Kissing Our Flag: A Symbol of Freedom and Hope; Understanding Pastor Brunson's Moving Gesture

American Thinker ^ | 10/15/2018 | By E. Jeffrey Ludwig

[SeekAndFind]

Pastor Andrew Brunson kissed the American flag when it was presented to him in Germany. I understand his emotions very well. In 1976, I went to Teheran, Iran to teach history in private school while the Shah Reza Pahlavi was still in power. It was a police state then even though it is a worse police state now. After I arrived, my passport was confiscated. In addition, there was runaway inflation and I had to begin borrowing thousands of dollars from the school in order to meet my basic expenses.

My salary was $850 a month, and my rent was $800. Obviously, I could not live on $50 a month. I was hired to teach and invited to live there under false pretenses. No one had told me that my salary would not be sufficient to meet expenses or that my freedom of travel would be curtailed. There was no internet for me to investigate the economy before I signed my contract. In order to travel during vacation breaks, we had to apply to have our passport returned by the authorities. Colleagues who intended to go to Afghanistan during Christmas break were denied their passports. I had applied to visit Israel. Amazingly (since Iran and Israel were not on very good terms even then), I was granted my passport and secured a visa to travel there.

Meanwhile, like many Westerners living there, I began contracting health problems. I had amoebic dysentery and lost 60 pounds my first ten weeks. I developed boils on my scalp. All food had to be disinfected in bleach before eating, and then the bleach had to be washed off with bottled water to prevent reinfection of the food by the bacteria in the tap water. During traffic jams, cars drove on the sidewalks.

[SeekAndFind]

[rjsimmon]

It was a police state then even though it is a worse police state now. After I arrived, my passport was confiscated. In addition, there was runaway inflation and I had to begin borrowing thousands of dollars from the school in order to meet my basic expenses.

I have no idea where this guy was, but it certainly was not Iran. I lived there in 1975-76 and there was no 'police state' nor was there 'runaway inflation'. I and my friends wandered all over Tehran without a care in the world and the Rial was as strong as it could be. That is, until the revolution started, then all hell broke loose.

[PrairieLady2]

I had friends in Iran around the same time frame as you, and they loved it. They told me the Sha was bad, but the iatola was worse. Still, they had relative freedom and traveled all over the place.

I have another friend who has taught English in Dubai. She love it there as well, and makes terrific money, much more than she would be paid as a tenired teacher in the states.

She came home to visit her mom, and had no problems going back when the time came.

The only place I would ever consider going in the middle East is Israel.

[Jack Hammer]

Traveling oversea to some foreign sh*t hole is the surest way to appreciate America.

All the kids should be sent away for a year or two.

[rjsimmon]

They told me the Sha was bad, but the iatola was worse.

I got to meet the Shah. After arriving, we were put up in the Tehran Hilton for roughly a month prior to moving out in town. While at the hotel, I left the pool and was headed back to our room, wearing a diving mask and single fin (being the 11 year old that I was, I thought this completely natural). I walked next to a very refined looking gentleman seated in the lobby who was surrounded by several men who were less refined. He stopped me and asked if I were American. I said yes, to which he welcomed me to Iran.

Every leader has political enemies, they were the ones that wrote the press pieces. The Ayatollah was sadistic. He murdered a group of women who were professionals during the Shah's regime (doctors, lawyers, etc.) who asked Khomeini to allow them to return to work.