smirksmirk

A message for you

2010-12-25T08:07:00.001-05:00

President Obama: It Gets Better

2010-10-22T07:47:00.000-04:00

Day of Remembrance - It Gets Better

2010-10-19T22:58:00.002-04:00

For every kid who ever got bullied for being too effeminate, too masculine, too fat, too skinny, too poor (or even too rich), too black, too white, too brown, too red, too yellow, too foreign, too trashy, too smart, too tall, too short, too quite….too different; because bullying is more than hurting someone’s feelings; because growing up is about learning to deal with the world; because too many kids are giving up, convinced it will never get better .

Today, October 20th, wear purple in remembrance of all the young people who were bullied so badly, and felt such little self-worth, that they took their own lives because they could not see how it could get better.

http://www.itgetsbetterproject.com/

http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

It Gets Better

2010-10-19T22:56:00.000-04:00

I PLEDGE: On 9/11 I will not burn a Koran

2010-09-08T09:06:00.002-04:00

I PLEDGE: On 9/11 I will not burn a Koran, I will think of peace and try to act peaceful, I will talk to people that look and think different from myself, my America is not full of hatred of differences but has room for all.

Sign it, share it, live it.

(totally stolen from a friend's Facebook status, but she told me I could)

Tea Party Facts & Statistics

2010-04-19T09:05:00.000-04:00

Links - Images & Articles on the Greening of New York

2009-10-01T18:38:00.018-04:00

New York turned GREEN in September, to prostest the presence of Ahmadinejad at the UN. These are links sent to me, or found on the web. If you see something posted in error, please let me know. If you wish to add something, send me the link in the comment section below, or on twitter @smirkitty

Images:

Washington TV - images from Brooklyn Bridge & March of the Green Scroll

TabulaRasa11 Photobucket album

MrZand - Brooklyn Bridge & March of Green Scroll

MrZand - Green in NY, Sept 25, 2009

MrZand - Green March, Sept 25, 2009

MrZand - NY Goes Green, Sept 25, 2009

MrZand - More Green NY Images, 9/25/09

Anonymous Iran - many posts with images from the week

Videos:

Woman Punched by AN Guards in NY during UN Protests?

CNN Brooklyn Bridge & March of Green Scroll

CNN - Sept 23, 2009

Rudy Giuliani - Stand for Freedom Rally Sept 24

UN Protests Sept 23

UN Protests Sep 23

March "No to Dictatorship, Yes to Democracy in Iran" Sept 24

Sept 23 Protests in front of UN

Sept 23 Protest

NY Green Sept 23

Green Protest Sept 23

Blogs:

NYC For Iran blog - "How Can You Sleep at Night"

NYC For Iran blog - multiple images and videos

NYC For Iran blog - “Iran Alive” Film Protest at the United Nations, 9/22

NYC For Iran blog - No to Ahmadinejad, Yes to Human Rights: Rally at the UN, 9/23

TabulaRasa11 Photobucket album

Articles

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty - Sharing Iran's UN Spotlight: Protests On Wheels

Christian Science Monitor - Iranian diaspora protests Ahmadinejad at the UN

NY Times - Green-clad group protests Ahmadinejad near UN

Free Speech Isn't Free

2009-08-02T16:24:00.008-04:00

I may have already mentioned this, but I grew up in The South. For readers not from the US, that means the states in the southeastern portion of the country, and yes, we do capitalize it as if it were a proper noun. We’re a little tetched like that. I didn’t grow up in a small town, though I guess in comparison to places like New York or Los Angeles, we’re all small towns. But it was the South, and historically divided along race lines (sometimes in blatantly brutal ways; do a google search on “strange fruit”, click the Wikipedia link, you’ll get some learnin’ you probably never wanted).

Now you should know that things were a bit better when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s*. We lived in neighborhoods that mostly straddled the class divide between “chronically poor” and “liberally educated but under-employed”. Our friends were white, black, Chinese, Laotian, Cuban**, Iranian, Venezuelan, even a few Rednecks and GoodOleBoys were tossed in. Among the people that mattered to me growing up, how you treated neighbors, pets and kids mattered more than race or socio-economic status. I mean, I knew that prejudice and hatred was out there, but it always kind of seemed removed and remote. “Race relations” would be trotted out at least once a year on the news (more frequently if someone did something stupid), and I always felt that we had a pretty good handle on racism in my little corner of the South. It was there, but it was understood that it was something that mean, stupid people did, like robbing little old ladies of their savings, not something that most people did. (It should be noted that this was my perception as a young white person; mileage may vary).

