In Iran, it is the students who are leading the charge of the Light Metaphorical Brigade for freedom. Notwithstanding Burma, Congo, Zimbabwe, and a hundred other places where freedom is trying to escape the common stranglehold of sin acting in brutal regimes, Iran is a compelling case. The revolt is internal, the upheaval serious. At July 9th, it will be the anniversary of their 1999; ten years before that, there was Tiannamen Square, which I at least remember. In 1979, Afghanistan was lost, and an image of self-propelled guns rolling through its passes is probably my earliest memory. Also, I remember "hostages", blindfolded men captive in a strange and faroff land: Iran.

As long as I can remember, Iran has been what it is now: a so-called "theocracy" of Shiite clerics. The name "Republic" has always given the seductive illusion of popular support, even if marginal. (I was a very patriotic and idealistic boy, and it has worn off slowly.) Dissent, crushed for many years by the "revolution", a sad common factor in so-called revolutions, is now boiling over, and here it is voiced in the SMCCDI's "To the Free People of the World". Righteous wrath begins at home, but doesn't end there:

How dare you claim to represent God on this earth? We would burn in Hell before we allow you to come between our God and us. You have already placed us in Hell on this earth; you have created a “ Satanic Republic” and we are burning in it!

Almost three thousand years ago, while most of the world was barbaric, Cyrus the Great decreed the first Declaration of Human Rights. Today, the children of Iran have to go begging to a pathetic organization like the United Nations and its ineffective, sycophant Secretary-General for their most basic rights as a human being. And you, you, you have reduced us to this!

We demand our freedoms: freedom of thought, expression, religion, and freedom to be and feel human. We demand total separation of religion and state.

Understand this: The Iran of tomorrow is ours! We will reclaim our land, our national identity, pride, heritage, proud history, and our civilization!