Countdown...is Silent Today...

...out of deference and respect for those who died yesterday in Iran, fighting for their freedom—

--for Neda—not for the symbol you've become but for the flesh and blood you were,

-- for her father, howling in his helplessness as he watched her die,

-- for her mother, family and friends who are still in shock,

-- for the unborn baby who was shot in the back while he was curled in his mother's womb,

-- for his mother, who must have died too,

-- for her husband, the baby's father, who is left now with empty arms,

--and for all of the others I cannot name, who died yesterday,

--and for their families and friends—

I cry tears that you may not be able to cry yet. I feel the aching sleeplessness of your grief. I feel the savage rage that must fill you at the sacrilege of what you held most holy.

I have known such agonies. But, I was always safe in my own country. Free to be who I am no matter how diminished I felt in the wake of death. I know what it is to lose someone I loved with all my heart, but I will not pretend I can imagine life without freedom.

After following you yesterday, my own problems seem so small.

We, in the rest of the world, are watching. You have cried out and we cry out with you. You are risking your lives to let the world know and the world has responded. You may not be able to hear us, but we hear you. We stand behind you—brother behind brother.

Never before in history has there been such an immediate, world-wide rise of support to injustice. Why do you think that is?

Because, even in a country like the USA which is supposedly the symbol of liberty, we are sick to death of deceit and lies that assume we are sheep.

I, for one, feel that you are not only fighting for your freedom—you are fighting for ours too.

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