Iranian Protests

I'm in awe of the Iranian people protesting in the streets. They are literally risking their lives for something as "simple" as the right to have their vote count.

The number of people voting in our country sharply plummets when it rains - we won't even risk a bad hair day to vote. WE turn away if the lines is more than an hour long. Voting is too often seen as an inconvenience rather than a right with a responsibility.

I ask myself, every time I see a news account showing pictures of the streets of Tehran right now, with protesters being beaten, amidst tear gas and water bombs - "would I be in the street?" I don't know. I suspect the people on the streets would have answered the same three months ago. "I don't know." I imagine that those who fought in war and protested civil rights thought that same. "I don't know."

My guess is that most of us would tolerate some degree of infringement of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. But there must be an imaginary line, beyond which, it is untenable to tolerate further erosion of those truths. As vastly different as the human being is, that line must be drawn in a similar place for many world citizens....for it seems that once crossed the majority of citizens find that they are no longer able to sit back and say "I don't know." The answer is either "Yes, these are truths worth fighting for" or "No."

We are witnessing now, a courageous display of "Yes, these truths are worth fighting for." People banding together, foregoing their own self interest (risking their lives to march is not in their self interest) in order to stand together, as one, and say "enough is enough!"

I hope the Iranian protesters, fellow citizens of the world, know how deeply we respect them, how much we are praying for them, hoping for them, weeping with them and cheering with them.