A Human Interest Story
An Early Father’s Day Miracle?
In 1955, a two year old toddler named Steven Damman vanished into thin air, while his mother had momentarily stopped into a shop in East Meadow, Long Island, leaving him and his sister outside the store. Over 5,000 volunteers helped to search for the toddler, but the effort had been fruitless. In what has been one of Long Island’s longest missing person’s cases, the Dammans never found Steven and have lived with the agony ever since…until recently.
In the latter part of 2008, a man in Michigan had sent a letter to Pamela Sue Horne, Steven’s sister. The man had said in the letter that he believed that he was Steven Damman. He recalled that he had never felt like he belonged in his family and that the woman he knew as his mother had murmured something about kidnapping as she lay on her death bed.
At first, Horne was skeptical, but the more she learned, the more she believed. The man had sent photos of himself through the years. He had the same features as her. He had contacted Nassau County police, who turned the case over to the FBI, who conducted DNA tests on Pamela and the man.
Preliminary results show a possibility of a familial relationship between the two. They hope to confirm these results soon. The parents, Jerry and Marilyn, now divorced, are aware of the situation and are as anxious as anybody as to the outcome of this unbelievable story. Stay tuned…
Opinion
Just a Thought: The Iranian Election Debacle
By now most have seen what’s been going on over in Iran in the days after the highly contested Presidential election. The protests throughout the country have gained momentum, numbering somewhere in the hundreds of thousands. Unfortunately, violence and death have marred the situation even further. The theocratic governing body, the Guardian Council, sought to appease the protesters by announcing a partial recount of the votes. This one looks to simmer for awhile.
I can’t help but hearken back to the years 2000 and 2004, when our own Presidential Elections took place. In 2000, more so than 2004, the manner in which we chose our Commander in Chief was less than clear cut, sharpening the divide within our country. Anger and resentment ran at a fever pace, but both times the opposition never picked up steam and quickly dissipated. There was anger and protest, but nothing like what we see in Iran.
The Iranian population is a young one, yearning for Western ways of life. The government shut down Internet access and other communication technologies to prevent word from getting out. These people don’t want to be represented to the world by a divisive figure like Ahmadinejad, and they feel they’ve been cheated into four more years of him. Does this sound familiar? For a country we like to call “evil”, these young Iranians seem to be more concerned with working for democracy than creating havoc upon the world.
Sources:
Chayes, Matthew, Valenti, John. “A dad gets news of a long-lost son.” LI Newsday 17 June 2009: A4-5. Print.
Strong, Warren P., Landay, Jonathan S., “Key Iranian cleric calls election results rigged.” LI Newsday 17 June 2009: A2
