[Reposted with permission from Sibel Edmonds' blog 123 Real Change.]

Seeking Our Iranian Comrades’ Solidarity

Dear Activists in Iran:

We stand in solidarity with you and your movement against the alleged election fraud you’ve claimed. In return we hope you will reciprocate by supporting us in our struggle here in which we’ve been engaged for hmmmm…more or less eight years now – the following is an abbreviated list of our grievances:
 

• We the people of the United States have been spied upon by our government around the clock. All our communications - phone, cell, e-mail, fax, are being monitored. This even includes our ‘twitting’ with you; that’s right! They keep saying it’s for our own safety and that it’s to catch terrorists among us. They have yet to catch any, but they keep saying ‘it don’t matter - soon the results will show you.’ What do they mean by this? Our representatives are not giving us answers, instead declaring their own solidarity with the spying program targeting all of us. This should matter to you, since many here are afraid to follow you on twitter out of their fear of becoming one of those ‘results’ our government has been promising to show. Imagine how many more of us you’d get without this oppressive pressure! So please join us and declare your solidarity with us in this regard.

• We the people of the United States have been coerced into financing and supporting atrocious torture practices and killing of civilians in defenseless third world countries, who happen to be your neighbors. We’ve been financing it directly with our taxes, and supporting it through those representatives we somehow keep electing to speak and decide for us. We know your media is not that much better than ours, but surely you have heard our torture stories. To make it fit today’s graphic news we even have thousands of pictures to show. Does your government photograph or capture theirs on video? Exactly; it’s that bad! In our name and with our votes our military and their mercenary contractors have been piling up tens of thousands of civilian bodies in Iraq and Afghanistan. We don’t seem to be able to put a stop to that either. We keep going to the booths and voting, but things remain the same; they keep getting our tax dollars at the end of each week’s hard work, they keep getting ‘yeah’ votes from our representatives, and they keep killing, kidnapping, and torturing. We are not bad people, as you are not ‘axis of evil’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘fanatics.’ We really don’t believe in building empires, torturing, and killing. But we are stuck, and we keep continuing the same cycle, only worse with every new turn. Please help us figure out a way to help ourselves. We really need your solidarity in finding a way to stop these atrocious human rights violations committed in our name and with our money.

• We the people of the United States have been kept in the dark on so many issues directly related to us and affecting us due to our mainstream media - which has to come to resemble the ‘Pravda’ we used to look down upon. They don’t tell us much, and what they tell us is usually what they get directly from our government. At least you all know that what you’re getting over there is sanitized and censored, since there seems to be no pretense to otherwise. Our situation is worse! Many of our people still think they’ve got ‘freedom of the press’ and independent reporting, so they don’t bother ‘twitting’ or searching the net for real news. Many who do ‘twit’ limit it to a few key words like Brittany or Brangelina or Kate, and this is after they get bombarded with them from our ‘news’ channels. Please don’t get discouraged or offended when you come across many of us who don’t know where Iran is located, or think you ride camels over there, or that you speak Arabic, or,...Instead come and lend your solidarity in helping us find a way to inform our masses and help them see the light.

• We the people of the United States have our own black-listed people in the hundreds of thousands. Have you heard of our ‘No Fly List’? Last time we heard more than 400,000 of us had made it onto this dangerous but still mysterious list. They don’t even tell us why. If we participate in any peaceful demonstration, we mean any, whether for the homeless or to stop our wars, we get ‘listed.’ Well hell, based on what we choose to wear, such as ‘Doc Marten shoes,’ or a funny T-shirt, we end up on their list. Nobody knows exactly how people end up getting on this list, and certainly no one knows how to get off of it. Our government doesn’t tell us because it says the reasons are classified. Our media doesn’t dig much either. We keep hearing ‘legitimate’ rumors about ‘other’ secret lists and databases, but here in the United States, any whistleblower who chooses to disclose these violations gets punished, fired, even taken to courts - so those who know don’t dare talk about it. In fact, you may know more than we do. Please let us know if you know, and do so via twitting. We encourage you to stand in solidarity with us against these oppressive black-listings.

Of course we can go on and on with our list of urgent causes in need of your support and solidarity, but this should suffice for this particular ‘twit’. After you have had a chance to reflect upon our own sorry state of democracy, once you understand our own pathetic situation, you may find seeking our solidarity for your cause ironic and decide to cease and desist your twitting with us. We understand; we won’t blame you; rest assured. Here we are the richest and most powerful nation in the world with a powerful safeguard left to us by our ancestors and founding fathers called the Bill of Rights. Here we are a nation who prides herself of being a representative government and having the freedom to vote. Yet here we are sinking deeper each day, losing our rights, freedom, privacy, and dignity a little every day in the name of ‘national security’ and under an irrational fear of ‘terrorism.’ Understanding these realities you may find it preposterous for some of us to even attempt meddling in your own causes and affairs. And you’d be right. We wish those of you who truly seek and work for a democratic form of government lots of luck. And finally, don’t forget your history with us. We certainly hope you are informed and wise enough to see the ‘oil barrel’ signs in the eyes of those of us who wave their support and solidarity candy before your eyes.