As the Iranian people continue to protest the disputed election results, journalists and politicians and everyday citizens are responding loud and clear. Peggy Noonan wrote this piece in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend aptly entitled “Whose Side are You On? You Have to Ask?” She writes:
…the uprising, as it moves us, reminds us of who we are: lovers of political freedom who are always and irresistibly on the side of the student standing in front of the tank or the demonstrator chanting “Where is my vote?” in the face of the bully club.
Multiple senators and congressmen have spoken out against the Iranian violence, calling for a regime change.
Iranian citizens are using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate ongoing events to the outside world. And people everywhere are listening, watching, and waiting.
As we listen and watch and wait, consider these words from former Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, speech #9 in Lend Me Your Ears.
The date: May 18, 1941. The occasion: “I Am an American Day” on the Central Park Mall in New York City. The controversy: Should the United States continue to fight for the freedoms of other nations and peoples? Should they continue to send aid to Britain for a war in which the U.S. was not directly involved (this was several months before Pearl Harbor)? Secretary Ickes’ words are as relevant today as in the spring of 1941, when all freedom-loving people feared the spread of German Nazism.
What constitutes and American? Not color nor race nor religion. Not the pedigree of his family nor the place of his birth. Not the coincidence of his citizenship. Not his social status nor his bank account. Not his trade nor his profession. An American is one who loves justice and believes in the dignity of man. An American is one who will fight for his freedom and that of his neighbor. An American is one who will sacrifice property, ease, and security in order that he and his children may retain the rights of free men. An American is one in whose heart is engraved the immortal second sentence of the Declaration of Independence.
Americans have always known how to fight for their rights and their way of life. Americans are not afraid to fight. They fight joyously in a just cause.
We Americans know that freedom, like peace, is indivisible. We cannot retain oru liberty if three-fourths of the world is enslaved. Brutality, injustice, and slavery, if practiced as dictators would have them, universally and systematically, in the long run would destroy us as surely as a fire raging in our nearby neighbor’s house would burns ours if we didn’t help to put out his.
If we are to retain our own freedom, we must do everything within our power to aid Britain. We must also do everything to restore to the conquered peoples their freedom…
We cannot live in the world alone, without friends and without allies. If Britain should be defeated, then the totalitarian undertaker will prepare to hang crepe on the door of our own independence.
