Iranians: They’re decent people, not savages

Re: “Democrats fiddle while savages plot,” (TNT letter, 5/18).

I take umbrage with the comments directed towards Iran and the Iranian people. First, it’s a terrible slur to call them savages.

Having spent four years in Iran, two years a Peace Corps volunteer and two years as an ESL instructor, I found the Iranians to be kind, generous, polite, proud of their long cultural history and friendly towards the U.S.

Peace Corp friends who have returned to Iran to visit in the past few years echo the same. The Iranian people are not as anti-American as you might think. However, their government is another matter.

Second, it’s ludicrous to assert that the Iranians are under the control of Russia. Iran is an independent country that eyes the Russians warily due to their shared history.

So the writer doesn’t like the nuclear deal worked out with the Obama Administration. What’s the alternative? Another Middle Eastern invasion? That didn’t work out too well last time.

Dehumanizing a nation’s people, embracing wild right-wing talk radio and Fox News “analysis,” is not the way to make our country safer. Indeed, our country will be less secure.

This story was originally published May 31, 2017 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Iranians: They’re decent people, not savages."