I just finished reading liz_marcs's post about the Iranian girl who was killed during the protests. It's one thing to read news reports about the violent beatings and injuries. It's another to watch a young girl die for doing something we take for granted.

I don't know how many people are reading this journal, but I do know that some of you are international. I want to, probably for the first time, use this journal as an impetus. Yeah, I'm late on the scene, mainly because I honestly thought the rebellion would be quashed by now. I firmly believed the people would fold under the Ayatollah's power, as has been seen before in Iran. They have not. They continue to march in the streets; they continue to protest the results of their election, and they continue to fight for their rights as citizens.

They are on the precipice of revolution and, while it may prove to be futile, we are here to bear witness. And that, I think, is what we can do. Bear witness. It's horrific, the amount and the type of violence being carried out in Iran right now. Not many among us can stand to look. But we have to.

Imagine the murderer. He is powerful. He stands in the crowd, but apart from it. He has ideals that few others share. He looks around the room and sees the people around him, talking, laughing, touching each other, connected to each other. Then he sees one who is not quite part of that throng. That person is sitting alone, marginalized in some way by the very crowd he or she should be part of. The murderer has chosen his target. He approaches, on the outside of the crowd, alone, in the shadows, arms poised to kill.

But then light floods the room. And one person sees this murderer and shouts. Then another and another and another until all in the room are bearing witness. What does he do?

He runs. He drops his weapons, and he runs. Why? Because he was seen. He was noticed, and a world turned its eyes on his actions and condemned him. That is what it means to bear witness. We must turn our eyes to the scene playing out before us, no matter how terrible and reprehensible, and we must make our observation known.

"We see you. What you are doing there. And we do not approve. You will not be allowed to murder freedom in secret. You are trying to buy power, using human lives as currency. In this age of globalization, where every person with an internet connection has at least one person in another country within a second's contact, your transaction will never go through. The power you think you glean will be overshadowed by the condemnation that will surely follow.

The World is watching you. And we are not silent."


If you agree, if you know someone who needs to hear the above statement, then please - post it in your journal, your blogs; email it to a friend, a colleague, a newsstation. The President has made his position known, it's time for the citizen to do the same.