Liberty Bell

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
by Emma Lazarus

Dear Terrorists,

I am a Navy Aviator. I was born and raised in a small town in New England. I come from a family of five. I was raised in a middle class home and taught my values by my mother and father.

My dad worked a series of jobs in finance and my mom took care of us kids. We were not an overly religious family but attended church most Sundays. It was a nice small Episcopal Church. I have a brother and sister and I am the youngest in my family. I was the first in many generations to attend college.

I have flown Naval aircraft for 16 years. For me the flying was never a lifelong dream or a “calling,” it just happened. I needed a job and I liked the challenge. I continue to do it today because I feel it is important to give back to a nation which has given so much to me. I do it because, although I will never be rich, my family will be comfortable.

I do it because many of my friends have left for the airlines and someone has to do it.

My government has spent millions to train me to fly these multi-million dollar aircraft. I make about 70,000 dollars a year and after 20 years will be offered a pension.

I like baseball but think the players make too much money. I am in awe of firemen and policemen and what they do each day for my community, and like teachers, they just don’t get paid enough.

I respect my elders and always use sir or ma’am when addressing a stranger. I’m not sure about kids these days but I think that’s normal for every generation.

I voted for George Bush because I like him. I think I made a pretty good choice.

I tell you all this because when I come for you, I want you to know me. I won’t be hiding behind a woman or a child. I won’t be disguised or pretending to be something I am not. I will be in a U.S. issue flight suit. I will be wearing standard US issue flight gear, and I will be flying a navy aircraft clearly marked as a US warplane. I wish we could meet up close in a small room where I could wrap my hands around your throat and slowly squeeze the life out of you, but unfortunately, you’re hiding in a hole in the ground, so we will have to do this a different way.

I want you to know also that I am very good at what I do. I can put a 2,000 lb weapon through a window from 10,000 feet up. I generally only fly at night, so you may want to start sleeping during the day. I am not eager to die for my country but I am willing to sacrifice my life to protect it from animals like you.

I will do everything in my power to ensure no civilians are hurt as I take aim at you.

My countrymen are a forgiving bunch. Many are already forgetting what you did on Sept 11th. But I will not forget, and my President will not forget.

I am coming. I hope you know me a little bit better, see you soon…sleep tight.

Signed,

A U.S. Navy Pilot

[Original Author Unknown]

February 10th, 2006

In the name of God, the Supreme Goodness
In the names of Love, Iran and Freedom

Iran is my land. Although her name has espoused history since ever, the world has forgotten her since 27 years ago. Nowadays, my country’s name is back on everyone’s lips for a threat, bigger than ever, emanating from the idiocy of those theocrats who govern us, is hanging above us all. A looming menace that, with the sagacity of our people, we are determined to turn into an opportunity for awakening.

As I write you these words, those with whom I used to play in my childhood are climbing the walls of the Danish Embassy, chanting and blaring, setting the foreign mission ablaze. Commanded by the ignorant who rule over my land, those innocent kids with whom I played hide-and-seek form today a human chain around the nuclear facilities. Smuggled into my country by Pakistani traffickers riding their donkeys, the technology being guarded by its human shield is now presented as a national pride by those same idiots who surf the tide provoked by the Danish cartoons. As if vociferating insults and pyromania could prevent the nuclear issue from reaching the UN Security Council!

Having taken over my land first, the chaos is now menacing world peace. What anarchy, what confusion!

We, the innocent generation making up 70 percent of the population of today’s Iran; We, who had no say whatsoever in the 1979 revolution. With all due respect for all peoples on earth, we shall here present our grievances to the world:
for a quarter of a century you have forgotten us, a noble people known once for the beauty of its high culture abandoned to its misery; instead of being educated in a culture of love and science, awful beasts crushing themselves against the towers of the modern world are our little sisters and brothers who are taught, in what is supposedly a classroom, to be flattering hypocrites, merciless and hateful of others. Taught to despise whoever thinks differently from their ‘Supreme Leader’ or their school principal; Taught to consider foreigners as heretics and ignorant people deserving nothing but the worst kind of death.

They falsify the history they teach them omitting to tell them that, had it not been for the perspicacity of the world back in 1953, we would be dealing with ideologies far more stupid than what we have today in this godless labyrinth which our land has become.

In schools, they talk of ‘independence’ but confuse it with the conditions of the stone age cave dwellers, ignoring that all peoples of the world need each other and it is this very mutual dependency that paves the road for mutual understanding, respect, peace and healthy relationships.

