[Music] Welcome back everybody. This is the second part of our special Father's Day recording with Holly and I's father Jamshed Salimi. Yes. Good afternoon. Good morning. Good to see you again. We were talking about you and mom here in the States. You had your student visa. Uh you we hadn't gotten to the part where you had transferred to university yet, right? So let's pick up there. And the year is 1978. 1978. So I think I spent about two semesters which was like six months at Chhattan Chattanooga State Community College. I got some elective courses that would be well because UTC was close by in the same city and I was taking electives that accepted but uh UTC as a credit. So I took those courses and then transferred to UTC for mechanical. Now I picked the majoring which was mechanical engineering. I always wanted to pursue engineering. So I go to UTC and I started you know taking but uh the tuition was lot higher I would say about like $1,500 every semester comparing to what we paid for the rent was 150 or $450 for the rent every semester whereas the tuition was 1,500 almost three times more today's money probably would be I would say uh $45,000 per semester at that time. Uh so I did work for that USS company and I I had a good income. Then US stove company decided the workers decided to go on a strike and I said what's the on strike? They said well we going to we are not going to work but union gonna pay us uh like I don't know $50 $100 $150 a week. We just come here. We hold on the placard and demonstrating against this US company and from TV. I said TV going to come and because I was working illegally. I'm not supposed I scared. I didn't want to come to the union but they say you are the part of the union and you have to come to their strike. I said okay. Oh because when you have a student visa you can't work. I could not work. Oh I had my social security number. I had my driver's license, but I'm not supposed to work. I didn't have a work authorization. So, when I was working illegally, but you know, they didn't know. Uh because all they needed social security, can you only work part-time or you're not permitted to work at all? And I applied for the part-time at you could as a student by the way because my mathematics was good comparing to all I studied all back home in the high school and but in in the university even second year the mathematics was so easy for me. So I would get a straight A on mathematics they put me on the dean's list. Mhm. Uh, since I was on the dean's list, I could apply part-time job at the university. I applied and they gave me a student assistant job, $20 a week. I don't know how much per hour, but it was good, good income. What I would do, teacher takes the paper from the like every exam. He give me the papers. I go home look at the student answers to the question I mark you know whatever is wrong whatever is right I mark it and then professor would grade them so that was my job I was doing 20 hours a week you know it was legally I was working there so so the professor is essentially delegating out his responsibilities they still do that and then whatever I you know they accepted as I said my mathematics was good and then uh then in the even on a strike and I didn't try to show up on the TV. I I was hiding you know whenever from TV or news they come you know and you know they would come at evening time so I I would hide I don't let my face to be appeared on TV I said as soon as somebody sees me they're going to come and deport me. Who is the president at the time? Uh Carter. So Carter is going to see on TV he's going to see Jam Sheet's face. He's like what's that Leonardo DiCaprio mean? that that that was my understanding. But anyway, the struggle went on and the the factory hired a few other employees and when they come in, you know, we throw stone at them for the new employees. Why? Why they that part? I was good at it. way to shatter stereotypes that you could throw a rock like a little rocket stone and small things and but anyway uh that ended my job at uh US factory now I have a good experience I had a guts to apply for a job for another place so I got Dixon uh as a I but by the way I never told any Iranian people that I'm working but most of these kids were single and there they had a green card but they wasn't working. They would receive money from Iran anyway but I I had to support myself by myself. So and your wife no she was always at home. She was at that time she meant you had to support her. Yeah she was. Yeah she was she was pregnant on you. Uh so uh I I got a job at uh Dixie Yarn. That was a good job there, you know, doing the uh all of my job was afternoon job after after a school job. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. So, I guess at this point, mom is pregnant with attorney Ali. Yes. I didn't have a handle yet. But were you scared? Were you nervous about how am I going to support a child now? No, I wasn't afraid of hot support, but I was worried my wife is pregnant. You know what going to happen? This and that. So I had to be at home, you know, most of the time, you know, make sure that I'm next to her and but meanwhile I had to go to school in the morning, work in the afternoon, but at night I was there. Did you ever try to like, you know, mess around with her like play like a little bit too rough like, hey, no, [Laughter] please cut that out of me. Oh no, I'm here. Nothing happened. Oh my god. So now I'm at university student, which was good. You know, I'm going toward my goal my graduating. So everything's on track. Everything on track. You came in, you were you guys went to uh Sacred Heart, you did the ESL classes to get your English to a level where you can communicate in this country and actually start taking uh classes. You go to a community college, you pick up uh some credits and transfer into university. This is all almost one year. You do all of this in and a little bit less than one year to get to this point. You've get a job. So, you you've depleted your savings, but you've gotten a job and you're working after class. Yes. Everything is on track. You're going to finish university and you're going to go back to Iran and and deploy your degree there, right? Yes. What happens around your oney year anniversary being in this country? Instead of me leading you, you tell me what. So what happens next? Now you go through university. Um before you were born, then I applied for my sister and my stepbrother Hamid which lives in Florida now. Shout out Daytona Beach. Yeah. And then my sister Ley and she lives in Georgia. Shout out Atlanta. Marietta. And then they came in and so they stayed with us for a few weeks and then they got the apartment. They moved to in that apartment together and then a few months later you were born on November of 1978. A year later. Shout out Scorpios. Yeah, I'm just I'm just ad living right. Um but we didn't pay for the for your bird. You know, hospital didn't charge. I was a student. But that was that was good. Everything was going on track. Everything was going great. You know, and then then you know uh from uh that job you know I was taking many units like the maximum units you could take credit hours you can take every semester was 20. But I tried to finish school within four years which was designed engineering four years. I tried to from the beginning from the time we came to America day I graduated I tried to compact it in four years and I did and I took some some of the co because I was paying a high tuition I was out of a student out of a state student other Iranian they had green card they paid like $300 per semester I was paying $1,500 $1,800 a semester so it was very hard on me so you were doubling up on your credits you were more classes I was taking but you had to uh apply for it and request to take more than 20 since I was on the dean list. Mhm. They allowed me to take two semester I took 24 hours unit. In two semesters was like 48 hours out of 130 hours and in two almost half of it two semester 6 months I got oneird of the units requested. Yeah. I just realized why he would be so hard on us during college. Yeah. U was the best five years of my life. I took a whole semester off on uh December of 1981 was my graduation and Alibaba my my wife's cousin and Zia Zia was a student for the master degree and Alibaba was a student for the uh bachelor degree and then they were here before me but when I graduated their Father Aadi was surprised. I cannot believe, you know, he comes here, he doesn't know English, he doesn't have money. And my kids are here, they supported, they know English, they're not graduated yet. I'm going to go to Jamshi's graduation to make sure that he really graduated. Wow. Aladai left Iran to come here. No, Alid was here. Oh, he was here already. Before the revolution, he was here. Okay. And then you know right around revolution they called him don't come back if you come back you are the first going to arrest you. So he was here so he did attend my graduation. He noticed that. So this is this is our mom's uncle. Maternal m on the mom's side right? Yeah. This is our mom's maternal uncle. Uh he was part of the he was actually part of the military in Shaw's regime. Right. Part of military and part of CIA Irania CIA in Iran. He was a member of Savak. So when the revolution happened, he was person high rank in Savak. So as soon as he comes back, he will be executed. Yeah. They told him don't come. So he and he but prior to the revolution while the Shaw was in power, you know, he was everything is is fine. He had sent two of his sons here before you. Yeah. Before me. And then and he was surprised that you had finished so quickly that he didn't believe he was going to call you on your So he's like I'm going to go see. He comes to visit his children right before revolution and he didn't know that revolution going to happen but while he was here it did happen. So he stayed here. Oh he was here on accident. He came here because of your graduation. No to visit to visit his to visit his children. His family were here. He was here visiting family just a normal normal normal trip. And he would come every almost every other year, you know, to visit his and the revolution happen. The the hostage takeover happens while he's here. He was here. That's wild. What luck. What a luck. He would be executed right away. Holy Because he was the one that during the Humeni deportation from Iran, he was the highranking Salak member. So definitely he would be executed. But on normal visitation every every other year, every year to his children, his family in America. Yeah. Tennessee. Last time he comes in, he just stays here. The and the revolution happened. So since you brought I was trying to lead you into the revolution for the last two weeks. The revolution happens when you're in school, right? In 1979 a revolution happened. I was in the school. Yeah. Can you tell us what it was like? Do you wake