I must have been in college already the year we drove to Pulaski to stand up to the KKK. That sounds a lot more dramatic than it actually was. Poor little Pulaski***, Tennessee gets swamped with neo-nazis once a year because it is the “birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan.” The KKK files for parade permits and goosesteps around the tiny little (charming) square, spewing hate and vitriol and ugliness. The town actually gave up trying to fight the parade permits. Freedom of speech is guaranteed, no matter how repugnant the speech. If Pulaski denied the parade permit, they’d get sued for civil rights violations, now how ironic is that?? So, instead Pulaski would shut down once a year, just close up shop and allow the neo-nazis to stomp around shouting. Pulaski citizens actually asked that there be no counter-demonstration this year, they were really just tired of the publicity. In fact, that was why we went. We knew there wouldn’t be many people, but we also knew that every time hatred like that raises its ugly head, someone needs to be there to say, “this is not right”.

So, off to Pulaski we went, flashing peace signs out the window, with our posters, bright with righteous idealism. My sister’s sign was the coolest, I think she was only 12 years old, but her sign simply said “evolve”. I think my mom’s sign said, “go away evil nazi coneheads, nobody loves you”. I can’t even remember who else was with us, it was so long ago. I do remember driving down the main 2-lane road into town, seeing an older, heavyset black man sitting on a porch swing, watching every car as it drove down. The look on his face was both cautious and resolute. My sister threw up a peace sign from the window and he laughed and waved. To me it looked like the laugh of an older person appreciating that not all young people are selfish and materialistic. But what we see is so colored by our perception of the world, and who can say why he really laughed that day. But I digress (as I so often do).

My point was something different. We hadn’t really expected many other people to be there as part of the counter-demonstration, and indeed there were probably only a total of 20-25 of us. Of course, there were really only about 30-40 neo-nazis goose-stepping around. So they did their thing (mainly goose-stepping and yelling) and we did our thing (mainly waving our signs and blowing raspberries). My sister was interviewed by the local news, a 12 year old blond, blue-eyed girl standing on the same street as some pretty scary hate-mongers, carrying a sign that said “evolve”. Yeah, that made the news.

Nothing else happened that day. They packed up and went home (NONE of the cars we saw were even from in-state!), and we packed up and went home, and Pulaski went back to being an ordinary small town where some people hated each other for stupid reasons and some people didn’t.

So where is this all leading? For me, it was a really important lesson being reinforced.

Freedom of speech is a sacred right, and we have a profound duty to protect it. But it comes with a heavy responsibility. You have a right to say what you believe, and I have a responsibility to rebut it if I think it is so wrong as to be damaging to humanity. For us, that day, the responsibility really didn’t seem that heavy. It was a day-trip with people we loved, speaking out about something we truly and deeply believe. But as you grow older, life seems heavier, and the duty seems never-ending. It is so much easier to say “you cannot talk here”, than it is to muster up the energy, once again, to enter into a reasoned debate that may have some miniscule chance of helping someone see things in a more productive way.

Those of you who followed a link from #IranElection to get here (are you still reading??), this entire blog entry was sparked by discussions currently being held on twitter under that hashtag (and I use the word “discussions” in the loosest possible meaning of the word). People are yelling at each other about who should be involved with restructuring the county and who should be up against the wall when the revolution comes. They are yelling about the role Mousavi had in the last revolution that led to the current power structure, about Reza Pahlavi and imperialists, about MKO and PMOI, about people who want to reform the Islamic rule of Iran and people who want to democratize/secularize Iran (green versus blue, I have recently been told). They are arguing about what flags should and should not be allowed at demonstrations. And in between yelling about what they believe, they are yelling about who should not be allowed to come to the party and have their say.

Now don’t get me wrong, the hashtag (discussion thread for non-Tweeters) has more good stuff going on than bad stuff. Information is getting both in and out of Iran based on communications made there. It’s just that sometimes the bickering gets so loud that an old person like me just wants to shut down and watch Next Food Network Star instead.

So, here comes my lecture. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that YOU get to have your say. It means that EVERYONE gets to have their say. If you disagree with what someone is saying, you need to decide if your disagreement rises to the level that you feel something needs to be said to counter it. If it rises to that level, it’s all on you to speak up. Free Speech isn’t Free. It comes with responsibility. But please, use your grown-up words. Battles have never been won by calling someone else names.

Yeah, I know, long blog, thanks for sticking with me. You can use the comment section below to exercise your right to Free Speech and let me know what you think.

