The train to Tamsui

 Jan 19, 2024

Taipei, Taiwan

I took the train to Tamsui today to watch the sunset.  After riding the subway about an hour from central Taipei you walk out of the subway station and are greeted with expansive views of the Tamsui River flowing into the ocean on the horizon.  As the sun sank behind clouds with the earth slowly spinning it out of view I looked across the river to the opposite bank where the lights of the city were coming online, sparks against the fading glow of sunset, and I reflected upon this place.

The character of these Taiwanese!  They know China is just over the horizon, an existential threat to their hopes of internationally recognized statehood, but with a quiet courage unknown to the world at large, they bravely live on, each and every day building their claim to be a peoples and a nation among nations.  I felt a pang of emotion at this hard-won thought.  Each and every day these people are carving out a place in the world for themselves and their shared destiny, without statehood, without membership in many international organizations, but while carrying an essential part of the hopes of the democratic world.  It’s the character of these Taiwanese to keep the flame of democracy burning into the coming night.  They know as well as we do that all their striving today will unlock a brighter world tomorrow as humanity progresses ever higher.