Throughout these years, they darkened the immaculate mind of our children with superstitions and gossips on the inexistent qualities of those governing us and the wonderful attributes of their so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ supposedly leading the entire world leaving no place for the nation.

These story-tellers blackened the pages of our history books saying that our children died in defence, not of our land, but of their ‘Supreme Leader’, thus making the slightest utterance of the world homeland, a crime in our schools.

Those who speak so eloquently of ‘federalism’, we wish they could come for a snap visit to our schools and listen to the gibberish nonsense that is being taught here, thus seeing for themselves that in today’s Iran federalism is equal to separatism. Perhaps in the future, when our children will have learned once again the discourse of love and patriotism, federalism would become the progressive, consensual world it is supposed to be. But, until then, let us not forget that those who govern us have consistently lied to history, ignoring that history doesn’t lie.

We now address the peoples of the world,

The real crime going on in our country is the systematic brainwashing of our children whose innocent minds are put under the perfusion of devilish ideologies. The danger of the brainwashed millions, enriched in classrooms turned into ideological centrifuges, is far greater that millions of atomic bombs.

North Korea, Syria, Lebanon and Sudan are in no better shape than we are. Believe us! Long before you became the victims of terror, terrorists themselves had become the first casualties of the foolishness of their satanic rulers.

Rulers who, in order to secure their own survival, turn innocent children into moving bombs, killing and spreading terror. Now that you are alarmed by the nuclear crisis, we beg you not to abandon us once again in the hands of the jailers oppressing us for nearly 3 decades, when the atomic issue is resolved.

We look forward to the extended hands of our sisters and brothers, to those of the children of Adam and Eve, those of the noble peoples of the world, to come to our rescue in helping us regain our due place in the concert of the civilized nations. Our nation is on the verge of annihilation and would welcome any measure or economic and political sanctions that would accelerate the downfall of the mullahs!

The great people of the United States withstood 444 days of captivity for their children in the hands of this regime. Their anxiety is still alive. Think of us then! Think of an entire nation that has been for nearly 10,000 days the hostage of a few who, just recently, dropped their mask, thus showing their real fearful face to the world.

We now address the people of Iran,

There will be no miracle! Regardless of what kind of regime will be put in place tomorrow, let us unite our forces today on the basis of our common principles and draft our own charter founded on the pillars of the world’s most noble treaties. It is not up to us to determine what form of governance we want. Tomorrow, in a free Iran, it will be up to the people of this country to decide what they want, thus making it an obligation for us all to submit to their collective will.

We, the Student Freedom Lovers of Iran, invite all those thriving towards the immensely difficult task of achieving freedom to participate to the Congress for the Freedom of Iran, putting aside their differences and thinking instead of our children.

You who are conscious enough not to let your own kids be disturbed watching violent movies, think of our sisters and brothers who are taught by their religion or literature instructors how to activate a bomb and welcome death on their way to heaven by invocating the saints in a mystical trance.

Enough hesitation! It is time to wake up! If you do not want us to remember tomorrow that today you privileged your factional political agenda over the survival of an imprisoned nation, then you have to open your arms and let us for once taste the sweetness of peace and security.

Believe us! We are tired, exhausted! During the past 4 years in jail, they handicapped my leg and broke under torture the arm with which I am writing these words. In between these lines, you should hear the voice of Arjang Davoodi, who has lost his sight and hearing under torture and must endure 15 years in jail in the hands of these criminals in the southern city of Bandar Abbas. Can’t you hear it! Can’t you hear the sound of the droplets of blood falling off the dead body of Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad, the martyr of the Tehran University campus? The sound of the exhausted breath of Syamak Poorzand and Abbas Amir-Entezam? That of the tears of the wife and daughters of Akbar Ganji? The sigh of the mother of the Mohamadi brothers? The sweet voice of the daughter of Mehrdad Hadirpoor? The groaning of the teenage martyrs of the 1980s, the voices of Tabarzadi, Zar-Afshan, Jookar, Batebi, Bakhtiari? The last moaning of girls being stoned to death? The voice of youngsters weeping before the execution scaffold? The sound of the boots of poverty-stricken men forced to join the regime’s security apparatus and to endure the pain of blisters inflected upon them by ruthless repression, year after year? Can you hear the voice of an entire hostage nation, the people of Iran, imprisoned in a jail vast as Iran, turned into a forced labour camp? We are here, tired but hopeful!

