Eugene weekly., June 13, 2024, Page 4, Image 4

letters
DON’T BLOT OUT THE NIGHT
SKY
For those of us who live along the
Fern Ridge bike trail between City View
and Oak Patch, we are preparing for the
city to install new lights. I say preparing
because I have opposed these lights.
These lights will only add to the lights
which shine from the back side of busi-
nesses along West 11th Avenue.
As the work crews prepare the site
for the new lamp posts, they have used
yellow ribbons and orange plastic posts
to encircle each post site. In many cases,
part of the path is obstructed.
Now, obviously, this is new and tem-
porary, but my thing is this: If they can
see these markers (which aren’t light-
ed), they can see well enough to navi-
gate the path without additional light-
ing. Thus, these new lights are truly not
needed and a waste of taxpayer money,
and they are a blot to the night time sky
and surrounding area.
End this project now!
Lawrence Roper
Eugene
THINK OF THE FISH
I’ll start by saying that I love you, EW.
Going to pick up my EW at Sundance on
Thursdays is one of the joys of life.
But it saddened me to see the fi sh on
the cover of your Summer Guide issue
(6/6), not to highlight the beauty of the
animal, but to encourage causing them
harm and death with fi shing. My lament
is not directed at you. I’m disheartened
by the normalization of violence to cer-
tain species of animals in our society.
Would you put an image on the cover
of a dog or cat being tortured, suff ocat-
ed and killed? Of course not. But that
is exactly what is happening to a fi sh
in recreational and commercial fi sh-
ing. There is overwhelming scientifi c
evidence that fi sh feel pain, fi sh suff er
(both physically and psychologically)
and fi sh experience emotions like joy
and loss. We are moving toward a fu-
ture with a better animal/human rela-
tionship where barbaric practices like
fi shing will be a thing of a shameful
past.
This may seem extreme in our cur-
rent society, but couldn’t we use some
extreme compassion and kindness
right about now? Please consider this
for the future when selecting images
and articles. And thank you for all you
do to educate and enlighten our com-
munity!
Hope Behonic
Eugene
Local
Vocal
and
VIEWPOINT BY NASRAT IBRAHIMI
Through 10 Countries
to a New Life
AN AFGHANI IMMIGRANT’S STORY FOR WORLD REFUGEE DAY, JUNE 20
I
was born in Afghanistan in 1995 — the
same year as the Taliban.
The radical Islamic group seized
power rapidly. In cooperation with
Al-Qaeda terrorists, it controlled 90
percent of the country by 1998.
Opposition groups still controlled
Takhar Province in northeast Afghanistan,
however. This is where my family lived, in a
rural community of mud houses. We were
farmers, growing legumes and fruit, and
raising animals.
NASRAT IBRAHIMI
Still, the war came to us. I grew up under a
CROSSING THE
rain of gunfi re and rockets from both sides.
DARIÉN GAP.
Our legumes and fruit trees were trampled,
our fertile land seeded instead with bullets.
Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez became one
The withered fl owers of our garden smelled of gunpow-
of my favorites.
der and smoke.
At 15, I began presenting children’s programming on
When a blind Taliban rocket hit our house and killed
a Takhar radio station. Eventually, I became a television
my aunt’s husband, we left our land and animals and fl ed
news anchor in Kabul, where my wife, Suraya, was also
to my grandfather’s village high on a rocky mountain. It
a journalist. After studying law, I became a spokesman
was the fi rst time I was displaced.
and media advisor for the vice president of Afghanistan.
We lived on dry bread and Kokcha River water, but my
Then the U.S. coalition withdrew, and the country fell
father would take me higher up the mountain to pick up
to the Taliban in August 2021. Again I was a refugee, this
the Persian BBC News on his old radio. I will never forget
time as a husband and father of two boys. We fl ed to Iran
him explaining the news events to me; his deep, sad face
and from there to Brazil.
covered in dust.
We were determined to get to the educational oppor-
He said years of war had caused the country to lose
tunities of the U.S. Reluctantly, I left my wife and small
its foundation, that death, poverty and migration had
children in Brazil, an unknown country where the people
become the daily concerns of the people. “Everything
spoke an unknown language. I thought I needed to under-
speaks of violence and misery,” he said.
take the dangerous journey north alone.
When the United States and other countries invaded
As I rode on a bus through Colombia, I was surprised
Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban retreated and freedoms
by a reminder of a better time in my life: Looking out
were restored. I could pursue my own dreams, which
the window, I recognized the banana trees described by
included studying and becoming a journalist.
Márquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
I enrolled in school and got acquainted with pen,
Later, I walked with hundreds of other migrants through
paper and books. Over time, I got acquainted with novels.
4
J U N E
1 3 ,
2 0 2 4
the humid, muddy rainforest of the Darién Gap,
which refugees call “The Road of Death” for
its violence, fl oods, landslides, deadly snakes
and insects. It was like the experience of seven
lives and deaths as we walked for nine days
and nights to reach Panama.
I saw an old Venezuelan woman abandoned
there by her companions because she was
too weak to continue. All I could do was give
her a little of my small food supply. We had
to press on or risk death ourselves. But I can
still see that woman stuck in the rainforest,
crying for help.
After passing through 10 countries in
South and Central America, I presented
myself at the U.S.-Mexican border and asked
for asylum.
Now my wife and sons have joined me in Eugene, where
I am rebuilding my soul and my family’s fabric.
I work as an administrative intern and also serve on
the board of directors for Catholic Community Services,
a nonprofi t social service agency which administers the
Lane County Refugee and Immigrant Services Program
(RISP).
My family and I also recently started a small business,
the Manti Food Truck, preparing and selling Afghan and
Uzbek food at 1591 West 6th Avenue in Eugene.
This is my refugee story. You can hear others at a World
Refugee Day event on Thursday, June 20. The free event will
begin at 4 pm at First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive
Street. It will feature multicultural food for sale, as well as
music, speakers and activities for all ages. For more infor-
mation, or to pre-order a meal (only snacks will be available
for purchase at the event) please contact Manti Food Truck
ccslc.org/refugee2024.
Nasrat Ibrahimi has lived in Eugene since early 2023. He is writing
a memoir of his journey from Afghanistan. He and his wife, Suraya
Ibrahimi, have two sons: Toran, 9, and Temur, 3.
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M