16 year old killed in Iran during protest

[palmbay lou]

A young girl named Neda was killed this past weekend during protest demonstrations voicing their desire to have their vote count.
Their government officials do not want to hear them.  People have walked away from their jobs, families and homeland to go out into the street to let their faces be seen.  They hold up signs asking, in English, "Does my vote count?"  They have become disenfranchised, ignored and brought to the end of their patience.  The people of Iran use cell phone video and twitter to communicate with the rest of the world to show us what really is happening.  There is an elephant in the room and President Obama is telling us to look out the window.  I watched the video of the last 40 seconds of this young girls' life drain away and see the horror of her friends and family as they held her and sounded out their agony. 

Neda will not be forgotten among her own people and I hope that some of us will not forget her either.  She is an innocent, a young girl protesting with her father amongst tens of thousands of her fellow countrymen saying in a loud voice, "Ala Akbar, " God is great.  What I see is a foreshadowing of America in two years if our government does not change with this ignoring of us and doing what they please with our country.  I sorrowfully believe there will be other Nedas in Iran and undoubtedly in America because people are stubborn and not willing to release power and money so easily.  I was going to include a link to the video of Neda passing from this life to the next but I will refrain. 

Please remember Neda and her family in your prayer time, there is another father today in this world who buried his child.  Please let us do what we can within peaceful means to contact our elected officials and voice our opinions.  Vote in every election that comes our way to exercise our right as American citizens.  Do what you can now, today, so our country and its children are not shot down in the streets of your own hometown.

God is great, God is good.

[fightingquaker13]

A young girl named Neda was killed this past weekend during protest demonstrations voicing their desire to have their vote count.
Their government officials do not want to hear them.  People have walked away from their jobs, families and homeland to go out into the street to let their faces be seen.  They hold up signs asking, in English, "Does my vote count?"  They have become disenfranchised, ignored and brought to the end of their patience.  The people of Iran use cell phone video and twitter to communicate with the rest of the world to show us what really is happening.  There is an elephant in the room and President Obama is telling us to look out the window.  I watched the video of the last 40 seconds of this young girls' life drain away and see the horror of her friends and family as they held her and sounded out their agony. 

Neda will not be forgotten among her own people and I hope that some of us will not forget her either.  She is an innocent, a young girl protesting with her father amongst tens of thousands of her fellow countrymen saying in a loud voice, "Ala Akbar, " God is great.  What I see is a foreshadowing of America in two years if our government does not change with this ignoring of us and doing what they please with our country.  I sorrowfully believe there will be other Nedas in Iran and undoubtedly in America because people are stubborn and not willing to release power and money so easily.  I was going to include a link to the video of Neda passing from this life to the next but I will refrain. 

Please remember Neda and her family in your prayer time, there is another father today in this world who buried his child.  Please let us do what we can within peaceful means to contact our elected officials and voice our opinions.  Vote in every election that comes our way to exercise our right as American citizens.  Do what you can now, today, so our country and its children are not shot down in the streets of your own hometown.

God is great, God is good.

Right there with you. I watched that video today. Its what motivated my posts on another thread to ask what's the smartest thing we can do to help these protestors without alienating the portion of the Iranian people who hate their government but distrust foreign interference. It was truly a heartbreakng thing. I just sat there for a while, because politcs is one thing, watching this kid die, well, if you weren't quiet for a while I'd worry about you. Prayers are what is needed at minimum. I have prayed for a woman named Jamila, who was stoned to death by the Taliban for "adultery" for trying to leave the country with an unrelated male guide for over ten years. I just light a candle for her every couple of Sundays. This girl Neda will be joining her. Hopefully this will be a "Selma" moment in Iran and turn the average person against the regime.
FQ13

[m25operator]

FQ We might disagree on some points, but here we gather, Prayer is powerful, and even though I don't know Neda's beliefs, she was doing the right thing, both backing up her family, ( dad ) and I hope trying to make her country better. Revolution is a hard game, and I hope we don't have to play it again. I will include her, heathen or not in my prayers, tonight.

I know HEATHEN,  is a strong word, but unfortunately, it describes the people who would kill us, just for being us.

