Go, Iranians, Go!

As I watched Neda Agha Soltan’s eyes turn toward the person videotaping her last moments, just before blood began pouring out of her mouth and nose and she lost consciousness, I knew the sick feeling I had was being felt by millions of people around the world who were watching this same grisly footage. I have seen death and dying before. I’m a police officer in the United States and I have watched homicide victims taking their last gasps, seen bullet-riddled bodies lying in the street. But the image of Neda dying affected me like no scene of death in real life.

Neda wasn’t a criminal shot dead by a rival gangster in an arcane turf war. She was not engaged in any self-destructive, nefarious behavior like some of the overdosed drug addicts I’d come across before. She wasn’t a troubled suicide victim, or a DUI crash fatality. Neda was a young, beautiful woman, in the prime of her life, murdered by a cruel and oppressive regime simply for being caught up in a glorious outburst of freedom—an angry, birthing cry of her people’s desire for justice and fair democracy.

Neda was killed for doing something that I and millions of other Americans take for granted, like standing on a street corner protesting the war, or voting for that matter. And right now, in Iran, thousands of Neda’s countrymen—elderly people, women, and children—are being beaten, whipped, imprisoned, and shot for marching, chanting, waving banners, and demanding that their voices—and their votes—be heard and counted. Here in the United States of America, we call this Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly.

There are those, mostly in the West, who say that “American-style democracy” won’t work in the Middle East, Asia, or Africa, and that we must accept Third World “democracy” even if the people “elect” Islamists, communists, or fascists. Well, let me clue you in on something. There is no such thing as “American Style” freedom or democracy, there’s only freedom and democracy.

And it’s not reserved only for Americans, or Westerners, or Caucasian people. It transcends borders, countries, religion, even the laws of man. Freedom and democracy are God-given rights belonging to all the people of the world, no matter where they are from. We deserve it, the people of Iran deserve it, Neda deserved it, and all freedom-loving peoples of the world deserve it. They deserve to be free and to fairly elect their leaders.

And bogus “elections” that install or keep oppressive rulers or regimes in power forever is not “democracy.” Know this. Free people also don’t elect Islamists, communists, or fascists. The people who adhere to those twisted political philosophies know that freedom-loving people would never choose to live under those murderous regimes. And dictators know they cannot hold onto their power without rigging elections, eliminating a free and critical press, oppressing women and minority factions, silencing dissent, imprisoning and torturing political opponents, and murdering artists and intellectuals.

So to the people of Iran I say turn to America for hope and inspiration. We are happy and free. We are not killed or beaten for criticizing our government or leaders. We can say what we want, wear what we want, go wherever we want to, and worship whichever God we want to. Our women are not oppressed. Our girls can go to school, read, and learn to be our future leaders. Our government cannot shut down our internet or phone access. Our votes matter. And we get to choose whomever we want to lead us, even when his middle name is Hussein. And after four or twelve years this leader must step down. And nobody here is murdered or imprisoned in the process.

America is with you all. We are rooting for the people of Iran to rise up and choose your own future. Choose freedom! Choose democracy! Choose happiness! Today in the United States we are all Iranians!

Go, Iranians, go!