Gotta come out and talk about the protests in Iran. I wasn’t going to because, does the internet really need yet another rant about how bad things are there. But, hey, that’s what blogs are for. Right?
As I type this I’ve got CNN running in the background so I can hear any updates on what is going on.
Living in the United States I am very aware of the fact that I have a lot of freedoms. Not just as a female, but as a human being. I don’t have to worry about getting fined and jailed for holding my husband’s hand in public. I don’t have to worry about being arrested for not covering my head. And I know I can speak my mind and criticize anything I don’t like, even the government. Americans have a lot of freedoms.
I have grown up with a lot of baby boomers trying to tell me how hard they had it and how hard they fought for the freedoms that I enjoy today. My mother told me once that the 1950’s were one of the most oppressive decade towards women in history. A girl I know full on thought that the only woman’s suffrage movement that ever existed was in the 1960’s. I know that we had some ugly times in the past 50 years. I’m not going to deny it… but there is a big difference between having rock concerts and getting high on drugs to protest the government and what is going on right now in Iran… and it really brings things into perspective to me.
Last night CNN was reading blog entries on Facebook from Iranians. One wrote about how yesterday might very well be his last day on Earth. It’s shocking and depressing. I’ve heard reports of “expected violence” in U.S. protests in the past (a day without an illegal comes to mind) that turned out to be absolutely nothing. Just aging hippies remembering the glory days of getting arrested in protests and wanting to see that again because, to them, it validates them.
I know that Iran is a totally different culture and there is REAL oppression there… but part of my brain really wanted to believe that things wouldn’t be so bad today. I really wanted to believe that today would be a relatively peaceful day with maybe a few little break outs of unrest.
But no. These people are really fighting and really dying for their belief in a better world. That person who wrote they might not come home tonight wasn’t stretching the truth and… though it is incredibly inspiring that people are willing to sacrifice themselves for a better world, it’s also really depressing and sad that they have to at all.
Ok, disclaimer before I get angry hate mail about how I don’t know what I’m talking about. I am NOT talking about the Civil Rights movement. I am talking strictly about those spoiled rich kids who went on road trips and had tons of sex and drugs and went to drum circles and hung out in San Francisco to protest “government oppression and sexism” in this country. You know. The aging boomers and shallow post boomers who say all the right things and really want to believe that they have suffered when really they’ve benefitted the most from this wonderful country we are in.
Black America, the men and women who fought that fight in the 60’s, you people are heros. And it makes me sick every time I hear a rich, white, 50something take credit for what you achieved.
One final note to everybody. The next time you start criticizing this wonderful country we are in, take a real look around. Women have the ability to complain about trivial things like whether or not the latest Star Trek Movie was sexist. We have a black president in the Whitehouse. And every American has the right to tell every other American that they don’t agree with them on issues of religion, politics, and morality.
Ok. I’m done.
-kat
P.S. Josh wrote a wonderful short essay about Iran on
The Hanger. Please read it and let us know what you think.
That's right! New art to show!! Whoo Hoo. I know it's been a while but I've been working hard with Josh on Titanium Rain... of which the Double-Sized issue one will be out next week. :)
