I can only imagine

The room was fairly empty, so i took a chair to wait. The lone woman at the counter was helping the one man in line. While i was trying to decide if there was anything i needed to say super-tactfully, a white man in his 50's with a shaved head walked up to the window and began his shpeel.

"The U.S. gov't stole $200 million from me, murdered my father, and has committed hate crimes against me..."

the woman stared relatively blankly. my instinctive thought was that this man was truely insane, but i've seen enough movies so i decided to give him a chance. And sure enough, it was as if i were in a movie

"I want your country to protect me. Netherlands, Switzerland, (and a bunch of other countries) said they'd take me, but all failed. I want to work with your country to bring peace..."

by this time, i was skeptical but still figured some of this could maybe, possibly be true. They told him to write something so he sat down across the coffee table. I looked at him and said hello. He asked if i was american, and i said yes.

"America has forgotten the freedoms that made it great," he went on. "They've..." and then he repeated what he had said. While most people, including myself on another day, probably wouldn't have given him the time of day, i had nowhere else to be and it was only 11:30 a.m. I let him continue. As i gently attempted to prod more information out of him, his story began to take a bit more shape. With beady, angry yet fearful eyes, fidgety hand movements and a random laugh (which brought hannibal lector to mind), his summed up story (shortened without a lot of details i'll forget) went something like this:

His father was a geologist of sorts and had aquired all kinds of money in both cash and minerals (gold, stones, etc.). For some unknown reason, his father's estate ($200 mil) had been taken by the government. Despite this, this man said he still had $130 million in cash (i pictured a LOT of suitcases to move). Because they gov't stole his money and knew he rightfully owned it, they were after him. The gov't/military could hear everything he said while in the states and maybe even in these other countries. Many other countries knew about him and knew he may come looking for asylum (or something like it). While in Sweden, the swedish gov't told him it was all settled and he could go home. The U.S. would give him a few million and he'd be fine. He didn't believe them of course, and when he did go back to the U.S. to make some money for a year, he was hassled. As a truck driver, he did cross-country trips. He said he could point out all of the CIA and ATF that followed him and tried to get him everytime he stopped. THey would put stuff in his truck to give him sores and lesions on his face. One time, back in California, they put him in an insane hospital and told him he had a heart problem. When they told him he needed medication and attempted to give him an IV, he wouldn't let them. All of the times he got out of something were because God was on his side. He kept mentioning how God wants him alive because he as the plan for world peace (which he told me a little bit of, but that's secret :) . He only wanted his money so that he could work with the U.S. to create peace in the world - a noble idea. He's now been in Cairo for 6 months and was, like me, attempting to get into Iran. If the U.S. won't work with him, Iran will...logical, right? I've forgoten to mention a lot of the story, but i hope you get the jist. I tell you this not so you make a movie, but because i felt really bad for this man. I cannot imagine what it must be like living with such constant paranoia...or maybe it was the truth. I kept praying that I could somehow help this man; he needed love, comfort, and "security." I was about to ask him if he wanted to get coffee or tea, but then he began repeating some things and i decided neither of us needed that - maybe i missed my chance.

I kind of wanted to tell him that $200 million isn't a lot of money in the big skeem of things...but i'm no economist.

After all of that, i failed to come away with a visa. if i had a month to spare i could get one. It's sad, really. you should all look up information on Iran, its people, and geography and see how it is a country of amazing people (with crazy history) who actually like americans to visit.

And that's all i have to say about that