_____________________________________________
* Knowing that my sister, brother and many childhood friends may read this, makes me wonder what their views on this might be. I have a tendency to either romanticize or demonize my childhood, depending on the time of day.

**At least they said they were Cuban. All the adult males in that house were named Umberto, and there were about 5 of them, so we were never really sure what was up. Didn’t really matter though, they were good neighbors.

*** Named in honor of Kazimierz Pułaski, a Polish-born American Revolutionary War hero, who wrote to George Washington to say, "I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it." He is considered to be the father of the American Cavalry.
____________________

We are Iran

2009-07-25T21:37:00.078-04:00

So many striking images today, as people in over 100 countries around the world stood up for the people of Iran.

But this one was the most striking, to me.
We are all Neda.

To see more, visit HERE.

Flickr: United4Iran Global Photo Pool

All Round The World... (more added as I discover links). If I have spelled a city name incorrectly, please let me know @smirkitty on twitter. You may also tweet me with links you'd like to see added. Over 100 cities around the world, I hope we got pictures from all of them!

Japan (city not noted)
Revine Lago, Italy
Halifax
Taxicabs in Vancouver
Bif Naked and Nazanin Afshin-Jam sing "Someday" - Vancouver
Toronto
More Toronto
London
Amsterdam
Sweden
Stockholm
Melbourne
New York City
More New York City
Even More New York City
@onlymehdi speaks at the UN NYC Rally about his father, imprisioned in Iran
Cologne
Human Chain in Cologne
Rome
Tehran
Tehran night protests
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Madison, Wisconsin
Montana
Caracas, Venezuela
Los Angeles
Los Angeles - UCLA
More LA-UCLA
Even More LA - UCLA
More Even More LA-UCLA - song
The Green Scroll in Paris
Atlanta
Columbus, Ohio
Barcelona
San Francisco
@AustinHeap and @Cfarivar in SanFran talking about Haystack Network
More San Francisco
Even More San Francisco
More Even More San Francisco
Even more even more San Francisco!
Chicago
Beirut
Hamburg
Heidelberg
Duesseldorf
Munich
Berlin
Washington DC
More Washington DC
Even More Washington DC (in the pouring rain, no less!)
More Even More Washington DC

News Coverage:
CNN
BBC
San Francicso Chronicle
Tehran Bureau
Local ABC Affiliate in SF
Green Brief (Anonymous Iran)
CBS News
Al Arabiya News

And I'm not really sure what happened here, perhaps someone could share more inforamtion? Apparently a camera man from Iran's gov't controlled PressTV was filming people at London's July 25th event.

And, just for Oxfordgirl, a parrot singing Ay Iran

CALL TO ACTION re: VOICE Act!

2009-07-24T21:33:00.001-04:00

UPDATE!
While the VOICE Act has passed in the Senate, it has not yet passed the House. Please contact your Reprenstative to ask for their support!!

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

VOICE Act Passes in Senate

2009-07-24T15:32:00.013-04:00

From Nico Putney of the Huffington Post on Iran Uprising Blogging: Friday Update

1:04 PM ET -- Senate passes Iran VOICE Act. Just emailed out by Sen. Joe Lieberman's office.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate voted unanimously last night to adopt bipartisan legislation that will help strengthen the ability of the Iranian people get access to news and information and overcome the electronic censorship and monitoring efforts of the Iranian regime.

The Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act was introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Robert Casey (D-PA) as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Among the key features of the VOICE Act:

* Authorizes $30 million to the Broadcasting Board of Governors to expand Farsi language broadcasting into Iran by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's Radio Farda and the Voice of America's Persian News Network. The funds may be used to develop additional transmission capability to counter Iranian government efforts to jam radio, satellite, and Internet-based transmissions; establish additional proxy server capability and anti-censorship software to counter efforts to block access to websites in Iran; develop technologies to counter efforts to block SMS text message exchange over cellular phone networks; and hire, on a permanent or short-term basis, additional staff for Radio Farda and the Persian News Network.

* Authorizes $20 million for a new "Iranian Electronic Education, Exchange, and
Media Fund," which will support the development of technologies, including websites, that will aid the ability of the Iranian people to gain access to and share information; counter efforts to block, censor, or monitor the Internet in Iran; and engage in Internet-based education programs and other exchanges with Americans online.

* Requires a report by the President on non-Iranian companies, including corporations with U.S. subsidiaries, that have aided the Iranian government's Internet censorship efforts, including by providing deep packet inspection technology.