up? Does it happen? Do you find out the news in the morning? Do you find out what happens at night? What happened? It was ongoing protest in Iran for months and months and a student out of Iran. They protesting, you know, we were protesting at UTC with other Iranian people holding us here in America. In America, you were protesting against the Sha Shaw at that time. So tensions were rising. Tension was rising. was getting up and then finally you know we heard on the news that he left Iran at that that time then Kmeni came to Iran and then obviously this is it's a revolutionary moment for that country um you and many young Iranians I believe at that time they they felt disenfranchised and they felt that if I misspe correct me but I I I believe that they felt that a lot of there was a lot of wealth disparity, right? Uh there wasn't opportunities for for young people and Humeni is this cleric who uh obviously he is he's a religious cleric but the the propaganda that he is espousing that he's he's promoting is very much almost like would you call it socialism. I mean he was talking about like everyone should be land owners. Everyone the main people that helped him uh to to to succeed revolution was a leftist group which was socialists. But later after he took power executed all of them that is the other group you know so many groups there were socialist groups. So he, what I'm trying to get at is that he used this wave of propaganda to say that yes, you the reason you feel disenfranchised is because you are disenfranchised because the wealthy are eating your lunch and and we need to we need to take from the rich and and equalize the distribution. They said we're going to come and make uh transportation free. We're going to bring the oil money to your door. That's a big thing. That was probably the biggest issue, right? was the oil. Iran is rich in natural resources just like Saudi Arabia. Very rich. Yes. But the country itself for millennia, for the entire history, they never really benefited the people as a whole never really benefited from its own natural resources, right? It was always like just those people in power were selling it off. In Sha's time he he was trying to modernize with the oil money income modernize the country. At that time the the prices were low but they still you know he tried to whatever income is modernize the country schools free breakfast for children free bus for the children or school bus and a lot of help a lot of he was trying to implement that. He try he was trying to implement that but when revolution happened or price jumped up and humis or revolutionary they had a good income from there. Mhm. But they never ever delivered that money to any doors. So it was unfulfilled promise very it was all lie and people of Iran you know oh you know comes and you know everything going to be free you know they're going to be going to be this and that yeah he's right sh all been fooled by lie yeah and so I I know there's a piece of dad vice in there but it also seems really inflammatory and and I need to to sit on it before I come up with anything you have any ideas on that? No, I don't want to touch that one. Okay. Well, we we'll let that one sit in the in the ether. Maybe if you are listening and you want to leave a comment, leave a comment and see if we could get a discussion started. But what I'm more interested in, Dad, is your personal experience here in the United States when the revolution happens? Because now you're you're here almost two years, you have assimilated. Um, have you started going by gym yet at this time or No, not yet. Not yet. Okay. So, you've assimilated? I I tried to go briefly call my s my name jam and I didn't know what jam is and then a lot of people sweet. And then I said I don't I don't want it. What is that mean? Said what jam is. I said I don't want that name. I didn't know that. I didn't know that either. Okay. Jam. So it's better at least you were like hey just call me sheided well I tried to go with jam sheet but you go in jam I said this is not good enough I was struggling to pick up a good name and so you've you've assimilated you have worked you've gotten a Ford Mustang at this point you're going to school uh you have friends you have a community yes the revolution happens what does that Do what is your life like here in the states? We know that what happens they take American hostages in Iran but here as a university student you would come to this country with open arms. Obviously the tensions against Iran and Iranians are high. What do you experience at that time? You know immigration is start you know cracking down students who their visas is expired or they're not uh student or they're not full-time students. So it was a lot of crackdown you know we go line up at the school immigration officer comes here interview every single Iranian a student to make sure that mine was legitimate so I didn't have any issues but you know uh as you mentioned the society the tension was very high you know one day uh I think I was going to uh get something from the uh one company And he he invited me. I I go in. I sit right right there next in the same desk you were talking about. But I forgot what was the issue at that time. After he closed on, I noticed the Humeni's picture uh on the door and the targeting with their darts in darts. And uh I said you know well at that time I said you know Humeni is a good guy and I was offended you know but I didn't say anything