Hardblogger: Democracy on a Southfield Freeway - Hardball with Chris Matthews- msnbc.com

I’m throwing Toqueville, Fukuyama, and Rustow out the window. Instead, I’m going to borrow an idea from author Robert Fulghum and put my own spin on it. “Everything I ever needed to know about democracy, I learned aboard a bus from Southfield to Southgate.”

Here’s the story: Yesterday morning, I arrived at the Mother of God Chaldean church on Berg road in Southfield, Michigan just north of Dearborn. My assignment was to board a charter bus with my camera crew (Michael Shamus & Tom Moore) and accompany 45 Iraqi Chaldean ex-pats traveling to the Southgate polling center.

Before I go any further, allow me to explain exactly WHOM the Chaldeans are. Father Manuel Boji briefed us before the bus ride & said he was a bit miffed at how the media have confused Chaldeans with Arabs. “Chaldeans are NOT Arabs,” he emphatically told me. Chaldeans are a distinct ethnic group with a distinct language rooted in the ancient Aramaic (**He said: “you know the movie, the ‘Passion’, it’s like that.”). Chaldeans for the most part also subscribe to the Christian faith.

Alice Rhee / MSNBC TV

So, there I was kneeling on the grimy bus floor with my camera crew trying to interview these “democracy riders” as the bus driver sailed down the freeway hitting EVERY conceivable bumpy stretch of road.

What did we find? Well, I think NBC News correspondent Ron Blome put it best when he said to me tonight: “some of these faces, some of these people looked like they were right out of National Geographic.” It’s a great image. For the most part, the bus was filled with middle-aged men and women who sat and talked among themselves in measured tones. This producer can’t report any sudden burst of tears, laughter, or squeals of anything in any direction. But, I did talk to some people who helped me understand that even without the visual or audio fireworks that make for a good television story, it was really my honor to be their guest aboard the “Chaldean-Democracy Express.

For example, I met Rafel Rashid, a twenty-five year old doctor’s receptionist who wears a gold-chain necklace with an Iraq state pendant. She told me that she’s grateful to President Bush and to the American military for liberating her country from Saddam Hussein. She told me that even though Iraqi civilians and Americans have died as a direct result of the war, that “…even with Saddam Hussein, people were dying.” When I interviewed her after she had voted, her face got flushed, and she held her pendant close to her heart and just wept. Enough said.

I also met a middle-aged registered nurse named Sandy Saboo who claims full allegiance to both Iraq and America. She told me repeatedly that this was not just an average SATURDAY afternoon; she and her fellow riders were basking, albeit quietly, but basking with PRIDE that the seeds of freedom were being planted in her beloved homeland.

Even the 32-year-old guy with the “Detroit” emblazoned two-toned blue toque (Canadian for a knit winter cap) chilling out & spacing out alone on the bus ride got stirred up and passionate when I asked him why he had to be on this bus today. His answered me without hesitation. Where else would he be when he could make a statement about the inherent value of freedom and democracy?

I haven’t meant for this to be a trite, college-like essay that could be titled: "What democracy means to Iraqi-Americans." Nor have I meant it to be a balanced look at the diverse Iraqi-American views on the war and occupation. But, how could I have recorded something I did not find? At least on this twenty-five minute ride from Southfield to Southgate, I found myself with some extremely proud, passionate, and quietly confident people who wanted to say that they had done their part to water change in that once beautiful, fertile country referred to as the “cradle of civilization.” They told me there were few places in the world they would have rather been. I think that was true for me too.

At the conclusion of our short journey, I couldn’t think of anything profound to say except to thank these strangers for hosting us aboard their moving freedom caravan. Although a good number of them struggled to speak English, they did nod approvingly when I shouted “CONGRATULATIONS”!

This, I know they understood.

• January 29, 2005 | 1:05 p.m. ET

Iraqi expats vote in Michigan (Alice Rhee, NBC News producer)

On location: Southgate, Michigan
Dateline: An old "Home Quarters" warehouse located at 15600 Northline Road, Southgate
The job: To produce live reports beginning Sunday from Michigan's only polling location in Southgate, a suburb of Detroit and Dearborn.

I arrived this afternoon from New York just in time for the final hour of the first day of voting. It may have been an historic day, but I'm an anxious, typical "need to get settled" television producer who has to secure a parking spot for my satellite truck and land my credentials.

MSNBC
Standing behind an election desk.
I filed for my credentials and chatted with June Chua, the press liaison for the official "Iraq Out-of-Country" voting program. How ironic. I'm an Asian-Canadian from Vancouver working for an American network and the woman briefing me is another Asian-Canadian from Toronto (also a television reporter who does contract pr). We were both marveling at this fact when I turned around to witness my first round of applause. What on earth was that? June told me: "That's what the workers/ volunteers do each time someone votes." Hmm. Now, I've never voted in an American election, but I know that doesn't happen on Election day. The crowds have thinned out for the most part but there are still handfuls of people trickling in to cast their votes.

Finding a story here is as difficult as opening your notebook.

After I finished chatting with June and I moved on to get my paper work completed for my orange-yellow flimsy paper credential. (no official photo-ID laminated credential). This is a low-tech operation all the way around. I wasn't even expecting a story but I decided to ask the gentlemen who was signing my documents to tell me about himself. How does one get to be the guy in charge of credentialling the media here? He's just a volunteer, he said. His name? Dr. Habeeb Arar. He's an Iraqi physician based in this area who helps out with Michigan's Iraq-American House and wanted to be involved with the election.

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I don't think he expected to be interviewed on the spot, but Dr. Arar did tell me that he was granted political asylum in this country three years ago. He wasn't exactly comfortable talking about it so I only probed a bit more. He muttered something about treating the wounded during the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein. For, this, he was arrested and punished. I asked him if he had been a political activist. "No, but in those days, under Saddam..." and then his voice sort of trailed off. He explained to me that just doing anything that wasn't pro-Saddam was enough to get you arrested. I wanted to ask him more questions but distinctly felt his discomfort in the moment. It wasn't as though a "dark shadow" crossed his eyes. I just felt his immediate sadness at what had to have been a terrifying and painful passage for this man. This country wouldn't have granted him political asylum unless had had really been running from something. He gave me his cell phone. We'll talk more tomorrow. I can't help imagine how many more Dr. Arar's I'll meet in the next few days.

As I left the polling place today, I noted a lovely young woman (likely in her late 20s) with two young children waiting by the exit probably waiting to be picked up. I greeted her briefly but it was clear she wasn't as comfortable speaking English. So, I smiled. She wouldn't really make eye contact with me but she gave me a half-smile. I smiled at her two kids and I walked out the door into the cold, but bright and windy day in this non-descript, sort of ugly, gray warehouse. there was something sad and melancholy about her expression. I can't even begin to imagine what she was thinking and feeling after she voted today.

So, so many stories here. It is just bizarre to think that this historic moment is happening in this warehouse next door to Sam's Club, just off I-75 while thousands of miles away, the American military has invested so much machinery & manpower just to ensure that the same process happens overseas without mass carnage.

Alice Rhee is currently on assignment with NBC correspondent Ron Blome. She will continue to file Hardblogger reports from Michigan. Check back on this page for more of her accounts and photos on the Iraqi expatriate vote.

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