As I sit here in my comfortable apartment here in the U.S. there is little I can do for my brothers and sisters - we are ALL brothers and sisters - in Iran except to, as the President says, bear witness.
Hear are some words, from those more eloquent than I, in their memory and honor...
Please add anything else you feel like in the comments
Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down
Crosby, Stills & Nash
This gave me chills the first time I heard it and still does.
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Easter, 1916
(1st stanza only)
William Butler Yeats
The Irish men (and women) who led the Easter Rising did so knowing that they had essentially no chance of success and that they were all essentially dead men for doing so. Yet their sacrifice ultimately was able to provoke the Irish into finally fighting long enough and hard enough to force the English to settle, five years later.
Ohio
Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are gunning us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
Crosby Stills Nash & Young
The YouTube imagery of a young woman, bleeding out and dying from a gunshot wound brought this song to mind vividly.
Ultimately, I think the ruling theocrats of Iran have made a grave miscalculation. Their show of force has not frightened the Iranian people. It has enraged and empowered them.