and uh but later after I noticed that Hummeni was lie and uh that was another experience one guy you know was talking about how good Humeni is how good revolutionary I said you know the Huini didn't he he lied to Iranian and he stole a revolution from Iran. And the guy as soon as he found out that I'm not proini and he say, "Yeah, you're right. He sucks, man." Before he was complimenting, he was testing the waters to see. I want to jump real quick because we started the last episode with something really light about the Iran Israel conflict and I don't know by the time this airs I don't know what's going on. Um, and personally, I think that things are going to get pretty pretty nasty. I think it's going to get ugly. Uh, hopefully we're still around uh to see this episode air. I think that's how bad it's going to get. But right now, the Iran Israel conflict, what's going on, you could tell on social media, usually when one country attacks another or the people of the country getting attacked. I remember in September 11th, it didn't matter if you were black, white, yellow, Middle Eastern, Asian, Hispanic, when you heard that the Twin Towers were stuck on purpose, that it was an attack. They said, "America's under attack." There was a collective feeling of unity. Everyone came together and were like, "No, this is US flag sales, American flag sales skyrocket." Typically, that's what happens. Uh, an enemy brings people together, right? What's been really interesting in the last few days to me to witness is not just the Iranian diaspora, the Iranians that are in other countries, but even Iranians in Iran. There's a huge divide and it's not even 50/50. It's almost like in thirds. Not everybody is when Israel attacked Iran or as as they had put it, there was a a preemptive self-defense strike. Um, it didn't bring all Iranians together. You saw some Iranians that were waiting with baited breath for retaliation and then you saw other Iranians cheering. They're getting attacked, but they're happy that they're getting attacked. And I think that that's probably coming from what you were telling me about the revolution is that the revolution was sold, as most revolutions are, on a platter of lies really. And the we now see 45 years later the result of not holding your word for not delivering the promises that people trusted in in this particular movement and that movement didn't deliver what they said they were going to deliver. So now those very people that supported that movement cannot wait to see the demise of that group. That's right. Is that accurate? That's accurate. Despite uh 8 years Iran Iraq war, people was unified and people going not a military person just normal people kids 14 15 years old kids they go sign up to fight against Iraq against Satnam they did go unity was great at that time but then you know they notice after war uh after revolution uh people hadn't benefited is not benefited their life was downsized and a lot of people have been killed and they noticed that the revolutionary leaders they are the one benefiting from the wealth of Iran they all became a trillionaires and but rest of the people 90% of people really suffering but 10% having all the wealth accumulated uh they got all the money stolen from people that's why they don't believe their leaders anymore they don't We've uh during the war Israel is attacking Iran. People go on the roof and say dead to dictator to harmony they do to this. Iranians themselves in the country getting bombed are cheering on the missiles that are falling on them. It's not just that. I told Holly this morning, the MSAD of Secret Service of Israel has a member in Iran which are Iranian and all these pinpoint missile attack going to killing every those revolutionary guard leaders. There are Iranian inside Iran working for Israel to kill those people. And people are cheering up when even my wife she jumped up and done. She was so happy to see for example some of these guy like well it sounds like we're not going to go to Iran anytime soon if there's no regime change unless they don't listen to this podcast. I've this whole time I'm sitting here thinking like don't flag us don't don't come for us please. They thinking that you know and this is the end of uh regime. A lot of I hear the news that in Iraq, in Lebanon, the Hezbollah law, they said they are not going to support Iranian regime. They know they're losing. They don't want to go down with their loser, but they're not betting on the loser. I want to know from your perspective because up until the revolution, had you experienced anything that big in your country? before revolution. Yeah. Or did you have a pretty normal life like we did? Very normal life like we did. How old how old were you when uh Mosad came to power? I was probably four years old. Oh, okay. So you don't remember that? No. No, I don't remember. And there are a lot of theory about Musad. Some people are against him, some people are him. And you know not not everybody you know most people they think mad was a hero hero a nationalist freed the Iranian oil from but you know a lot of other factors were involved. Moshat was in the and not not many people believe in Moshat. It's so interesting to me that 45 years after this the revolution and I know there's been like the green movement, women life freedom, there's been a lot of protest obviously in this 45 years but do you think this is the next biggest thing that's happened in Iran since it