Nico,
You asked for people to email you with their thoughts about the Iranian protests. I'm up late again tonight. I've been up late every night for a week, watching for news from Iran, doing what I can to help spread the word. Tonight, though, I just wish I could be there. I wish I could be in Tehran today, Saturday, for the Sea of Green.
I don't have a lot of Iranian friends. I had a few in college, but we fell out of touch. Those friends taught me what Iran was really like, though. They taught me to see past the rhetoric, Iranian and American, that says Iran is our enemy. They taught me that when you walk out your door, in Tehran or in Manhattan, people aren't so different.
I got interested in this year's elections when I started hearing about the campaign - how different it was from previous presidential campaigns. And then I started hearing Mousavi had a chance, a chance to be the first man to unseat a sitting president in Iran. I was glued to the news to see what happened during the elections. And I feel some of the same despair I know the Iranian people feel at the results that were announced.
That's when I started wishing I was there. I don't speak Farsi - French and Japanese, but not Farsi. I knew I couldn't understand what was happening, but still, I wanted to be there. I wanted to see this eruption of raw democracy for myself.
Then the protest movement started, and I did the best I could. I followed it online, staying up late to learn about events as they happened. On Daily Kos, I even provided some assistance in chronicling the events in Iran that first weekend, before the cable news channels had caught up to the story. I talked to the people I know - in person, on facebook, by email - to make sure they were all aware of what was happening in Iran. Maybe I could have helped more. Maybe I could have tried to set up proxy servers for the Iranian protesters. Maybe I could have told more people.
But tonight, reading the posts on your page and on Andrew Sullivan's, my heart is in my throat. Every word from Iran seems full of fear and resignation. The protesters are preparing for the worst. Story after story talks about Iranians writing goodbye letters, trying to do the things they love most in what may be their final hours on Earth. Mousavi's inner circle is gone, arrested or restricted. The situation can't be much better with the other candidates. Reports keep leaking out that loyalty purges are being conducted in the army and the IRGC.
The sense I have is that Iran's protesters feel like they're marching to their deaths. Of course they don't want to die, but what can you do against a corrupt, oppressive dictatorship except name it for what it is. This isn't speaking truth to power, this is speaking truth to bullets. Because even if no bullets fly tomorrow, these protesters are making the choice to face those bullets before they're ever fired.
I just wish I could be there with them, or at least let them know that, had I the choice, I'd walk beside them today down the streets of Tehran. No, I don't have a death wish. I have a great life. I have a bright future. I want to live. But what's happening in Iran is greater than one life and brighter than one future. It's a beacon fire, shining the light of democracy for all the world to see.
Our president, Barack Obama, has said that the world is watching Iran. And it is. But I think I speak for many of us when I say that I wish I could do more than watch. I don't care about Iran's nuclear ambitions, or the anti-American rhetoric Iran gets tagged with. What I care about are the brave men and women taking to the streets in Tehran and in all the other cities - men and women who, as of today, are willing to offer up their own lives for the CHANCE of a better future for their people. When I see that kind of selfless courage, I can't help but be moved.
And I can't help but want to join them, to fight with them for the dream that compels us all. I want a better world. I want a world where dictators can't threaten to kill their own people. I want a world where the voice of the people is heard - ALL the people, even the ones you disagree with. I want a world where faith - Islamic, Christian, or otherwise - is a rallying cry for love and freedom, not a cudgel for beating down people who think differently. I want a world where Gandhi's ideals and today's technology combine to give true power back to the people. I want to live, but I would be willing to give up everything if it meant building that kind of world. I think we all would.
So tonight, sitting here with fear and worry twisting my stomach into knots, this is all I can think about. I wish I could be in Tehran. I wish I could be there, to give my strength to the men and women fighting for that better world. I wish I could be there, to show them how much their courage has inspired me and others. I wish I could be there, to tell them to hold tight to their hopes and dreams.
And I'd hope, I'd pray, to still be there tonight. To say the words with them.
God is greatest. Allahu-akbar. الله أَكْبَر
The world is watching.