Democracy in Iran: The Uprising

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Generating fear is the only way criminal governments can stay in power.  Dick Cheney knows that, Supreme Leader Khamenei knows that, every reactionary thug from the Guardian Council in Qom to the Republican National Committee in Washington knows that.  Fear is the foundation of conservative power, it always has been.  Fear compels people to submit to oppression, fear perpetuates their oppression, fear prevents most of them from ever taking a stand.  

The Uprising in Iran is a confrontation between the forces of oppression and the forces of reform. It’s a struggle for power between fundamentalists and moderates, a high stakes contest with the future of an entire nation hanging in the balance.  The world is watching the confrontations in the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, but the confrontation that will determine the outcome and decide the future of Iran cannot be seen, it’s an inner confrontation, it’s a confrontation as old as human civilization, it’s a confrontation of the soul, it’s the confrontation within the hearts and minds of millions of Iranians between fear and moral courage.  

Each of them must make a choice–no one else can make it for them.  Will they give in to their fear? Or will they find the moral courage to overcome their fear?    

Millions of Iranians are struggling to overcome their fear of being arrested and imprisoned, they’re struggling to overcome their fear of Basij savagery, struggling to overcome their fear of being killed. That inner battle has ended for many of them.  Fear has won.  They will not join the Uprising, they will not support it.  There are too many police in the streets, too many Basij.

But many Iranians have overcome their fear.  The inner battle was waged, moral courage won, and they are not going to back down.  It doesn’t matter how many police or militia thugs are in the streets, it doesn’t matter if they are beaten, it doesn’t matter if they are killed.  All that matters to them now is the future of their country.        

Iranians are in the streets of Tehran and other cities because they believe what Dr. King believed: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Their votes matter, their beliefs matter, the future of Iran matters.  The Supreme Leader has commanded silence, but they will not be silent.  He demands obedience, but they will not obey a thug with the blood of the innocent on his hands. Their defiance is echoing every night across the rooftops of Tehran, it is being heard around the world.  

That defiance is rattling the windows and shaking the walls of the regime.  

They are not afraid of the Supreme Leader, he is afraid of them.    

They are taking a stand because they believe what Maya Angelou believes: History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, it need not be lived again.

They know they cannot unlive thirty years of oppression, but they know if they face the days ahead with courage, they need not live through thirty more years of oppression.  

They will not back down, because they believe what Eleanor Roosevelt believed: The future will be decided by those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

They know they are not alone.  Mousavi’s facebook page just announced there will be global solidarity demonstrations on Thursday.  The Tehran demonstration will be held at the Imam Khomeini Shrine, where in accordance with Islamic tradition, violence is forbidden.  

A general strike will begin this week.  

Iran’s future is being determined.  

It will not be determined in Qom . . .

It will not be decided by Supreme Leader Khamenei and his Guardian Council. Shedding the blood of the innocent may prolong the regime’s power for a few more months, but Iran’s long night of oppression is ending.  

The future of Iran will be decided by those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.  The future of America will be decided by those who believe in the beauty of their dreams, the future of the world will be decided by those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.