* Authorizes $5 million for the Secretary of State to document, collect, and dissemination information about human rights in Iran, including abuses of human rights that have taken place since the June 12 Iranian election.

And from National Iranian American Council:

The Act also declares that the US Congress “respects the sovereignty, proud history, and rich culture of the Iranian people,” and establishes the policy of the United States “to support the Iranian people as they seek, receive, and impart information and promote ideas in writing, in print, or through any media without interference.”

From Sen. Joe Lieberman's site:

"The world has been astonished and inspired by the courage of millions of Iranians pressing their regime for nothing more than their inalienable rights," said Senator John McCain. "The Iranian government has taken numerous steps to stop these citizens from communicating with each other and with the outside world. As this cruel regime works to close off Iranian society, the VOICE Act, by providing assistance for broadcasting and new internet and communications technologies, will help to open it up."

This is HUGE! Hopefully Haystack Network will be able to access some of these funds!

UPDATE!
While the VOICE Act has passed in the Senate, it has not yet passed the House. Please contact your Reprenstative to ask for their support!!

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Share this with everyone you know :)

Haystack stuck due to Patriot Act

2009-07-20T15:43:00.008-04:00

Austin Heap, Haystack Network (Good Luck Finding That Needle), has run into a problem. Apparently Paypal has frozen his Haystack donation account due to some violation of the Patriot Act. Below is a letter written to Senator Kennedy. One was also written to Senator Kerry.

You can visit this site to find your sentator. Please write today to ask for their help.

___________________________

Dear Senator Kennedy,

I hope this missive finds you feeling well, as I know your health has been poor lately.

I do not know if you have seen any of the reports coming out of Iran regarding the recent election results. The people of Iran feel that the results were fraudulent, and have been staging peaceful protests in that regard. The Iranian government has responded by blocking almost all internet access to the "outside" world. The government has also reacted by jailing anyone seen as a dissident, without access to attorneys or any other legal recourse, indeed without allowing them to contact families.

There are far worse stories coming out of Iran via citizen journalists, but the purpose of my writing is something else. A computer programmer named Austin Heap has written a program called Haystack (Good Luck Finding That Needle) designed to allow the people of Iran to bypass government imposed filters and to get information in and out of Iran.

Mr. Heap has set up a Paypay account to allow people to make donations to support this project (purchases of servers, internet bandwidth, etc). I am not aware of the specifics of the Patriot Act that have supposedly been violated, but Paypal has frozen this account due to the Patriot Act.

I am hoping there is some intervention that your office might make to allow these funds to be unfrozen. The program, Haystack Network, is ready to be released, but without the funds to purchase the needed items, it is stalled.

I know how strongly you and your entire family value Human and Civil Rights. It is my hope that you might help in this regard. While tyrants are able to hide their deeds from the world, their power grows stronger. But once the light of day hits them, their power diminishes, and then Freedom has a chance.

Please help, if you are at all able.

Best wishes for your health.

_____________________

From the Haystack Network website:

Haystack is a new program to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran. A software package for Windows, Mac and Unix systems, called Haystack, specifically targets the Iranian government’s web filtering mechanisms.

Similar to Freegate, the program directed against China’s “great firewall,” once installed Haystack will provide completely uncensored access to the internet in Iran while simultaneously protecting the user’s identity. No more Facebook blocks, no more government warning pages when you try to load Twitter, just unfiltered Internet.

Important for Westerns to Understand "Death to...."

2009-07-19T11:26:00.008-04:00

Some people in the West may be upset by the chants of “Marg bar fill-in-the-blank” during the recent protests in Iran against what is widely believed to be a fraudulent election. It certainly sounds violent for a very large crowd (1000+) to chant “death to” anything. What follows is an excellent explanation of the chants of the people of Iran, and I think it is very important for Westerners to understand the significance of what has happened during the “call and response” portion of Friday Prayers (which is like Sunday church service to Christians).

Please read:

A comment posted by a reader at The Atlantic – Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan, July 19, 2009

I wanted to make a few comments on the slogan of "death to Russia" from the Friday prayers:

1. "Death to ..." is not a correct translation for "Marg bar ..." although it is a literal translation, the real meaning is closer to "down with ..."; it is an expression of extreme dissatisfaction rather than the wishing of death. Remember "death to potatoes" from the campaign (as a sign of dissatisfaction with Ahmadinejad's distribution of potatoes among likely voters)? My guess is that it originated with "Marg bar shah", which at the time probably was literally meant; it was a particularly powerful and defiant slogan at the time and that memory has perpetuated this line of sloganeering.

