 New bond
I want to ask, request, beg and gravel from all you
to come together
By Kambiz Roshan
October 8, 2003
The Iranian
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unpublished archive.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...
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New bond