My friend D didn’t sleep last night. He had to take exams this morning. D is from Istanbul. Friday he choked on tear gas. Today he takes exams while protests rage outside his front door.

He says it’s hard to focus on exams as he recalls the violence in the streets.

Is there anything I can do? Yes, he said. You can tell others.

D is optimistic. There’s something beautiful happening in Turkey – people are growing strong.

He wants us to focus on the positive, “heart warming” moments of this social movement. The images he shared are, in fact, extraordinary.

This is the social web at its finest. Times like this. We might not live in Turkey or have dear friends living there, but that doesn’t really matter. The reality of our world is harder and harder to ignore due to our interconnectedness. The web enables us to embrace this solidarity and take action. It may not seem like much to you, but do tell others about what is happening in Turkey. If you want to do more, please contribute to this fund , organized by the Turkish people to take out a full page ad in the New York Times or the Washington Post to let the world know about OccupyGezi.

I also want to share with you one of my favorite TED Talks. According to Robert Thurman, the social web enables us to all be “little Buddhas” – aware and knowledgeable about what’s going on. This makes it harder and harder to ignore injustices on both a local and global scale.

Here’s Uma’s dad on what it means to be enlightened today.