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For the past several days, something unusual has been happening in Iran. It's something that has really not happened since 1979. After an election where the majority of the citizens have doubted the results, a massive upheaval in the form of many many protests has occurred. Things have been getting progressively out of hand for Iran's religious dictatorship there. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, ordered the protests to stop, and that order hasn't really changed much. Now, some of the protesters are apparently shouting "Death to Khamenei!", and now, in spite of Iran's attempts to lock down all journalism, cellphone, and internet access to the outside world, the protests continue. But, they are becoming increasingly violent.Even Time.com is talking about this video: here
Yesterday, June 20th, a young woman, named , was shot in killed while reportedly standing nearby and watching (just watching) the protests. Graphic amateur video made it onto YouTube and spread like wildfire throughout the Twittersphere and Facebook network. This video broke my heart.
One of the most remarkable things about Twitter is its ability to allow everyone to write or receive live updates to major news stories. If you have Twitter, you can click on #iranelection and see what is currently happening. When I was watching it yesterday, it seemed to be jumping at the rate of over 200+ a minute. That's with the government of Iran trying as best it can to prevent any of its citizens from using Twitter at all!!
Twitter, it seems, is no friend of the oppressive government. Facebook and YouTube are not much better in that regard, of course. Between the three of them, information has been getting out in spite of Iran's best attempts to thwart it. I remember reading a couple of days ago on Twitter and elsewhere how lonely the Iranian people felt. They kept saying, "Where're the Americans now?" Kind of surprising actually. However, while American citizens are not so easily able to provide the support they were looking for, people from around the world (and America, too, of course!) have been providing other support by electronically masking their identities as best they can to confuse the Iranian government into thinking that they (and help prevent the tracking down of those who are posting on Twitter, Facebook, and the like.
So, what are you going to do?
Well, here's an idea. To show their support, Twitter users (and now Facebook users, too!) have been altering their profile images to be tinted green. Green being the color of the candidate who "supposedly" lost the election, it has become the rallying color of the protesters throughout the country and their friends around the world. It may not be much, but it's easy to do. I used a free open source image editing program called The Gimp to modify mine. It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and easy to install on all three. Just modify the color balance, and re-upload your profile pic.
Meanwhile, I want to leave you with some scripture to think about:
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
But better than both
is he who has not yet been,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4:17-21
Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.
Psalm 146
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