This article was received in June of last year and only recently rediscovered in iranian.com's unpublished archive.
I just wanted to share a few thought with all of you, rather with those of you that take the time to read these words. Let me start by telling you a little about myself and what has lead me to contemplate writing this letter at these wee hours of the morning in my home in Germantown MD — a suburb or Washington DC. I am a 33-year-old Iranian-American male that has lived all my adult life away from Iran.
I left Iran, actually escaped, in December of 1981 and have never been back. Yet in all these years I never forgot or could forget Iran and the land that I left behind not by choice, but due to lack of choices. But I am not going to start this letter by complaining about my shortcomings in life. What has been done is DONE. It is all behind me and just like you we all have a thousand of these cruel stories to share regarding our exodus from our homeland.
What I really wanted to share with you is my grief, my frustration, my confusion and inability to understand why we Iranians are in this position to begin with. Why is it that we can as individuals gain tremendous accolades in all aspects of life from sciences to arts, yet be as fragmented and disillusioned as a group? Why is it that after thousands of years of continuous history, that began at the dawn of human civilization some 7000 years ago, until now all these years later, we can not attain those basic rights and democracy that even a few week old nation like East Timor seem to be able to attain.
Why is it that as a member of some 4,000,000 Iranian Diaspora leaving abroad in all corners of this globe with an approximate total net worth of $500 Billion we seem to be collectively so poor? Why is it that a simple act of unity like gathering in a public place has become such a chore and source of agony for us? Why are we so divided as people where we constantly find ways to distinguish ourselves from each other by finding means that are relevantly insignificant to who we really are?
Why is it that after all these years of hard work and continued contribution to the economies of our adopted new countries, we have now been rewarded by being labeled Axis of Evil and further appreciated by restricting our loved ones for visiting us. Why is it that when we see each other on the road, on a bus, in a mall or a movie theater, a restaurant, or wherever we find ways to ignore, hide and runaway from each other? Why?
I have been thinking and rethinking these Whys for a long time as I said, and finally I came to this conclusion; do I really need to ask WHY? Am I really seeking an answer to these questions? Is there after all one magical answer or clue that someone anyone can enlighten me with so I can finally solve this riddle? It is when I asked myself this question that I realized there is no magical remedy.
There is no answer because I have been asking the wrong question all this time. I am looking for an answer that would satisfy my bewilderment with US (Iranians) as a collective, when I should calibrate my search to be focused on a much smaller scale. I mean isn't a collective a collection of many individual beings that through some means have been grouped together to form a collective.
Am I not a single member of this larger collective called Iranian? This, my fellow individual members is a BIG realization because each one of us is intricate yet important fiber in this greater tapestry that we call Iran. We have been inner woven, finely combed and pieced together to form a collective that has been in place for several generations that have preserved a style and design unique much like Iranian rugs.
And much like when we try to determine good and bad qualities of a rug we must focus on the individual fibers rather then whole rug. After all, it is these fibers that when pieced together by the master full hands of a rug maker individually give the rug its design, shape and character. It is these fibers that collectively determine the rug's strength and ability to last when trampled by feet influence of time and forces of nature.
Well I am like you a single fiber of this rug and I think I should judge my own strength and shortcomings first before I can question the collective. I have to first see what is my role as an individual and in what way I as an individual contribute to the collective. I, who has all these questions and constantly asking why, why, why, what am I doing to remedy the situation? You see I am guilty of doing all the things that I have been complaining about all this time and I think it is about time that I stop complaining and start contributing.
It is with this idea in mind that I want to ask, request, beg and gravel from all you other member individuals to come together and join me in a new bond. You see we have been given a tool that none of those generations that have come before us had the luxury to posses. A tool that allows us to bond together and UNITE despite distance, age, gender, religion or sexual orientation. A tool that allows us to share ideas, to confide our deepest feelings and share our most intimate secrets without ever having to reveal our faces. A tool that makes it possible to communicate all that we want to say without ever uttering a single word.
Just by clicking a few keys on a keyboard we can bypass all these restriction and obstacles and come together in a cyberspace union. I think it is time that we start using this tool to come as individual together to unite and make a change. And what better place to come together than this site named after our collective (Iranian). Let us come together as individuals in this forum to bond and unite and create a new collective. Let us take a step to become once and for all a COLLECTIVE and to form a UNION. I know that once we have the numbers we can tackle any obstacle and answer any challenges.
So I, Kambiz Roshan choose the alias Kambujiyeh from now on and as an individual lay myself on this Cyberspace tapestry and respectfully request that you my other fellow Iranian Individuals to come together and bond with me. So, if you so honor me with your individuality, simply choose an alias and add yourself to this tapestry. May our union in turn become a rallying point to achieving that, which has been so elusive to us all these years and that is Unity. I love you all and I lay waiting…