Hear the voice of my father and that of our fathers whose flesh makes up the land of Iran, the land we all love. Hear it and put your differences aside so we can once again love each other, for Iran and for all Iranians.

We have all paid a huge price. Perhaps, none of us will ever forgo the bitter memories of the years of torture and jail, nor those of oppression, bloodshed and fear. Despite all the sadness however, we have all learned to love other peoples of the world and that peace and security can not be achieved by building atomic bombs but by loving each other.

Neither I nor any of my jailed companions, none of us could be entangled in partisan politics, be it republican or monarchist, socialist or anything else for that matter. So long as our people are oppressed, our children raised as barbarians and taught to live as cave dwellers, we are Iranians aspiring to love and freedom.

The new Iranian year of 1385 is approaching. We shall call this New Year the Year of Freedom. We shall call upon all Iranians to set up with the help of international organizations, the Congress for the Freedom of Iran on March 22, corresponding to the 9 900th day of captivity of the Iranian nation in the hands of a few mullahs.

Time is short! Let us gather our collective effort so that the 10 000th day of our captivity become the first day of our liberty.

Iran will never die!

Signatories:

1 - Amir Abbas Fakhravar

2 - Manuchehr Mohammadi

3 - Arjang Davoudi

4 - Akbar Mohammadi

5 - Mehrdad Lohraseby

6 - Iman Samizaded

7 - Sam Ariamanesh

8 - Peyman Aref

9 - Mehrdad Heydarpour

10 - Ali Alamzadeh

11 - Amir-Heshmateh Saran

12 - Mah-lagha Fakhravar

13 - Frank Zabetian

14 - Pegah Farzaneh

15 - Arya Ajorlou

16 - Mojtaba Vatani

17 - Saeed Yarigar

18 - Shahla Mahmoodi

19 - Setareh Namdar

20 - Sayeh Namdar

21 - Nahid Nariman

22 - Majid Nariman

23 - Rozita Raad

24 - Farokhlagha Fakhravar

25 - Arash Aryanpour

26 - Irandokht Bagheri

27 - Arvin Kaveh

28 - Elahe Behnia

29 - Mojtaba Taghipour

30 - Amir-Hossein Fakhravar

31 - Shervin Sadiqi

32 - Naghme Amani

33 - Abdullah Tayebzadeh

34 - Simin Bahari

35 - Esmaeel Behboudi

36 - Helia Kangarlouii

37 - Abdulsamad Karimi

38 - Assad Shaghaghi

39 - Esmaeel Ahmadi

And 560 other student activists

National Union for Democracy in Iran

Some of you may have noticed the Blogger’s 1st Amendment on the side of this page. I believe that free speech is a vital part of human liberty. We have a right to our own opinions, and a right to express those opinions in a legal manner. The trouble comes when people misuse this right. And when people can’t handle the opinions of others. So politicians have reduced and are reducing our right to free speech.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

It is also interesting to note that Article 18 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Free speech is a right that, like the others, needs to be used with responsibility. The final article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 30, is:

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Gives you some food for thought…

There was a comment left saying that the Liberty Bell was “kinda boring” and that some pictures would help. I am sorry for not working on things like that, or at least telling you when to expect them. I appreciate your interest, and should have more pictures in early next week. However, this blog is only two days old! Please have patience as I’m still working on it.

Administrator

The Liberty Bell is a symbol of America. Built in 1752, the Liberty Bell rang at many occasions in the early life of our country. These occasions include the deaths of Franklin and Washington, the inauguration of John Adams, and also to mark events during the American Revolution. In fact, the bell was rung so many times people living near the bell complained they were “incommoded and distressed” by the constant “ringing of the great Bell in the Steeple.”

Although the Liberty Bell is now no more than a symbol, we need to keep that same spirit for freedom and liberty. America is more than a country. At least it was. It was a land where people were free, where they were treated fairly and equally. Liberty is worth fighting for. We shouldn’t get content in our daily lives not caring about the liberty and freedom of others. One person will not change a country. But a force of people can.

For as long people have been on this earth, they have yearned to live freely, as they want. Because of this longing, people are willing to fight, to risk their lives, so others (and hopefully themselves) will live in a new way. Over 200 years ago, Americans fought for the freedom and liberty of this country. The famous words of Patrick Henry are still repeated:

“Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom” – John F. Kennedy