IRAN HOLDS AMERICANS HOSTAGE

In 1979, the year that fifty three Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran, I was four years old. The following year I remember watching the news on the small television in my family's living room. An attempt to free the hostages had failed, there were casualities. I didn't really understand what was going on. What were hostages? Who was the Ayatollah? The world was suddenly much bigger than my kindergarten class. This was the beginning of my understanding that there were complex things going on in the world that I had absolutely no understanding of. America wasn't just land, it was a living entity.

The government and the media created an image of the Ayatollah as the devil, as a madman much like it did in dealings with Libya and Iraq. Because of my age I was unable to see the entire picture of what was going on. I learned to react to the situation like the majority of Americans do. I could soon tell my parents that the Ayatollah was a bad man because he wouldn't let go of the hostages. I remember shooting my B.B. gun at special targets with Khomeini's face on the bullseye. It wasn't until I was in college that I as able to look back at the event and discover for myself the circumstances that surrounded it. That this was another example of the United States trying to control a nation to make sure that its own interests were served.

I think for our generation the Iran Hostage Crisis is an important event because it is an example of how we can be taught to think by the government and the media. Today, by looking back and re-examining our perceptions of past events with unbiased facts we are able to come closer to the truth. We can apply our realizations to current events and learn to not make judgments until we are sure that we have the entire story.

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