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By Alan Cleveland:
A letter from America
Dear Kurdistan,
As an American I have been aware of you and your people for half of my life.Going back to at least 1988 and the notorious chemical attack launched by Sadamm Hussein against you.Sadly, at that moment in time, we were preoccupied with hating Iran for reasons that we only half understood – at least out on the street. We had slightly less access to the outside world than places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan might have today.There was plenty of entertainment going on, but news was biased toward governmental narratives that do not sound the same today as they did when there were only a few TV stations to choose from for news.And so, though I had heard your story before, I didn’t give much thought to what it might feel like to walk in your shoes.Moreover, I might have considered you to be “them” in general sense.Our world view of the Mideast at the time was that it was Arab, Muslim, and always throwing rocks at each other.For us, you were just one of them.
Today however, my opinion is entirely different.This is due to a very unlikely friendship that was formed around the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan.The girl, in my opinion, is a unifier.She believed in freedom, and she wanted to learn.
What I have learned along the way, is that the Kurdish people believe in freedom, and they love to learn! That sounds like a strong foundation for a good government.
The men responsible for bringing forward the United Sates were proponents of good education.They read, and they studied history.They talked at length about what it might take to be a nation, and then to be able to defend not only the physical borders, but the rights of every citizen.And, they drafted a Constitution which did not give people rights, but rather defined the rights that the people already had from God; which are, in a nutshell, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I have learned about Kurdistan, and I am fascinated by the prospect that among “them” there are some who are capable of creating another great nation. Determining it’s borders, declaring it’s independence, and drafting a valuable constitution that protects the freedom of it’s citizens is a great place to start.The world map has been drawn and re-drawn for thousands of years.Why not now? Great nations have come and gone … Why shouldn’t Kurdistan get a chance to come stay?
Just some random thoughts from a guy who is over 5,000 miles away – supporting the Kurdish hope.
