(no subject)
Jun. 20th, 2009 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
somedaybitchwe take far too much for granted. and we have no right to. we bitch and bemoan, throwing down words like fascist, and communist, dictator, and police state, tossing out enough is enough, and our country is ruined.
we should be ashamed. thoroughly and completely ashamed.
no place is perfect, yet we have temper tantrums when we don't get our absolute way, and spit out a word like compromise with contempt and loathing, instead of recognizing that such a word is part of the very foundation of this nation, this country that is the longest continuous democracy in the history of man.
we should be ashamed.
what's happening now in Iran is a fight for freedom and self-determination and it's very possible that those fighting may not win, and by "not win" i mean get murdered by their own government. the lucky will get killed in the streets. the unlucky will disappear.
we should watch that struggle, that fight for survival, and then look at our own country and be grateful beyond words.
yesterday i went to the outdoor mall near the house - a really lovely place - and met a friend for coffee. we sat outside and watched people stroll by; a black man, maybe early 40's, with his arm affectionately thrown around his teenage son's shoulders, two teenage boys holding hands as they joked with a group of friends, a black woman and a white man pushing a stroller together navigating people and traffic that didn't look at them twice.
i don't live in a big city. i live in a suburb. one of those evil, individuality-stripping, small-minded, clone-making suburbs. i wouldn't dream of moving because i love where i live. i love that i can go to the public place and see my community act as i think it should. in Iran, those two teenage boys would have been thrown from a roof, or stoned to death. here, otoh, the public dialogue is about whether the government should be recognizing same-sex marriage. is it messy? sure. but it's dialogue. it's open and debated, argued and fought for - and against.
that's democracy. democracy means not always getting your way but you still play by the rules. democracy means, if you actually believe in the rights of all, sometimes recognizing that your preferences might have to step aside.
Iranians are fighting right now to get a world that we already have.
we should be ashamed. thoroughly and completely ashamed.
no place is perfect, yet we have temper tantrums when we don't get our absolute way, and spit out a word like compromise with contempt and loathing, instead of recognizing that such a word is part of the very foundation of this nation, this country that is the longest continuous democracy in the history of man.
we should be ashamed.
what's happening now in Iran is a fight for freedom and self-determination and it's very possible that those fighting may not win, and by "not win" i mean get murdered by their own government. the lucky will get killed in the streets. the unlucky will disappear.
we should watch that struggle, that fight for survival, and then look at our own country and be grateful beyond words.
yesterday i went to the outdoor mall near the house - a really lovely place - and met a friend for coffee. we sat outside and watched people stroll by; a black man, maybe early 40's, with his arm affectionately thrown around his teenage son's shoulders, two teenage boys holding hands as they joked with a group of friends, a black woman and a white man pushing a stroller together navigating people and traffic that didn't look at them twice.
i don't live in a big city. i live in a suburb. one of those evil, individuality-stripping, small-minded, clone-making suburbs. i wouldn't dream of moving because i love where i live. i love that i can go to the public place and see my community act as i think it should. in Iran, those two teenage boys would have been thrown from a roof, or stoned to death. here, otoh, the public dialogue is about whether the government should be recognizing same-sex marriage. is it messy? sure. but it's dialogue. it's open and debated, argued and fought for - and against.
that's democracy. democracy means not always getting your way but you still play by the rules. democracy means, if you actually believe in the rights of all, sometimes recognizing that your preferences might have to step aside.
Iranians are fighting right now to get a world that we already have.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 12:20 am (UTC)I hear people say how they're so terrified of Obama in power (or would have been terrified of McCain, had he won) and watch them panicking, and I want to just ship them off to Khamenei, or Mugabe, or Kim Jong Il, for a few months to see how they like that.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 04:58 am (UTC)