Honoring Taliesin

Dear Dragons Community,

On this memorial day weekend, the Dragons community mourns the death of a different kind of national hero. 23 year old Taliesin Myrddin, an alumnus of the Indonesia Fall Semester-2011, was fatally stabbed while attempting to stop anti-Muslim hate speech against two women on a train in Portland, OR. His sister, Vajra Alaya-Maitreya, emailed a statement to The Washington Post on behalf of their family:

“We lost him in a senseless act that brought close to home the insidious rift of prejudice and intolerance that is too familiar, too common. He was resolute in his conduct (and) respect of all people,” she wrote. “In his final act of bravery, he held true to what he believed is the way forward. He will live in our hearts forever as the just, brave, loving, hilarious and beautiful soul he was. We ask that in honor of his memory, we use this tragedy as an opportunity for reflection and change. We choose love.”

Taliesin represents the best of what Dragons stands for in this world. May his life, and his final act, give us all strength to continue the work of creating a more empathetic, understanding, and humane world. Taliesin, and the others who intervened, are an inspiration for our entire community to stand up against the voices of violence and intolerance which seek to undermine our shared humanity. Dragons is committed to its programming throughout the Muslim world in order to continue fostering meaningful cross-cultural understanding and further strengthen the bonds of our global community.

Dragons is participating in the campaigns to support the victims’ families.