(The whole article is damned good and well worth reading, but I'm only reposting the "here's what you can do" paragraphs (the meat) below. I'm also leaving my twitter avatar green because, while it's usefulness pales in comparison to the suggestions in the post, I do think that little green tag makes a psychological difference. YMMV...)
So instead of empty gestures and hashtags, why don't we actually engage in some activism and help, instead of whispering about this like some kind of neighborhood scandal that will never catch up to us because it's an ocean away?
There's always the option of an online donation to a relief agency like Red Crescent, for something immediate and helpful. The world runs on money and blood (as the events in Iran over the last week and a half have so morosely reminded us), and America is too far away to donate the blood that the wounded in Iran so desperately need.
You can also make donations to those covering the ongoing protests and violence, like Tehran Bureau, which is run by an Iranian-emigre out of a house in Newton, Massachusetts and is in need of financial support to keep the site live and bandwidth plentiful. Reliable information is harder and harder to come by, already 24 journalists have been arrested in Iran, and the majority of the rest have been forced out of the country by expired visas and government intimidation.
Don't have cash? There are ways you can help for free without ever leaving your computer. You can create a proxy or Twitter relay to help keep those ever-important Iranian Twitterers connected and informing the world about the situation in Iran. Or change your location and time zone to match Iran, in hopes of tripping up government censors looking for active sources.
If you're more diplomatically-inclined, and looking toward the long term, write a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council and urge them to take action on international election standards and protection for citizens.
Above all, the thing you must do before any difference can be made is to inform yourself. The term "knowledge is power" wouldn't be repeated so much if it wasn't true. So spend some time reading the news, know what the hell you're talking about, and go out and tell someone else about it, and how they can help.
If anyone has any further suggestions or links to sites & or other things worth doing, please add them in the comments. I'd prefer that this post stay as non-partisan as possible. We all know that "that" side sucks, but wingnuts, moonbats, partisans of all other stripes... ...this isn't about us here in the US.
h/t Twitter / @DivadNhoj1981
respac - great article! Thanks for posting it. Some constructive suggestions rather than empty screed - what a concept, huh?
ReplyDeleteJust keep in mind that anything we do or say can and will be used as evidence that this is not a native movement, but is engineered by the American media and the CIA.
ReplyDeleteThat "Bomb bomb Iran" and "axis of Evil" crap is going to haunt us for centuries.
repsac, I wish we could do more but, as Captain Fogg says, our actions will be perceived as outside agitation and therefore not be very helpful to those whom we want to aid. Despite our expressions of solidarity, resolution must come from inside Iran (no matter how painful it appears to us as bystanders).
ReplyDeleteWhat we can do: Keep our neocons in check. I have been arguing for years that it was our own CIA-inspired coup that brought down Mossedegh, installed the Shah, who oppressed his people, that brought on the 1979 revolution, that aided Saddam against Iran ... the sum total of these actions being the cause of Iranian enmity towards the U.S.
Yes, we screwed up badly, and now we must await the outcome and avoid screwing up again.