2. It is worthwhile to understand the importance of meter and rhyming in the Persian language. Put anything in metered poetry and its chances of affecting the Iranian soul triples. So not every slogan would work, and in this uprising people have been amazingly creative in coming up with poetic slogans that fit the occasion and are powerful and witty. "Marg bar ..." is a simple formula which can be put to music depending on the number of syllables in what follows it. I can't think of a simple way to replace it with another word which conveys the same meaning and provides such a resourceful musicality.

3. Although you have already reported on it, I want to emphasize the significance of the incident Friday, in which people changed the official slogans to their own benefit. In Friday prayers, there is a person who is mockingly called "the minister of slogans" and shouts all the official slogans of "death to America, Israel, etc" and the people who attend the Friday prayers (usually staunch supporters of the regime) follow him and repeat the same slogans. Yesterday, a sizable portion of the crowd chanted "death to Russia" in response to "death to America", or "death to Israel", or "death to England" . More significantly, when he yelled "the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader" the crowd spontaneously and apparently without much coordination responded "the blood in our veins is a gift to our nation."* Every Iranian I have talked to or corresponded with since yesterday has been deeply touched by this act of defiance. You have to realize that we Iranians are numb to the official slogans; they have been repeated so often that they have lost all meaning and content to us. To take these most secure weapons of the regime and to turn them against the regime in such a potent way is a sweet victory. It is hard not to love these people for their creativity and braveness.

*BOLD emphasis added by ~Smirk

Siemens risks losses due to Iran ties

2009-07-19T09:47:00.006-04:00

From the Washington Times 7/17/09

One of the world's largest engineering firms, Siemens, could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in sales to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) because it sold Iran equipment used to spy on dissidents.

The LA County MTA (Metro Transit Authority) will meet Thursday, July 30th. If you wish to express your opinion on the matter, please see this blog, Corruption On Earth, for contact information of the LA MTA.

Here are some links to other articles on the subject:

LA Times - MTA takes issue with potential contractor's ties with Iran

Wall Street Journal - Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology

Gizmodo - Nokia, Siemens Helped Iran Rig Networks for Government Control

Human Rights from Alexandros Maragos on Vimeo.

2009-07-18T19:48:00.003-04:00

This video was posted on Vimeo, please click links below to visit original site and post any comments for the maker of this video.

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nationsadopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Respect others - respect individuality.

Human Rights from Alexandros Maragos on Vimeo.

On July 25, stand in solidarity with the Iranian people

2009-07-16T19:48:00.005-04:00

This is posted from the website United4Iran.org - please share

___________________________________

On July 25, stand in solidarity with the Iranian people

Join us on July 25, 2009 for a rally in your city in support of the Iranian people and in condemnation of the human rights abuses being committed by the Iranian government. Learn how you can get involved by emailing us at info@united4iran.org.
United4Iran is a non-partisan collaborative of individuals and human rights organizations. United4Iran does not promote any political agenda; our only aim is to support the people of Iran in their struggle for democracy and freedom.
We came together to organize a Global Day of Action on July 25th so the citizens of the world can stand together for:
1) Civil and human rights for the people of Iran
2) Stopping the abuse of power—the imprisonment, torture and killing
3) Solidarity with the Iranian people. To our Iranian brothers and sisters: We have heard your voices, and you are not alone.
Read our latest press release here.
_________________________________________

Americans for Iranian Liberty

2009-07-16T18:50:00.007-04:00

This message was left on a message board dedicated to the people of Iran who are fighting to be free of oppression, and to have their voices heard. (I apologize for the odd formating, it gets funky when you do a block quote for some reason). We're reposting it (at the author's request) to spread the word, please feel free to do the same.

http://theworldhearsyou.com/

Tom Zimmerman of Portland ME, USA Says:
July 16th, 2009 at 12:57 pm The following demonstration of solidarity is planned for July 31, across America:A courageous Iranian people are striving to gain the liberty we enjoy in America. On Friday July 31, please join in showing our support, our solidarity with them.It’s simple: At 10 AM PDT on that day, rolling across the time zones to 1 PM EDT, stop whatever you’re doing and observe a minute of silence to show your support. You might even raise your right arm and give the peace sign. (Theirs is a non-violent protest against a government not of their choosing.)
If you’re driving, perhaps hold your arm out the window, or just honk a few times during that minute.
Of course, wear green that day.
Consider taking the lead in your community. There is no earthly Voice From On High that will guide you otherwise. Get a proclamation from your city council or mayor. Wheedle an interview with a local radio station or newspaper. At least email your friends. Chances are good they care too.
Thanks for helping to show our solidarity with their aspirations.
Tom Zimmerman
Americans for Iranian Liberty
PS: We’d appreciate your passing this message on through the ‘net as much as
you can.