[tombogan03884]

FQ, posted, " Hopefully this will be a "Selma" moment in Iran and turn the average person against the regime. "

Very doubtful. Their culture does not follow the liberals BS idea that "all life is precious". If they did they would not stone women for adultery. Do you know why there are no queers in Iran ? They hang them. These are people who believe life is a test of how meekly they can submit to the will of Allah. The death of one little girl may break your heart but to the people of the rest of the world it has all the impact of pulling your finger out of a bucket of water, a few ripples among her friends and family and other than that no one cares.
America will never be able to deal effectively with the world until they discard the stupid notion that everyone else shares their values, in fact the only ones who do are Western Europe.

[fightingquaker13]

FQ, posted, " Hopefully this will be a "Selma" moment in Iran and turn the average person against the regime. "

Very doubtful. Their culture does not follow the liberals BS idea that "all life is precious". If they did they would not stone women for adultery. Do you know why there are no queers in Iran ? They hang them. These are people who believe life is a test of how meekly they can submit to the will of Allah. The death of one little girl may break your heart but to the people of the rest of the world it has all the impact of pulling your finger out of a bucket of water, a few ripples among her friends and family and other than that no one cares.
America will never be able to deal effectively with the world until they discard the stupid notion that everyone else shares their values, in fact the only ones who do are Western Europe.

Actually Tom, while I agree with a large part of your post, you are very amusingly wrong about the queer thing. Abadnijad (or however the hell you spell it) got laughed at for saying there are no gays in Iran. However, state policy is to provide free sex change operations for (male) gays to treat their condition. There are no gays, just guys with screwed up plumbing. I'd be ROFL if it weren't so sad. As far as no one in Iran giving a damn, maybe. But remember that Shiites were persecuted by Sunni's for a long time. Just like the early Christians, religious/political martyrdom is a big deal in their faith. Its what had people volunteering (and yes a lot, though certainley not all were volunteers) to walk through Iraqi mine feilds in their war with Saddam. Just like the Civil Rights movement used that same iconography to "bear witness with your body" to justify getting the crap kicked out of them by the cops to tweak the conscience of a largely Christian America. Maye it will work, maybe it won't, but the image of a young girl willingly martyring herself and her fathers grief is pretty potent stuff. One underestimates it at their peril. God alone knows how durable that image is, but in a culture that reveres martyrdom, I am willing to bet that the Mullahs are not too happy that that video is out there.
FQ13

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[Kid Shelleen]

Right there with you. I watched that video today. Its what motivated my posts on another thread to ask what's the smartest thing we can do to help these protestors without alienating the portion of the Iranian people who hate their government but distrust foreign interference. It was truly a heartbreakng thing. I just sat there for a while, because politcs is one thing, watching this kid die, well, if you weren't quiet for a while I'd worry about you. Prayers are what is needed at minimum. I have prayed for a woman named Jamila, who was stoned to death by the Taliban for "adultery" for trying to leave the country with an unrelated male guide for over ten years. I just light a candle for her every couple of Sundays. This girl Neda will be joining her. Hopefully this will be a "Selma" moment in Iran and turn the average person against the regime.
FQ13

It is always very sad when any life, especially one so young, is snuffed out so calously and so needlessly. My prayers will go out for her family.

[tt11758]

Sadly, this young girl appears to be one of the patriots cited in the quote, "From time to time the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

[tombogan03884]

To expand a little on my previous post, I didn't mean to sound callous, but it is difficult for us to grasp the mind set of those people, firstly there is no "religious" aspect to their protest it is purely political so martyrdom is not an issue, that only applies if you "die for Islam", not fair elections.
We come from a modern society in an environment that is "user friendly". Here child death is fairly rare, they do not have the same access to the type of health care we take for granted, children die far more often there.
Here, with the exception of  parts of the south west our land can supply us with everything we need to live fairly comfortably. In Arabia the very land hates them, you can die because of a flat tire. There is no water, few trees, nothing but rock sand and species that can kill  those who are not very careful. They are used to death and see it as an escape from the burden of their lives.