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We all want to smell roses
What we learned from 2001

January 8, 2002
The Iranian

Two-thousand and one was a year of anguish. It was a year when two very tall buildings fell and with it many heroes fell -- and rose. When the Taliban fell and Afghanistan rose. When Israel shelled and Palestine rose. It was a year of sorrow. It was a year of heroism and courage. It was a year of cowardness and hatred.

We will remember 2001, all of us. Wherever we are.

We learned we cannot live apart. We learned we must live not as nations here and there but as part of a whole. We have learned that when one human beings falls, we all sufer.

We have learned that a Palestinian mother whose son is killed and a Jewish mother whose daughter is maimed feel the same pain and anguish. We have learned that the Argentinean economic crisis will affect all of the Americas.

We have learned people everywhere are the same. That people of every faith or color, from any class or nationality, all want the same: Peace, stability, love, and truth. We all want our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters, our children to live in harmony and in a world full of joy.

We want, all of us, to smell roses and have clean air. We want everyone to let go of hatred and bloodshed. We want this world to be green. We want this world to be safe. We want this world to be free.

As the sun rises and falls, all of us, everywhere, really want the same: a better world.

Comment for The Iranian letters section Comment for the writer Fariba Amini