revolution? It is next big never ever Iraq attacked Iran but Iranian attacked them too but the damage that Israelis did to Iran comparing to Iraqis is not that great is different Iraqi didn't well they they were not so powerful they were almost the same power but when it comes to Israel the military bases there elite revolutionary guard bases and the missile bases, the nuclear bases, they hitting every day right and left. Today is it's Father's Day, June 15th, and I think the the situation is so dynamic in in Iran and Israel right now. I don't know what's going to happen and what will be revealed by the time this episode airs, but I I understand what your my takeaway from your explanation and your experience with the revolution and postrevolution and what the the national fervor and the the optimism they believed in Humeni. Humeni was for whatever you say he he was 100% charismatic. He got people to believe and like you said Iraq the next door neighbor with the support of the West with US weapons with US money just rained hellfire on Iran for eight years and could not advance because the people there was unity and the people believed and the people believed in the cause and the people would fight. That is no longer the case today. Like you just said, he's the missiles are coming in and they cheer up cheer their own demise. The people that were fighting the injustice before became the thing that they were fighting. Yes. Right. Yeah. You know, they they say Israel is not our enemy. It wasn't. The Shaw's time we had a great relation with Israel, with America. Even we sat down with Russia, China, Middle East, Arab countries, we never had any problem. And Iran was a almost superpower in Middle East at that time. Uh but now people say Israel is not our enemy. It wasn't. America is not our enemy. You are our enemy. You are killing us. You are the mas the mas. You executing us. You killed a lot of people when when they see all these people being killed. Israel was very smart killed all those leader that people hated them. They wanted them, you know, uh to be taken to the in the international court, but now they see they dead. They're happy. And that's why they think Israel, no more people probably will be killed also. But Israel said we are not we have no intention of killing any civilians. I know this is inflammatory, but I mean it's also a fact that Israel doesn't have the greatest track record. No. So I just I just want to be fair. I don't want it to come across that it's just a blanket support that like yeah absolutely they Iran should be attacked all these these leaders civilian casualties are an inevitability they call it collateral damage so I know that is Israel is fantastic with public relations like I said it's it's not an attack it's a preemptive self-defense right like they they have Donald Trump says he has the best words I think actually Israel has the best words so they they don't unlike Iran who says a lot of inflammatory things. Iranian leaders that say inflammatory things and they don't actually mean it. Uh on the flip side, Israel says very nice things that they typically don't mean. Uh I they are well aware that civilian casualties will be a part of it, but they are definitely focusing on as of today. You've gone through things that nobody would ever imagine that they would have to go through. You actually lived it and now you're on the other side of it. You're on the other side of the mountain. You're How How old are you turning on Wednesday? I'm turning to 48. I'm was born 1948. I can't math that fast. You're the math wiz. How old are you going to be? He doesn't even know. 40. 40. No. 70. 40. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, I You were born in 48. 48. 77. 77. 77 at 77 what do you have to say to but what I'm trying to say you know what we've been in this era we've seen it we've seen war you know in in Iraq Afghanistan you know in uh Iran and Iraq America we and this is not just this era war the uh religious fight always been going on never going to stop. Never never ever going to stop. I don't think the world will see the peaceful everywhere. It's not going to be peace everywhere. The reason is if peace is everywhere and there's a balance everywhere. So how they going to make a minute? How they going to make a business? How they going to make economy grow? They should be in balance always. Some people should be down, some people should be up. So uh that necessary for the war to go on, economy to go on. So it shouldn't be scared. We should expect I hope nothing going to happen. But it's not like I hope this war going to be ended and everything going to be in in peaceful is never going to happen. Always something going to happen. So you just live with it. Just just live with it, you And um you know I was I was reading about the how regardless of the religion that they say um people was born in just one day in seven days that Jewish says and everything was created in seven days. But in the history all those small cells start growing and in different shape and they say always the strong was the strong one survives even the small cells. The same thing with the human in individuals, you know, all we have to do just to be a strong mentally, healthwise, economically, education and so we we have a choice uh where to live, how to live and how to uh handle these things. You know, like in Iran, a lot of people, the wealthy one just leave, run away, go to the safe place. The weak one