Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
- Yeats, Easter, 1916
There is something terribly beautiful going on in Iran right now that I hope the world is watching carefully.
I've long been a proponent of the theory that we should never go to war in order to "spread democracy"- it is a great catchphrase that serves more to cover up other, more devious aims. No, I've always said that if democracy is so great, you don't need to spread it at the edge of a bayonet; countries will steal it from you. And sure enough, Iran is finally doing that. After their clearly fixed elections had the current President Algjanghkgbfksgb winning by a huge margin, the people have finally seen through the curtains that the government has draped over them. Not only have they seen through them, though; this time, they've lit them on ablaze.
History has shown over and over that you cannot keep a people down for too long before they try to stand back up. And if you ignore their cries, and force them back down, they will rise with that much more fury. Every oppressed people has had their time where they raised their own flag, and went to war with the Black Hundreds trying to keep the social order intact. Now, it's Iran's time.
When the government banned journalists and shut down the internet, the Iranians used Twitter to communicate what's been going on to the outside world. They used photo imaging websites to upload pictures of what the government was trying to keep secret. They went against the party. The opposition leader, Mir Hossein Moussavi, has said on his own facebook page that he is preparing to die for this cause. Green has become the color of the Revolution, and throngs of green-clad protestors pour into the streets. When the government told the roaring crowds to stop protesting, they gathered more boldly. When the cops told them to disperse, they fought back. And now, Iran burns with the furies of a generation that has never known freedom, but demands it now.
Now, the great leader of Iran, the true man behind the curtain, the Ayatollah Khomeini, has declared that the protesters "Will be held accountable." That there will be consequences for these actions; that's Iranian for "We will try to kill you all."
That means that there is but one good solution for the Iranian people: a full uprising. They must shatter their chains and cast off this weight into the sea. They must destroy this evil system of religious oppression before it destroys them, and annihilate their oppressors lest they be annihilated themselves. There are no two ways about this.
History stands with them. The ghosts of Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are with them. Frederick Douglass and John Brown look on, and the souls of every Michael Collins and Martin Luther King, every Gandhi and Guevara that the world has ever seen are with them in these tumultuous hours. These are the hours that will define Iran's future, that will delineate the road that this country of such importance takes.
There is no middle ground here. The ground will swell with blood, and this will not be peaceful. However, it could be amongst the most important things to happen in this century, an event that makes the fall of the Berlin Wall pale in comparison.
Stand with Free Iran. God help them.
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