding who I was and what I did, and left everything behind. I thought I would forget every event that occurred in my life and will never be told as a history. I wanted to adapt to an American lifestyle completely and become a free man who thinks that life has no limit.
I defined freedom as a land with no boundaries and a path with no dead end.
However, America turned into a tremendous positive experience and that informed my life and I evolved and changed some radical perspectives that I had in the past. America became like a large university that had a major impact on redirecting my ideological route.
In America, I learned how to distinguish between “life and death” and comprehended the meaning of the value of a human being. In America, privacy is not only only defined relative to physical spaces, rather it is also the right to embrace and live out of a belief without the intervention of the government. Speaking freely is not prohibited and being silent is allowed.
When I came to America I was introduced to a small booklet. On its front cover, the Constitution of The United States of America was written.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It is the foundation of America,” they answered.
I learned that the Constitution declared and organized a system of government established by “We the People.” It is the right Manifesto of the human system, not the Manifesto of Communist that I admired in my younger age.
Obviously, before living in America, I imagined an oppressive Capitalism system and oppressed American workers, ruthless manufactures owners and impecunious laborers. I imagined how the Manifesto of Communist would become the guidance that brings joy to all humans on earth. Yes, this I imagined, but what kind of imagination!
In America, I observed a different labor class than the class that Karl Marx defined, and I learned if Capitalism falls, the entire labor class will fall as well. I realized that the world looks at America from the bottom of the hill, and I was now looking from within.
Living in America is a continuation of a journey that I began almost 25 years ago, and this journey awakened my consciousness and strengthened my spiritual belief. I could now comprehend the reasons for people’s happiness, anger, depression, and gratefulness.
The philosophy of living with faith and resisting temptations derives from a consciousness which is above that of human beings. America offers the opportunity and the environment to develop such a consciousness. After all, as we perish and disappear, we must learn that life has limits, and freedom is surrounded by the boundaries of beliefs, ethics, and morals.
Communism – the immature baby of liberalism – will never grow up.
– Serwan Zangana supported Operation Iraqi Freedom as a U.S Army translator before coming to the U.S from Kurdistan, Iraq in 1997 to seek political asylum. He was granted asylum status and years later proudly became a U.S citizen. He currently serves as a correction officer in Roanoke.
