The 3rd rally for Iran in a week- the third time's a charm?

Friends/family,

Today, I attended my 3rd Iranian solidarity rally in a week and it was a very good time. The turn-out was similar to last time and was as energetic if not more- thanks to the presence of a megaphone. The assembled protesters were a mixture of Persian-Americans and an increasing number of non-Persians- it heartened me to see a diverse array of people, an indicator of a widening base for the movement. We chanted for a nearly solid 3 hours and were clad in green. As is customary, we chanted mostly peaceful slogans, but once in a while an overly zealous individual would start a chant like "death to ahmedinejad" and other similar sentiments. I understand that this is a very emotional issue for them, but one must look to the Gandhi, Bhutto,and Dr. King to see the efficacy of non-violence and the fact that violence perpetuates violence, whether it be overt or intrinsic. I felt like we were well received by the motorists driving past the corner of 2100 and state- many approving honks, thumbs-up, and only a few random incoherent gestures, like the "bird" and a rather confusing exhortation to "go join the service" were noted.

I think that protests, like the last 3, have high efficacy on two levels, first- it lets other Utahns and indeed Americans know about what is going on in Iran- and then grassroots activism can follow and secondly- the Iranian people can see footage of our protests, combined with the hundreds around the world and that footage may give them the comfort of knowing that they are not alone in their struggle for the ideal of democracy and transparency. On a more subtle and idealistic level, I feel like it is generally right to speak out for justice and human rights even if the aforementioned two levels of efficacy never produce meaningful change.

Also today, I canvassed at the Arts festival with Lucy in support of comprehensive health care reform as proposed by President Obama. I believe in his plan because it will help end the highly unethical practice of excluding individuals from health insurance because of pre-exisisting conditions, while helping to insure 46 million (+) uninsured Americans without resorting to true socialism, while balancing costs in the private sector through competition. I also like that his plan includes eliminating wasteful practices by insurance agencies and taking simple money saving steps like switching to electronic medical records in order to save millions. We received a positive reaction overall- a lot of petition pages were filled up and we were approached by many individuals who had stories to tell about their lack of insurance, despite years of hardwork and their struggles to deal with rising medical costs and etc. There were many people who weren't interested and a few who were openly hostile, one guy taking it to the extreme by near-yelling at me about the impiousness of Obama's plan. The part I enjoyed most about the canvassing was interacting with people on a person-to person basis- hearing their stories, entering into their lives for just a moment. The experience made me realize how important health-care was to everyone's life, despite political persuasion, excepting several crack smokers who seemed to care less- while still wishing us "good luck with your efforts." I am especially passionate about this cause because I have a close family member who struggles with her insurance far too often- filling out stacks and stacks of paperwork when deathly ill- barely managing to get past them- this should not have to happen.

I am now looking forward to the next solidarity demonstration sometime next week, my birthday, and my upcoming trip to DC to take part in the Campus Progress National Conference.

For now,

Auf Wiedersehn

ps: Thank you to Matthew Rambo for letting me use his pictures in my blog