What are you doing to show your support? Green wristbands? Blogging? Tweeting? Writing letters for Amnesty International? Donating to Haystack? Please leave us a comment below, we'd love to hear from you, and you just might end up giving someone else an idea.

What do you hear in these sounds?

2009-07-11T00:18:00.018-04:00

It’s strange because... I was a teenager in the 80s when “Iranian Crisis” meant something entirely different to Americans. I saw the news reports on TV, even read the newspaper articles. (We didn’t have the internet back in those days, young-uns. I mean, it was there, but “people” didn’t have it.) I’m not sure why I bring up those memories, except perhaps that others are flooding in as well.

Memories of Pinochet. Not personal memories, but listening to first-hand accounts (if nothing else, our mother made sure our education was well-rounded). Sting’s video of the women of Chile dancing Cueca Solo (They Dance Alone) came out several years later (late 80s I think). Pinochet and his minions would “disappear” people, and these women would go to public plazas and dance this dance alone, with pictures of their missing husbands, fathers, children pinned to their chests, as a reminder to everyone, Pinochet included, that the Disappeared were not forgotten. “It’s the only form of protest they’re allowed….”, he sang.

Memories of events I have lived through as a much removed observer, powerless to do anything real to help, aside from bumper stickers, buttons, rallies and petitions.

Apartheid. Biko. Mandela. The juntas of so many Central American counties. Genocide. Mass graves. Tunnels under the Berlin wall. Tiananmen Square. All the horrible things people do to each other. The twin towers of the World Trade Center.

On that particular day, so many people from around the world said, “today, we are all Americans”, as a way of sharing our horrible tragedy, one that we all watched unfold on live TV. Now we hear people say, at rallies of support around the world, “on 9/11, we were all Americans. Today, we are all Iranians”. We bear witness to the atrocities perpetrated on the people of Iran who only wanted to peacefully protest the results of a fraudulent election.

I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the horrible footage being smuggled out of Iran, but a quick web search will yield a plethora of disturbing results. I’ve looked at quite a bit of it, and most of it makes me really, really sad, and very, very pissed. But there are some things happening that give me hope. Stories that come out of Iran, smuggled by citizen-journalists. Stories of a group of protesters stopping a man driving a water cannon toward the university, presumably to spray crowds with the water cannon. The man was stopped, and begged to be let through, fearing his boss would beat him. The people emptied the water out of the cannon and let the man pass. Stories of basij (hired militia) painting red marks on the doors of people they think are protesting, then the entire neighborhood creeps out at night and paints red marks on their own doors to protect their neighbors. Protests around the world in support of the people of Iran. Musicians joining together to give voice to the voiceless. The world’s longest petition scroll to hang from the Eiffel Tower. Hackers of the world uniting to develop anti-censorship software, Haystack (Good Luck Finding That Needle!)

Most hopeful, I think, to me, are the chants from the rooftops each night at 10 pm Tehran time, every night since the election results were announced. Allah o Akbar. God is great. Chanted like a call and respond. And the sound is so firm. So resolute. They are saying “God is great”, but what I hear is “you have wronged us, but we will set it right”.

Here is a link to The Rooftop Project, a collection of cell-phone videos which have been uploaded to youtube almost every evening.

What do you hear in their voices?

Have a listen, and if you’ve got a mind to, visit this link and leave them a message.

The World Hears You

2009-07-06T18:58:00.006-04:00

Tehran - Night Chants 5th july 2009

This video is from the rooftops in Tehran, where every night at 10 p.m. people go to their roofs to chant, under cover of night, "Allah o Akbar" (god is great). They do this to protest what is considered by many to be the fruadulant results on the June 12 Election in Iran. The rooftop chanting takes place all over Tehran, and has been going on every night since the election.

To tell the people of Iran that you hear them, go to The World Hears You and leave your message.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." ~Mahatma Gandhi

2009-07-05T21:31:00.004-04:00

Question "I care about the movement in Iran, but I'm just one person, how can I help?"

