Struggle For Democracy

Police officers clashed with students during a protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Tehran University. AP wire

This is the picture today that the Western world saw in at least one of its newspapers, The New York Times. I'm sure that it will be in newspapers all over the place, because the AP wire is the considered the number one news source for newspapers big and small, all over America.

The story in NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/world/middleeast/09iran.html?_r=1&8au&emc=au&oref=slogin

in today's emailed paper is about the 100 or so student protesters that wanted to ask their President (dictator) the same questions that he was asked at Columbia University in the U.S. as to his crackdowns on freedoms, and the status of three students jailed four months ago, who are most likely being tortured, and have not been released.

I was looking for the Web site for Amir Kabir University in Tehran, and while I don't feel that I found the The Official Website, I found some other interesting, home-made blogs like myself, in some cases dedicated to political unrest in general, or even ones specifically for concerns in Iran.

But I didn't feel comfortable naming or linking these sites to my blog, because I don't necessarily agree with some of the political thinking. But, I assure you, if you can find my blog discussing this topic, you can use a Search Engine (I'm still using my GoodSearch to send money to the well-deserving Save A Pet in New York!) and find video, commentaries by those in Iran, as well folks here in the U.S. who are seriously interested in these and many other pro-democracy topics.

What I most wanted to post and say is that it has always been clear to me that it is the students who literally put forth their lives and are truly the most ardent, hardest workers towards Democracy and change in their countries.
You'd think it was the old men, or maybe some middle class movement that wanted change. But we see time and again (Myanmar's student protest in 1988 - crushed cruelly by its present government, China's memorable student protest in 1989 - will you ever forget the student standing in front of a tank?) that it's the students that even attempt the incredible.

May the Iranian students know that there are Americans thinking of them, may they know that we salute your courage. Know that we pray, and worry, for your safety.:)