Right, wrong, and somewhere in between. How do we know sometimes what is right? Over the last few days, all of us have been barraged with words and images of what is happening on the other side of the world. Some of the images have been heart breaking. Others have been uplifting. Many have been disturbing. Some have simply been sad.
I’m not gong to fill this page with the images and words that have been moving across the airwaves, the blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. You know where you can find them if you choose to search.
Even before June 12th, I had been reading about the Iranian elections. When violence erupted, I got the first news, like many others through my Twitter stream. The news was frightening. That first night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning re-tweeting information on basic first aid, what embassies were open for the wounded, and other information. As the days went on, the stories grew more disturbing and the tweets more frequent. I definitely was not alone in my efforts. Many others were doing the same.
At first I rotated through my multiple Twitter accounts, but soon the number of tweets were still too much. On Monday, I set up a new account (@JKWphx) dedicated to only sending #IranElection, #gr88 or later #Neda oriented messages.
At times the information was so sad or disturbing that I needed a break or a pick me up. Some of my friends, who knew what I was was doing, would tweet me with happy thoughts, inspiring quotes, or silly sayings. At other times, I would turn and pull out a book for a short reading break.
On Monday, I pulled out a dog eared copy of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and began to read the words of someone who lived and died decades ago. She was living in hiding during times of fear and oppression and telling her story through a her notebook journals.
Here are some of her words:
“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” Saturday, 15 July, 1944, pg. 237
As I write this Thursday evening in Arizona, the sun has already risen on the people in Iran. I have no idea if any of the people I was trying to help ever saw the words I sent to them.
I know the Iranian government agents did — THEY sent some lovely notes. I wonder if it would frustrate them to know the satisfaction I got each time I went in and BLOCKED them?
But either way, I did what I could to help because I thought it was right. At the end of the day, that’s all any of us can do.
Thanks for stopping by, and if you get a chance today, say a little prayer for the people in Iran.
Stay Tuned…
Joan Koerber-Walker
Photo and other information from www.annefrank.org and the Anne Frank Museum, Amsterdam.
Quote, from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
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