Learn about it.
Twitter #IranElection can point you in the right direction, but it can also point you in the wrong direction, so be smart: http://smirkitty.blogspot.com/2009/07/freedom-speech-trolls-and-toches.html
The Green Brief is posted (if possible) every day, and can be found here - http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/
Links to other sources of information can also be found here:http://iran.whyweprotest.net/news-current-events/61-one-stop-thread-media-links-twitter-aggregator-pics-blogs.html

Share information.
About rallies in your corner of the world - http://protests.sharearchy.com/http://iran.whyweprotest.net/world-wide-protest-planning/
Post pics from rallies you attend - http://www.flickr.com/groups/1121312@N24/pool/

Spread awareness.
Turn your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace avatar/icon/page green.
Wear green.
Print this up and post it in your business or car - http://www.supportdemocracyiniran.com/whereismyvote.pdf
Sign the world’s longest petition - http://greenscroll.blogspot.com/
How does this help?
* Going green raises awareness – people see it, ask about it, you tell them why
* Going green shows support – on the off chance that people in Iran are able to access the internet and visit social networking sites, they see a sea of green supporting them. When relatives outside of Iran are able to get calls in, they can share what support they are seeing.

Talk about it.
Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, E-mail, Water cooler. Knowledge is power, if you have some, share. The more people who are interested, the more people who care. The more people who care, the more likely that the problem gets solved.

If you have other ways people can help, please share in the comment section.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." ~Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom, Speech, Trolls and Torches

2009-07-05T20:23:00.008-04:00

The Twitter topic #IranElection is full of so much noise recently. Battles of conflicting propaganda are waged between links to petitions for you to sign and t-shirts or green bracelets to buy, almost covering up tweets containing actual information. I guess being in the top trending topics for the past 23 days has made it a pretty popular place to hawk wares, or just make an ass of yourself (if you are the type who is so inclined).

Some people, though well-intentioned, are spreading incorrect or misleading information. These well-intentioned people are being fed by trolls. Whether those trolls belong to the Iranian government, the basij, the CIA, the BBC, NASA (hey, it could happen!), Mark Sanford or some bored fraternity with nothing better to do is both unknown and immaterial. The trolls are cluttering up the Twittersphere and muddying the Green River.

But if you’re patient (and take the time to check what is being shared), it’s still a valuable source of information. There are news agencies covering the “unrest”. News is actually getting out. The problem is that this news isn’t all that easy to find, so visiting #IranElection gives you access to those stories that other tweeple have discovered (many even from main stream news sources like BBC, CNN, LA Times, Washington Post and Huffington Post). There are also links to less standard news sources which have some credibility just based on their history. Links to information about rallies being held around the world to show support for the people of Iran. Links to videos taken by citizens with cell-phones documenting both brutality and peaceful response to tyrannical violence. Videos of musicians touched by what has happened to people in Iran. Images of green tape in an X over the mouths of statues in public places. Links to chants of Allah o Akbar, each night at 10 pm. Links to websites with things you can do to help. Yeah, there’s a bit of crap to wade through. Retweets (RT) that make no sense, blatant flames against Obama, or Christians, or Islam, or the US, or the UK, or whatever hot-button topic the flamer thinks will get an angry response. It’s a little like finding a needle in a haystack.

But every time someone finds a bit of real information and passes it on, another candle is lit. Tyranny can’t stand the light. Tyranny knows how ugly it is. Tyranny knows, in its tiny, shriveled up heart that what it’s doing is wrong, but tyranny is a pissed –off angry bully picking on the less powerful kids in the playground. And we all know that bullies are actually weak. You get enough kids together, it doesn’t matter how powerful the bully is. Ask apartheid. Oh wait, you can’t, it’s dead. Okay, ask the Berlin wall. Nope, knocked down.

So keep shining the light of day on tyranny. Keep tweeting. Check before you retweet. Think about what you’re sharing. Be smart, rather than quick. Point out the trolls, but don’t give them the satisfaction of sparring with them. Because there’s a real struggle going on. People are being imprisoned, beaten, killed, or just disappeared. And I, for one, don’t think they’re even asking for anything unreasonable.

“Where is my vote” should not be a dangerous question to ask.

CLICK HERE --> How to verify a tweet

Tehran Independence 4th July 2009 Night chants

2009-07-04T20:46:00.002-04:00

Chants of Allah o Akbar (god is great) on 4 July 2009 in Tehran, to protest the results of the June 12 Election. Has happened every night at 10 pm since June 12.

We thought last night might be the last night we'd see this uploaded video (user uploads each night), because they were worried it was getting too dangerous to upload.

A Little Poetry For You, from T Jefferson

2009-07-04T12:06:00.011-04:00

**NOTE: follows below is the text of the Declaration of Independence written in 1776 attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father of the United States.

