A tip of the toque to the Llama Butchers.
"I CRY SO MUCH.I SHOUT VERY LOUD.I DIE EVERY DAY....
YAS,IM AN IRANIAN GIRL.
HELP US.SOMEONE HELP US.THEY KILL MY BROTHERS.THEY KILL MY SISTERS.THEY KILL MY PEOPLE.SOMEONE HELP US.
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS
SOS"
- Melika, a commenter at a Boston.com article on the protests in Iran.
If this doesn't break your heart, I have no hope for you. Don't turn your heads. Don't wait for it to pass. Keep watching, keep speaking out, keep supporting the Iranians, keep the fires burning.
Moments like this only happen once in an era for any country. What happens next is still up in the air. This could be another Boston Tea Party, another Velvet Revolution, another Berlin Wall falling down -- or it could be Prague 1968, it could be Russia, it could be the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, it could be another... Tiananmen. Does the uprising survive? Is it crushed? Does it evolve into Democracy, or does it devolve into chaos? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure: If we in the West do not support the Iranians, do not help them get the word out, do not put pressure on our politicians to keep up the pressure on the government of Iran, Iran very well COULD end up being just another Tiananmen, a massacre at the hands of the security troops.
The Iranians are shouting: they're shouting for their freedom; their voice; their vote. But they're also crying: crying for help; for succor; for shelter; for support.
Don't turn a deaf ear to them now. Don't think that if we let them fall back into tyranny and terror that we won't pay the price ourselves some day. "Then they came for the Jews...."