economically, they have to stay and they die. They be destroyed. He's blunt. If you if you have a always the strong one survives and the advice there is uh work, get rich. So you have options get educated get you know that's that's what it is you know this is comparing to world one like when German fight you know we see all these movies all these videos you know it was worse when the Japanese uh attacked the poor harbor uh comparing to what happened if building in Iran the heing it was that was great at that time so it's always there I I never think uh the peace going to be there even America you know God knows the history show the super war went down the small country come up and it's just the circle keep going and on and on and on that's such classic dad vice essentially he basically was like life's tough get a helmet yeah really [Music] What did I say? Shenanigans. [Laughter] Um, uh, there's a lot of Persian people online. So, essentially what I'm asking is, is there anything in Farsy that you would like to say to our Farsy Farsy listeners? Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. [Music] forch. period. Yeah, that was dad vice and um if you're not a Farsy speaker, I'm sure YouTube will an AI will automatically translate that for you. But um I was looking for on Father's Day, Dad. I was looking for uh dad vice and I guess that sort of was dad vice. I think the biggest takeaway is to to think about your story and the adversities that you faced, how you've overcome it and you just keep going. Um nor do they say the the best way to fight an elephant is one bite at a time. I guess you you're not the person to ask idioms about, but I'm the last person to ask that for. I saw something online that I felt like was really fitting for Father's Day. I'm going to try my best to read these without crying. Oh, this ought to be good. But I don't know if I'll be able to. Um, obviously Father's Day applies to all fathers, but our father is an immigrant father. And I just saw these and I was like, "Wow." And it's, as he's telling a story, I was like, "This is super applicable." and says, "Happy Father's Day to the immigrant fathers who moved across the world." I can't read it without Go ahead, do it. That the crying will will get views up. Who moved across the world to plant roots in an unknown land. I can't do it. You read it. No, that was a good experience. Shut up. Happy Father's Day to the immigrant papas who moved across the world to plant roots in an unknown land. The ones who didn't have a road map and are trying their best. The ones who never looked back in order to create a life where we can intentionally make choices that they never had. That's beautiful. That's actually that's really good, Ollie. I I can't imagine anything better than that example because I've told dad this before. I feel like I stand on dad's shoulders. Yeah. So, it's we're able to and mom mom's listening. I know. So, we're only talking about that because it's Father's Day, but you too, Mom. But you as parents, um, immigrant parents, you had to deal with so much adversity that I, as an adult, I have anxiety, I have panic attacks, there's like minor depression going on. And and I think that it's difficult to to handle my family and and help my daughters through their life. You went through this. You grew up. It's the first time that you have going through life. You were 40 years old. You were 45 years old. You were 50 years old. You had all of the same problems trying to be the patriarch of a family, trying to bring kids up, make sure your kids do well, make sure that they they they feel safe, that they don't feel scared, make sure that they feel fit in. And you did all of that with that accent. [Laughter] I mean that it it is a rough it it it needs to be commended. Uh you know there there's baseball players that are making $200 million a year. I wish somehow I could I could award you the thing that that you deserve. I got everything. You know that I'm very happy. There's a not happy ending is a happy continuously. When I see my my children are I I hope they're happy are healthy and I wish them to be happy and healthy and then bey too but when I see they're successful they're educated and I think the mission not finished yet but almost accomplished. So and you've got two granddaughters. Yeah, two grand. So what else I want from life or even my wife? This is beautiful. You know a lot of unfortunate people they could they could not have that and this is a this is a unique opportunity, unique outcome um for not everybody but thank God it did happen to us and you're happy. The tears are flowing. Where are yours? Yeah, I'm dead inside. I'm crying on the inside. I'm crying from my armpits. It's really hot and sweaty. Those are That's not sweat. That's tears. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Auto Accident Attorneys Podcast. Again, I'm your host, Attorney Ali. As you could tell from our father, the premise of our value system and how we take care of our clients and what we try to do for the community. It all comes from the man that you see before you. When we say we take care of you, it's because of values that he has taught us. Please like, subscribe, and share. And mom, I know you're going to comment on this one. And for Mother's Day, you're going to come on. I love you so much. Dad, I love you. Happy Father's Day. Love you. Love you. Happy Father's Day. Love you. Kiss your hands. Take care, everybody. Take care.