Neda Agha-Soltan; "Stand By Me" for the Iranian People

AFP/Getty Images
h/t





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This is good, and touching, and inspiring: An Iranian musician, and Jon Bon Jovi's band, and some of their wives and girlfriends, record "Stand By Me", using both English and Farsi lyrics.



h/t Pat in Shreveport. She quotes Ryan Mauro at Pajamas Media:

The rest of Hollywood needs to follow Bon Jovi’s lead ... so that Iranians can know that our short attention span hasn’t caused our ears to turn away from their voices.

More Mauro:

The producer of the video said it was “intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people. The whole idea was to get it into Iran and tell them … to carry on, that the world is watching and we’re with you.”

More Mauro:

Iranians continue to report that Lebanese Hezbollah operatives are being used by the regime. Unconfirmed reports say that six demonstrators have been hanged in Mashhad. In Tehran, huge numbers of security forces remain and sometimes attack anyone seen using a cell phone. Those taken prisoner have reported being viciously beaten in an attempt to get them to “confess” to being involved with people outside the country, an attempt to prove that the demonstrations are a foreign plot.
[...]
The bill to give President Obama the power to sanction companies providing Iran with refined petroleum products has veto-proof, bipartisan support. Senators Lieberman, McCain, and Graham are trying to pass legislation to increase funding for Radio Farda and Voice of America’s Farsi broadcasting, and to take other measures to help the Iranians “evade the censorship and surveillance of the regime online.” McCain has also said he is investigating firms that have sold the regime the technology used to block electronic communication between Iranians.

When you attack "anyone using a cell phone", you are attacking truth itself.


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Jay Nordlinger:

Joan Baez is still around, and she is still singing. According to this article, she recorded a version of “We Shall Overcome,” with some Farsi lyrics. She is supporting the Iranians in the street, rather than the government oppressing them.

Ms. Baez (1,2) has supported some great causes and some foolish causes. She has not, to my knowledge, ever been accused of hypocrisy. I don't want to go overboard, but, in this atmosphere, as much of the left runs from supporting the Iranian people (runs from anything which might make GWB look good in any way), I do note and appreciate Ms. Baez' integrity. It is not the first time she has exhibited independent thought. In 1979, she publicly criticized Vietnamese Communists for murder and oppression they had wreaked, drawing the ire of a left which would not countenance criticism of a good government which had opposed America, and drawing the ire of Jane Fonda, in particular.

This performance: "Oh, Freedom", in Stockholm in 1966.