Monday, June 15, 2009

Wear Green for Freedom

I can’t deny that I find the stories coming out of Iran gripping. By all accounts, the government did not even make a show of counting the ballots from the election. Instead, there are stories of people escaping with ballot boxes that the government had ordered burned. With the ballots not counted, we can only go by exit polls, which indicate that the incumbent got a little over 10 percent of the vote, far behind the two leading candidates.

The religious junta that runs Iran might have miscalculated when it encouraged voters to think of this election as a real exercise in democracy, because now people are expecting to have their voices heard. And they are saying it is time for freedom to finally return to Iran. The government says it is not that time, and the situation is chaotic.

If you can, wear green today to show your support for freedom. If you look on Twitter today, you may see lots of green pictures as a show of solidarity with the Iranians who are out asking for freedom today.