Your Excellency:

I hope this letter finds you well and looking forward to the election.

Last week I read with great interest an article of the BBC World News, which reported that you would consider negotiations with President Barack Obama if the United States would acknowledge its actions in Iran and apologize for them.

Since reading that article, the days have passed by predictably for me, yet the ordinary rhythm of work and errands, household chores and making dinner is now quickened and complicated by the remarkable possibility of your words.

You and I are fellow citizens in a shared world that once witnessed the hope-filled leadership of Mohammad Mossadegh and the shining trajectory of Iran’s noble fight for independence. However, in the United States all truth about the diversion of Iran’s path to peace and sovereignty was buried for years by a propaganda of silence.

But truth finds a way. We know the U.S. infiltrated Iran after Prime Minister Mossadegh ousted the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, nationalized Iranian oil, and ended 150 years of British imperialist domination. In 1953, the CIA overthrew the man who restored independence to Iran in an intelligence mission unparalleled in its scope of destruction that resounds between us even today.

Your country and mine were once respectful, admiring neighbors mutually intrigued and inspired by each other’s history, arts and culture, social developments, technology and political evolution. A half century later we are less than strangers; we see each other as enemies.

Yet we are still fellow citizens in a shared world. For better or worse you and I are neighbors, and our countries were once friends.

The United States would be taking right action by acknowledging its past actions in Iran and extending a profound apology. But if right action isn’t forthcoming from my country, it is from at least this American. I am deeply sorry for the destruction perpetrated against Iran by the United States.

As we enter this new Year of the Ox, my country is changing. The president I voted for is proving to be a sincere man dedicated to securing a more peaceful way, a just and honest way not only here at home, but also in our shared world where an absence of threat between us could be our greatest mutual strength. But the United States and Iran are now so thickly mired in the vestigial politics between us that nothing short of our greatest effort can free us from this hateful place.

Each night before I go to sleep I study my world maps and consider the many ancient civilizations and cultures that have swept through the centuries and ever-changing borders of our shared world. Empires, armies, hordes and explorers have persevered against extraordinary conditions in exchange for extraordinary achievements, but none as epic or elusive as peace.

I close my letter to you with one eye toward the past, when men long dead changed the course of our two countries. The other eye is fixed squarely on the present and every possibility for peace between your country and mine.

Sent by postal mail February 9, 2009