Day by day here in Taiwan I have been closely following the Internet images of ordinary people crowding the streets of Iran, because they touch my heart and make me realize that these days, around the world, we are all Iranian.
In Taiwan, China, America - in all countries everywhere - each and every one of us is having our deepest and truest nature shown us by these grandmothers, daughters, and sons who are out silently and peacefully walking the streets of Iran today to protest a betrayal that is so much bigger than just a stolen election - and exists in so many places besides Iran.
Their brave action serves as a reminder that in our own countries we, too, are united in ways we don't realize, but need to honor if democracy is to work. We exist not as separate voters with different agendas - in reality we are so much more. At root, we care about more than just what we can get for ourselves.
We have the capability and the need to live and connect with one another in a freedom that can tap our entire genius as a people, develop our deepest resources, and enable it to shine out through our every small action in ways that benefit the whole. The smallest of us are big in this way; though it may only be at rare moments in history, and only in some locations, that this rises to the surface to make itself visible.
Today, thanks to the Internet, all of us far and wide can benefit from one of these miracle moments that reveal us to be one body, wholly intelligent, unconquerable and free. Our real strength has nothing to do with what separates us one from another; but comes from what unites us. It isn't revealed by what we can get, but by what we can give.
Those who have given their lives in Iran these last few days remind us of this. And, in doing so, they and the tens or hundreds of thousands out walking the streets there today have done something equally important for all of us all over they world. They have put their country, religion and culture back on the map and in all our hearts and made them stand tall and proud among all the great countries, religions and cultures - second to none.
William R. Stimson
Taichung City, Taiwan
