Excerpts of the speech of Professor John Mather, Director of the James Webb Telescope Project – Nobel Laureate in Physics 2006, at the Free Iran 2022, is as follows:
I am happy to contribute my few words to a great cause of freedom for Iran and freedom for everyone everywhere. In 1776, July 4, a small group of Americans representing the 13 British colonies declared independence from Great Britain with a long document explaining why we did it. We were tired of being oppressed by the king and his ministers, and tired of having no representation in Parliament. We asked politely but were refused. Now, at that time, the average citizen in Britain or anywhere else was extremely poor and had almost no rights whatever.
Our revolutionary Declaration of Independence said, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government of the governed.
It was actually a declaration of war, and it was a very difficult fight that could have turned out very differently. Depending on outside help that we got from France, you might think it was obvious that the Americans would win, but it was not.
With slightly different weather, slightly different battlefield strategies, the revolution could have failed. I have been following the Iranian resistance for 13 years now, through all sorts of terrorist attacks by the Iranian government and its agents.
And I’ve supported you by writing letters to people who could help here in the US. Government and at the United Nations especially. I’m hopeful that these letters have been useful. I was very happy to hear that the people in Camp Ashraf were finally allowed to move to safety in Albania. Now, you still have the challenge of representing the hope of the future for Iran, the idea that peace and freedom are possible and achievable, you know all too well what that will require.
But the Americans in 1776 who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged, quote, their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of freedom. Many of you have already done the same, and I thank you. And the people in the future free Iran will thank you. I hear and read that Iran is in crisis all the time, that people are not happy with the government. The demonstrations are happening every day.
The current Iranian government does not have the consent of the government, and it’s not right for it to stay. I do not know what path you may find to success, but it is essential to try. I have read the Ten Point Plan for the Future of Iran, introduced by Mrs. Rajavi. It is such a good plan that all nations could learn from it.
It has worldwide support. It is essential a secular, democratic, nuclear-free Iran could live in peace with its neighbors. It could end a century of suffering. As you know, I am the head scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope and extraordinary scientific and engineering success. It was only possible because the people in Europe, Canada, and the US supported it through their democratically elected governments.
And it required 20,000 people working together with a common vision of success. We, the members of this worldwide team, put our trust in managers and leaders who made this cooperation possible. We have proved that working together, we can accomplish incredible things.
John Kennedy committed the United States to going to the moon, not because it was easy, but exactly because it was hard, and it would bring out the best in people. Your task is not easy, but it can bring out the best in people.
I wish you brilliant inspiration and teamwork as you inspire Iranians and freedom together. I am sure that the MEK movement can do this, and I am counting on your leadership, your creative thought, and your teamwork to find a way.
