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US: Family inspires Zangana
11.11.2006
By JEFF MILLER |
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ORANGE, CA, --
Maybe a couple thousand fans will be here tonight,
to watch a team representing a school of just a few
thousand students.
As deals go, Senior Night always is big; it's just
that Chapman football never has been.
Don't mistake a lack of size, though, for a lack of
significance. Because when offensive tackle Karwan
Zangana is introduced, he'll be escorted by his
mother, Gozideh, and by someone else - his hero - a
man filling in for his other hero, who is
preoccupied in Iraq.
When the subject is this weighty, how could anyone
see it as small?
"I revere my father and my uncle," Zangana says.
"I'm so proud of all they've done. All I can do for
them here is give them my prayers."
Ahmed Zangana will miss his son's final collegiate
game. He has to work. His brother and Karwan's
uncle, Abrahem, will take his place. Abrahem is
available only because he can't work. The
assassination attempt saw to that.
The Zangana brothers grew up in Kurdistan as freedom
fighters, members of the peshmerga, a resistance
force opposed to Iraq's former government. Both came
to the United States in the 1970s, eventually
settling near San Diego.
They became American citizens and started families,
producing first-generation Americans and pursuing
the same basic things each of us do.
One day, 9/11 happened and everything changed.
Shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003,
the two brothers, working as independent contractors
for our Department of Defense, returned to their
home country.
This war has been called many things. The Zangana
brothers called it "a great opportunity."
"My father told me it was a chance to go back and
finish what had been started years earlier," Karwan
Zangana says. "To me, that was a sign that you never
give up on your dreams. That was one of the most
inspiring things I've ever experienced."
Translated literally, peshmerga means "those who
face death." While neither Zangana's father nor his
uncle is a solider today, they do operate very much
inside the war. Ahmed works on a U.S. military base
in Baqubah, helping plan the rebuilding of Iraq's
cities.
Abrahem, a security chief, was serving as a liaison
for a Kurdish political party a year ago when the
roadside bomb went off. One of his bodyguards was
killed. Two others were injured. His jaw was
shattered in 20 places.
Abrahem's life was spared only because he happened
to be driving - something he rarely does there -
when the explosion meant for him occurred toward the
passenger side.
He has undergone more than 10 reconstructive
surgeries. What hasn't required restoration,
however, has been his resolve.
"My uncle started talking about his desire to return
to Iraq right after the incident," Zangana says.
"His commitment is amazing. It's because of things
like that that I consider my father and my uncle to
be my heroes."
The Kurdish culture remains a big part of Zangana's
life. When back home in San Diego, he is required to
speak the language. Each March 21, his family
celebrates Newroz (translation: "new day") with a
bonfire at the beach, marking the beginning of the
new year.
He is 6-foot-4, 305 pounds, the largest member of
the Panthers football team. Yet, he's known around
campus as "the big teddy bear, yeah, something soft
and squishy," fellow lineman Tim Van Atta says.
Soft and squishy? Not exactly a common description
today of someone whose roots rest in Kurdistan
(Northern Iraq).
"When I came to Chapman I was probably the first
Kurd most people here had ever met," Zangana says.
"With my size and personality, I've gotten along
fine. People know me as the big, giant happy guy.
They see me for who I am."
Strange, however, is that few of Zangana's teammates,
even those who have been around him for four years
now, know the details of his ancestry.
Teams are like families, right? All the bonding and
jelling?
Sure, whatever.
"I don't know as much as I'd like to know,"
quarterback Luke Robinson says. "I've only heard
sound bites."
Says linebacker Wes Pinkston: "Actually, I don't
know much about it, not at all. But I'm going to ask
him now."
Tonight, uncle and nephew will share a moment of
tribute at a small college football game, a career
gone mostly unnoticed ending with quiet fanfare.
The occasion will include the playing of the
Star-Spangled Banner, a sporting routine that this
time will be anything but.
"When I line up before our games for the national
anthem, I look at that flag and think of my father
and uncle," Zangana says. "The words of that song
mean a lot. I'm so proud of what they've
accomplished for their adopted country."
You might be opposed to the war. Polls show a
majority of Americans are. In fact, just a PAT kick
from the Panthers' home field on campus is a sign
that reads "War is terrorism magnified 100 times."
But Zangana supports the action. He supports his
father and his uncle and the tears his mother cried
soon after the invasion of Iraq, tears shed because
of all the relatives she had lost under Saddam
Hussein's regime.
Karwan Zangana supports his heroes, all right, and
for this son and nephew, there can't be anything
more sizable than that.
ocregister com
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