I've remained silent, up until now.
In the world, though, there have been those that have not been silent. They've taken to the streets. They've braved police, military, and plain-clothes assassins to get their message out to the world. They've attempted, in a way that most Americans need to sit up and take notice of, to take control of their country.
Iran, for children of the 80s, has always been a "bad" country. They harbour terrorists, and during the Cold War sided with the Russians, and other communist countries.
Does anyone remember
Iran-Contra? I was only nine when it came to light, and all I ever knew was that Iran had done something "bad", and so had high level Americans.
These stereotypes remained with me, when a few short years later, my cousin, my brothers, and others, were sent into Saudi Arabia to defend Kuwait from Iraq. To me, there wasn't any difference.
When I began reading about ancient Persia, and other ancient empires, I realised that a lot of these things were hidden behind the iron curtain of Iran.
In my naivete, I believed that the people of Iran
wanted their government the way it was. After all didn't everyone hold elections like we did?
As I grew older, my ignorance was relieved, and I learned more about the area, and I came to realise that while they may want change, it would be a hard fight, and I didn't have a clue as to how to start it.
These past few days, I didn't have to start it.
I didn't have to do anything, save sit back, in the comfort of my American Freedoms, and watch.
I thought, in some portion of my mind that shortly the small amounts of protesters would just go home, and Iran would go back to being the Iron-curtained hell-hole of my imagination.
I am humbled and ecstatic to be proved wrong.
The Iranian people are telling the world that they are
not the backward or terrible people that some believe them to be. They went to the polls, just like we do, and they elected someone.
And when another attempted to take that vote away from them, they got
angry and they took to the streets, and they became
loud. They made their choice and how dare someone attempt to take that away from them.
Would we be any different?
Would we? Would we sit idly by while our votes were discounted and our government yanked from our hands?
Hell no we wouldn't. We'd march on Washington, on State Houses, on anything we thought would help, and we'd protest loudly.
Look at what they're doing in Iran.
Iran has banned foreign media from publishing the story happening right there in front of them. They are evicting the media from the country.What can be done?
From 6000 miles away, there are very few options to us. But that does not mean we are powerless. The Iranian people, despite the government attempting to silence them, are finding proxy servers from all over the world, as they try to make themselves heard. Videos are still being found
on YouTube.
Twitters are still getting out and retweeting all over the world.
An excellent post can be found
HEREWhat can we do? We can keep talking. We can spread the word of the Iranians in the street that refuse to go quietly. We can use the power of this immense tool that we take for granted and
refuse to allow them to be silenced. We can pray. We can urge help from the UN, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, and anyone else we can think of. We can listen to the powerful thoughts and fears of a people trying desperately to become more than they were.
The most powerful thing I have read about this is that these students, these protesters, continue to stand even when the threat of murder hangs over their heads. I have seen the women -- in a country where women are most often thought of as
less -- stand up and say "No More."
The world may be divided, by governments, by religions, into separate countries. We are all still humans, however, and we owe it to our fellow humans to allow their voices to be heard.
I was wrong about Iran, and I hope my voice can join theirs. Let us raise the volume just that little bit. Let us help deafen those that would silence the shout of freedom, no matter where that shout comes from.