Iran Vigil Planned for Tonight

Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009 11:31am | COMMENTS (20)

If you’ve questioned the value of Twitter, the past week of videos, tweets and photos sent from inside Iran, like this one by negaratduke, may have changed your mind. And it’s hard not to be moved by the coverage of the death of Neda, the young Iranian woman who was shot dead during a protest on Saturday. Rallies in support of the rebellion in Iran have taken place throughout the US, and rising Montclair High School junior Katie Gifford has planned one for our area: a candlelight vigil and rally tonight at the Church Street stage area corner of Church Street and Bloomfield Ave in Montclair. Participants are urged to bring candles and posters and wear green. 8:30 to 10:30 pm.

20 Comments

POSTED BY Katie | June 24, 2009 @ 11:53 am
We’re actually starting at 8:15 and ending at 10:15, but come whenever!
And feel free to RSVP just so I can have an idea of how many people will come!
Thank you everyone!
POSTED BY cathar | June 24, 2009 @ 12:53 pm
Given the not-terribly-different positions of the two leading candidates in Iran’s recent, disputed election (give or take the issue of Holocaust denial), I’m not quite sure this is worth 2 hours of one’s local time. “Reform” is such a relative term in Iranian politics, after all.
But I certainly do hope that yowls of protest against Iran’s nuclear program will be as fiercely in evidence tonight as outrage over the way this despotism by mullahs has treated dissent in the Iranian streets lately.
POSTED BY Katie | June 24, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
Cathar, you don’t have to spend two hours! Even stopping by for 20 minutes is fine. 5 minutes. People are dying… keep that in mind. It’s about more than the election now.
Hope to see you there!
POSTED BY cathar | June 24, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
Oh, too, another staple of Iranian politics has been and remains from most reports regular chants of “Death to America,” “Death to Israel” (naturally!) and, lately, “Death to Great Britain.”
It’s kind of hard to get behind even the “dissenters” in a nation where that kind of rhetoric is so common, you know? They’ve still got some growing up to do. (And no, before anyone else says it, I’ll note it myself: I don’t think that broken heads and deaths are an acceptable way of forcing the passage to political adulthood, nor are such things likely to do the trick under any circumstances in a country like Iran.)
POSTED BY Katie | June 24, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
If you feel that strongly about it, then it’s fine if you don’t come! We’re just showing our support in this horrifying time for protesters who are risking their lives for justice and freedom. People who do support the protesters, you are welcome to come at any time during the vigil and stay as long as you can. Thanks!
POSTED BY cathar | June 24, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
Respectfully, MHSKatie, I don’t think you get my point.
This is not Hungary in 1956. It’s not even Prague 20 years ago in the spring. And it is certainly not Tienanmen Square and someone very brave clambering up onto a tank.
But I do hope you will take some time tonight to, in particular, ponder Iran’s policies towards Israel and its needless, dangerous (to Israel, certainly) nuclear program. Before more people die.
POSTED BY Katie | June 24, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
Alright, thanks for your input! Have a good day.
POSTED BY mathilda | June 24, 2009 @ 1:13 pm
It is wonderful that the organizers of this protest rally have chosen the color green for their cause. The environment and basic human rights are both important. People should have the right to vote and the right to keep the planet healthy. Governments and activists must do whatever is necessary to make sure both rights are enforced. I would argue, however, that the right to a healthy planet supercedes all other rights. What good is voting if we’re all going to die because of disease and pestilence as a result of global warming? I for one shall attend today’s rally with a sign that says, “Vote for the Planet.”
POSTED BY Mahtab Irani | June 24, 2009 @ 1:18 pm
Thank you for organising this vigil, iranians everywhere appreciate the international outpouring of support so that they can get rid of these animals once and for all
POSTED BY Iceman | June 24, 2009 @ 1:28 pm
Neda was inspirational…I’m rooting for their freedom.
POSTED BY DaKat | June 24, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
Odd we didn’t react this way when Bush II robbed the election from Gore, and odd that we allowed that to occur but let another country pull a fast one and we are the first to intervene.
POSTED BY yourmother | June 24, 2009 @ 2:09 pm
Uhhhhh. How are “we” intervening? In fact, criticism has leaned towards the US not being harsh enough in its reaction.
I don’t know about you, but I had plenty of dissenters around my way in 2000-2001. Happily, the dissenters weren’t shut up in the same way as in Iran right now.
POSTED BY lasermike026 | June 24, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
A real protest would be to reduce your fuel consumption.
POSTED BY State Street Pete | June 24, 2009 @ 2:43 pm
“Alright, thanks for your input! Have a good day. ”
Great reply Katie!
POSTED BY Whatsupwiththat | June 25, 2009 @ 12:39 am
F Iran, Tweedle Dee murdering despot, tweedle dum murdering despot. Who cares? Nukes headed to Times Square and Tel Aviv nevertheless.
POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle | June 25, 2009 @ 6:21 am
And to think, only a few months ago, McCain was singing off mic “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”
POSTED BY jerseygurl | June 25, 2009 @ 7:27 am
“Prague 20 years ago in the spring” was actually Prague 40 years ago in the summer. I was there. Someone is getting a bit creaky upstairs.
POSTED BY mathilda | June 25, 2009 @ 8:37 am
I would like to applaud the comment above, by lasermike026, who is apparently one of few people on this site who understands the truth about global warming–that is it a crisis of our own making, and that we must renounce our consumer lifestyles if we are to have a hope of stopping it. If there were more like him the world might not be descending into a hellish future, but there isn’t, and it is.
The rally last night was one of the most inspirational I’ve ever attended. Kudos to Katie Gifford, a true firebrand. I just wish you had mentioned the Planet, Katie. Don’t forget the Planet.
POSTED BY cathar | June 25, 2009 @ 9:15 am
40 years, 20 years, even immediately after WWII in the good old days when Stalin seized all those Eastern European nations, none of it will matter, jerseygurl, if Iran unleashes nuclear weapons upon Israel and, just maybe, on us as well.
Were you a tank officer in the Russian military 40 years ago in Prague, come to think of it? Or perhaps a party apparatchik?
(And at my creakiest, I’m quite sure I could still send you running for the exits at Scrabble or Risk.)
POSTED BY cathar | June 25, 2009 @ 9:18 am
The sad thing, mathilda, is that mikey will likely assume you were being altogether serious. Another sputtering post, another feather in his cap!

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