____________________________________________

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

(For more information on the Declaration of Independence, visit http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html)

I'm all a-twitter (and a little green)

2009-07-03T20:19:00.007-04:00

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter, following the hashtag #IranElection. It all started rather innocently, I was doing research on hashtags to find out why the hell my friends kept using them, and what they meant. That particular weekend #IranElection happened to be the top trending topic on Twitter. Browsing through the tweetstream to get a sense for how hashtags worked, I got entranced by the subject matter. I’m the daughter of a revolutionary; I grew up attending rallies, protests, organization meetings, leafleting, getting out the vote, fighting the power so to speak. So the language of #IranElection was familiar to me. People thought they had a say, then realized they’d been screwed, and they were pissed about it.

I have a healthy (some say overdeveloped) sense of outrage when confronted with injustice. I have to be honest and say that I don’t know much about Ahmadinejad, Mousavi, their politics, records on human rights, or really much else. But it seemed pretty clear that a lot of people in Iran (based on citizen videos posted around the world) were pretty upset by the election results, and were calling a huge party foul. None of the initial reports indicated the protestors were anything but Mad As Hell, and verbally expressing their displeasure. Marching, chanting, demanding recourse under the law, hey, power to the people. There were reports of police roughing up protesters, taunting young people already full of passionate outrage, into physical altercations as an excuse to arrest them, and frighten their friends and family. While not excusable, it is understandable. These are the tools of people to whom reason is an enemy. They incite your passion and then use it against you. The reports started to change, taking a more violent turn. Police or basij (plain-clothed, brought in from out of town to quell the protests) were charging crowds on motorcycles, and attacking them with batons. Pulling people out into the street and beating them bloody, then doing the same to anyone who might move to protest this brutality. The protesters responded by pushing trashcans into the intersections and setting them on fire. Or chanting “allah o akbar” (god is great) from their rooftops. Damned hooligans.

Then I saw the video. Her name was Neda, and I am including the link here, because you should see it. It is graphic and disturbing, but you need to watch it. http://tinyurl.com/lr9smf Neda wasn’t even actively protesting. She had gone to a peaceful rally, to say “Hey, I voted, but I don’t think you counted my vote”, and was returning home with her music teacher. They were stuck in a horrible traffic jam, and didn’t really know why, so they got out to walk ahead and see what was happening. She was standing quietly on the side of the street when she was shot through the heart and died, right there on the street. Witnesses said it was basij, they saw him. The Iranian government claims it was either the CIA or the BBC, or the doctor who was caught on camera-phone trying to stop the blood pouring out of her chest.

I don’t know why it did, but that made it personal for me. I didn’t know her from Adam. She wasn’t famous, she wasn’t even particularly accomplished. She was student who wanted to become a travel guide. I seriously doubt if she and I had much in common at all. Except I saw her die. I saw life leave her eyes.

I saw
Life
Leave her eyes

I can still see it, to be honest. If you watched the video, you’ll probably see it for awhile too. If you’re human, that is. And I hope you watched it. Not because I would wish this horrible vision on you, gentle reader. But because it happened. And it needs to be witnessed. And people need to know. So I hope you watched it. And I hope you’re pissed off. And mad as hell. And I hope you tell someone else to watch it. And to watch what is happening in Iran right now. Because it hasn’t stopped. And she isn’t the only one.

And the only way to beat tyranny and oppression is to shine the light of day on it. They need to know the world is watching. And the only way they’ll know is if the world really is watching.
If you want more information on Iran, good luck finding it. Most major news networks have been rather caught up in a trifecta of celebrity deaths. And to their defense, almost all the information coming out of Iran has been smuggled out by citizen reporters who have their own agenda (how dare they??). The Iranian government has blocked all access to anything but state approved television, smashing satellite receivers (which were already illegal, but mostly ignored before the election). You’ll probably have more luck finding information on blogs, forums, and in the twittersphere (a shout-out to my compadres on #IranElection, GO GREEN WAVE!).

But CNN has some information. Much of the information I refer to in this blog was gleaned from CNN, BBC and LA Times. I’ll try to link to some of my sources later. But for now, I need a cigarette and a glass of scotch. And I need to sit on my balcony and listen to the chants of Allah o Akbar , even though they are thousands of miles away, on the other side of the world. Being chanted by people, just like me. People who go to work, take care of their families, play with their children, plant gardens and try to avoid littering. People who just don’t want to be shot at for saying, “Hey, where’s my vote?”

It’s July 3rd here in my corner of the world. The day before Independence Day. Think I’ll go read the Declaration of Independence again.