AN OPEN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF IRAN FROM THE WEBLOGGING COMMUNITY
We are not politicians, nor are we generals. We hold no power to dispatch diplomats to negotiate; we can send no troops to defend those who choose to risk their lives in the cause of freedom.
What power we have is in our words, and in our thoughts. It is that strength which we offer to the people of Iran today.
Across the diverse and often contentious world of weblogs, each of us has chosen to put aside our differences and come together to declare our unanimity on the following simple principles:
- That the people of Iran are allies of free men and women everywhere in the world, and deserve to live under a government of their own choosing, which respects their own personal liberties.
- That the current Iranian regime has failed to create a free and prosperous society, and attempts to mask its own failures by repression and tyranny.
We do not presume to know what is best for the people of Iran; but we are firm in our conviction that the policies of the current government stand in the way of the Iranian people's ability to make those choices for themselves.
And so we urge our own governments to turn their attention to Iran. The leaders and diplomats of the world's democracies must be clear in their opposition to the repressive actions of the current Iranian regime, but even more importantly, must be clear in their support for the aspirations of the Iranian people.
And to the people of Iran, we say: You are not alone. We see your demonstrations in the streets; we hear of your newspapers falling to censorship; and we watch with anticipation as you join the community of the Internet in greater and greater numbers. Our hopes are with you in your struggle for freedom. We cannot and will not presume to tell you the correct path to freedom; that is for you to choose. But we look forward to the day when we can welcome your nation into the community of free societies of the world, for we know with deepest certainty that such a day will come.
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The above, in very slightly edited form, comes by way of John Weidner's Random Jottings weblog, and was distributed on several other weblogs just about exactly one year ago. So today, July 9th, 2003, seems a good day to remember that campaign.
Iranian Girl says that July 9th, 2003, is a ...day that Iranians will show what they really want, & will prove that they're not a kind of people who leave alone the students & the young guys who are spending they life in prisons, just because they wanted freedom for all Iranians. I really hope that they do it well & I myself will try my best to do whatever I can as a young girl, we must also encourage each other; that's very important…
If you run a web site of your own, you may want to think about posting something about this too.
Many web sites are participating. Winds of Change and Cox & Forkum have more excellent stuff you should read and links you should follow.
Godspeed to our brothers in Iran.
A Farsi version of the OPEN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF IRAN is also available. I couldn't remember where that was, but Kathy Kinsley remembered where to find it.
All this is really emotional! But what exactly do the Iranian people really want. What does 'no freedom' for Iranis really mean.. In what way is their government oppressing them? We should all have these answers answered before any support or refutation of their claims is endorsed
whoops!! excuse my lack of proofreading
GMTA, Dean. I also put the letter up.
Dean,
You're right! Democracy and freedom of speech should reign for all people, everywhere!
Although, I think you have little to no idea what democracy or free-speech mean. It seems to me that you think that this term applies to only speech you like, speech you dislike gets banned:
I am banning "Raving Atheist" from this site. I've asked him politely to stop his vicious anti-religious hate-rhetoric, and he hasn't stopped, so he's banned as of now.
What you don’t mention is that your standard for banning the Raving Atheist lacks any merit. What he says is not hate, it just serves to point out your own hypocrisy, and I guess you feel uncomfortable, or unable to defend your views.
So yah! For free-speech, sometimes, with exceptions, and qualifiers …
Nick,
Freedom of speech does not imply the neccesity of a private citizen to provide a forum for those whose speech he finds distasteful.
Dean may ban whomever he likes. That is his freedom. He is not an agent of the government. He is not trampling anyone's rights.
He is not disenfranchising anyone.
The Iranian students are (or would be) protesting for the right to ignore wide swaths of speech, as much as the right to say what they believe.
Yes, Nick: get back to me when I put someone in jail for disagreeing with me, or refuse to allow him into the voting booth on election day.
This is my forum, and I will delete any message I want, and ban any person I want, for any reason I want, any time I want. Because that is what democracy and freedom are all out.
Now, if you continue to leave messages in threads that have nothing to do with the subject under discussion, just to attack me personally, you'll get yourself banned too.
Actually, there may be something to this business of interference by blogsite, a lesser version of all this has worked before among the Iranians.
In the 1970s, the Shah banned Khomeini and some of the other religious grand-dragons, and sent them packing into exile, where Khomeini wound up in Paris. Khomeini used sermons on cassette tapes which easily made the rounds among dissatisfied overseas Iranians, and were easy to copy onto other tapes. That means every radio with a cassette tape player in the hands of one of these Iranians became a smallscale portable propaganda machine (literally) against the Shah and his royalist and pro-American regime.
The result? Goodbye Shah; Goodbye great Satan; hello Khomeini; hello religious oppression; hello war; hello big trouble; hello new set of dissidents.
What goes around verily comes around.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Dean, watch this one closely. Something happened in Iran yesterday, and I don't think we've gotten but a portion of the story.
Information warfare is in progress, inbound -and- outbound.
Dr. Ivan Eland of the CATO Institute and the Independent Institute wrote a column last week about Iran. It is quite interesting.
Also: Alan Bock, the conservative/libertarian columnist and author (who is a senior essayist at the Orange County Register and wrote for World Net Daily), had written a column about Iran on June 24th, which mentions the Iranian bloggers. I haven't read the column completely, but Mr. Bock's work is interesting. An earlier column on Iran by Mr. Bock, from June 3, is here.