About 15 years or so ago I was looking for a car, and one of the places I looked was a Toyota dealership in Orlando. And while they didn't really have anything I could get there, while we were talking I noticed he had a small photo on his desk of a building, and across the bottom of the picture frame it said, "Tehran"

I asked him if he had been there, and he told me he was born there. He'd lived in Tehran, Iran for most of his life. I asked him what it was really like, mentioning all I'd ever seen of it is what we see on the news here. He told me about the city, and what it was like living there. Seemed to enjoy having someone to talk to about it that was genuinely interested in it.
He told me about a Tehran you never hear about on our news. Showed me pictures he had of a vibrant and interesting place. We never hear about what it's like to live in those places here, we only hear about them when someone's dropping bombs on them. It was really interesting hearing him tell little stories about it, and I think he was happy to talk to someone that was genuinely interested in where he was from.
At the end of it I asked him, "So why did you come here? (to the US)" He said he was trying to make more money so he and his family could live a better life. While he was here, his wife and child were still living in Tehran.
He couldn't sell me a car, but we still talked for something close to two hours. And I remember that to this day. It's one of the reasons I believe as i do that while our governments may do things that are vile, most people are just trying to live their lives, and to make tomorrow a little better than today.
I hope he managed to bring his family here, and that they're safe and doing well. I can't imagine what it must feel like to look on the news and see bombs falling on your home town. I wish we could all see one another as human beings and stop having to decide everything we do with bombs.